My dissertation proposal is a case study of the conduct of the Automated Election System in Angeles City. I had my proposal defense last Saturday. Fortunately or unfortunately, my proposed method was technically not approved by the panel.
The details on what happened during the proposal are posted on my dissertation blog: www.election2010angelescity.blogspot.com .
What can I say?
Hmmm.... I was a bit dismayed because the panel could not appreciate qualitative study. I am optimistic that there's so much to learn from a qualitative study that uses multiple sources, e.g. diff. types of interviews, observations, document reviews, and collection of artifacts.
Unfortunately, the panel thought a case study of Angeles City-COMELEC's implementation of the Automated Election System won't have any significance at all.
In short, they turned me to conducting survey and supporting the data with FGD. They suggested a regional coverage, the whole Central Luzon.
One of the panelists even said that my proposed case research seemed like a classroom paper because it covers only Angeles City, and that the observation during the Election Day is to be done only in one clustered precinct. Parang wala raw significance.
However, I told them a case study is not meant for making generalization but to give in-depth analysis or assessment of the case in point.
It made me really feel so frustrated because the panel could not see what I see. Or maybe because I failed to let them see what I see in my case study.
I guess, the school is not ready to welcome case researches.
On the other hand, I thought their suggestion is much easier than what I wanted to do. The methods they suggested are surveys and FGDs, which I can handle.
But the thing is, it's my paper. I want it to be more than what my undergraduate students do. Kung pwede sana, I don't want to use survey questionnaires. I'd like to do away with quantitative studies. I really think I can discover a lot from qualitative studies and multiple research methods. Sayang naman. What they're telling me to do is wider in geographic coverage but actually narrower in scope in terms of discussion.
To know what's in there is not what I want to know. I want to discover specific instances that surveys can't explore and exploit.
Too sad, I can't conduct qualitative study.
At the back of my mind, I still want to do it and then write it for submission to a journal. I'll think about it, if I have time.
At the moment, what seems important is to finish this degree, whatever comes along.
The details on what happened during the proposal are posted on my dissertation blog: www.election2010angelescity.blogspot.com .
What can I say?
Hmmm.... I was a bit dismayed because the panel could not appreciate qualitative study. I am optimistic that there's so much to learn from a qualitative study that uses multiple sources, e.g. diff. types of interviews, observations, document reviews, and collection of artifacts.
Unfortunately, the panel thought a case study of Angeles City-COMELEC's implementation of the Automated Election System won't have any significance at all.
In short, they turned me to conducting survey and supporting the data with FGD. They suggested a regional coverage, the whole Central Luzon.
One of the panelists even said that my proposed case research seemed like a classroom paper because it covers only Angeles City, and that the observation during the Election Day is to be done only in one clustered precinct. Parang wala raw significance.
However, I told them a case study is not meant for making generalization but to give in-depth analysis or assessment of the case in point.
It made me really feel so frustrated because the panel could not see what I see. Or maybe because I failed to let them see what I see in my case study.
I guess, the school is not ready to welcome case researches.
On the other hand, I thought their suggestion is much easier than what I wanted to do. The methods they suggested are surveys and FGDs, which I can handle.
But the thing is, it's my paper. I want it to be more than what my undergraduate students do. Kung pwede sana, I don't want to use survey questionnaires. I'd like to do away with quantitative studies. I really think I can discover a lot from qualitative studies and multiple research methods. Sayang naman. What they're telling me to do is wider in geographic coverage but actually narrower in scope in terms of discussion.
To know what's in there is not what I want to know. I want to discover specific instances that surveys can't explore and exploit.
Too sad, I can't conduct qualitative study.
At the back of my mind, I still want to do it and then write it for submission to a journal. I'll think about it, if I have time.
At the moment, what seems important is to finish this degree, whatever comes along.
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