Name : Sri Ramdayeni Sakunti

Assignment: Qualitative Research Critique

Research Title: Voices from devotional ritual: Practitioners’ unity of purpose to building

community in araquio musical tradition

Introduction

This essay is written and aimed to review and critique a qualitative research entitled

“Voices from devotional ritual: Practitioners’ unity of purpose to building community in

araquio musical tradition” by Florante P. Ibarra published in 2017. The research being critique

was conducted in the town of Penaranda, province of Nueva Ecija, Philippines. This essay is

written based on the guide for critiquing qualitative research (Ryan, P., Coughlan, M., Cronin,

P. 2007).

Elements influencing believability of the research

According to Ryan et al., one of the requirements of a research report that it has to be

well written and well organized. This report is very well written because it grammatically

correct, concise, and it does not lead to any jargon. The choice of words used in the report

shows that the author is a very experienced writer in the field. The title of the study is also

clearly stated and not too long nor too short. However, the reader cannot easily guess the

objective of the study as they read only the title. Despite the sophisticated title given, the

abstract slightly drive the reader into a clearer overview of the study. The author presents the

sample, methodology, and findings of the study. Regarding the research problem which should

be stated in the abstract, it cannot easily found only by glance of reading. It could be because

the delivery method of the writing. Regarding the researchers’ writing style, the paper still have
a few grammatical problems and punctuation. Other than that, the paper is already written

concisely.

Elements influencing robustness of the research

Statement of the phenomenon of interest

Through a skimmed reading, reader might not encounter the phenomenon of interest

being clearly stated from the beginning to the end of introduction part. The author implicitely

described the phenomenon to be studied. Overall discussed, this study is seeking how araquio

become a custom and how music making construct social behavior of a community. In contrast,

the topic being studied should be clearly identified by the researcher (Connel Meehan, 1999

cited in Ryan et al., 2007).

Purpose/significance of the study

A report of a study should explain why the study needs to be undertaken and should

also state why the study will be of significance and how it will add to the general body of

information on the phenomenon (Connel Meehan, 1999 cited in Ryan et al., 2007). In this

study, the purpose and also the significance of the study is clearly identified in the summary of

theoretical framework session. The author examined “how social behavior creates social

relations and structures that would continually perpetuate araquio’s musical tradition.” (Ibarra,

2017). Also this study sought to reveal how the processes became meaningful to the

practitioners.

Literature review

The literature review in ethnographic studies is used to demonstrate knowledge of

previous work in the area (Ryan et al., 2007). Moreover, if the literature review appropriate

only after the period of data collection, then the researcher needs to identify how this process

is to be achieved and in what way the literature is going to be used to determine similarities
with or differences from the research findings. In this study, many literature reviews are

undertaken both before and after the data collection. In the theoretical framework summary

part, the author presents considerable ammount of literatures to support the theoretical

frameworks used. Meanwhile, the author also undertaken literatures to prove the theory.

Theoretical framework

The theoretical framework in this study is clearly described and is appropriate to

describe the topic of the study. The author furthermore explained the theories that were used

in more specific ways. He pointed out differences and similraties within the theoretical

framework used in the study to strengthen the framework of the study. Also, it is important that

the researcher indicates the theoretical framework in the study and justifies the adoption of

such a stance. (Ryan et al., 2007)

Method and philosopical underpinnings

Ryan et al., (2007) define an ethnographic approach as an attempt to examine the

experiences of the person in the context of his/her natural world and explores the topic of the

study through the perceptions of the subjects of study. In addition, Creswell (2012), stated that

ethnographic design is a qualitative research for describing, analyzing, and interpreting a

culture-sharing group’s shared patterns of behavior, beliefs, and language that develop

overtime. Thus, this study indeed is an ethnographic study. The author of this research report

mentioned not only once about the design he used in the study. The philosophical approach

used in this study is not explained in the method session. It can be identified in the abstract and

also in the theoretical frame summary part. The method and approach used is coherence and

congruence.

Sample

Instead of describing the general design of the study, the author explained a very

detailed about samples and sampling used in the study in the method part. The sample selected
by the researcher was very appropriate because they have the criteria of representativeness that

is needed for the study. Using the purposive sampling, the researcher chose eleven adult

practitioners of the araquio play. The researcher then explained in detail how and why they are

being chosen.

Ethical considerations

The anonimity of the participants to the researcher is impossible since the common

tools used in a qualitative study are interview and participant observation (Ryan et al., 2007).

Therefore, the researcher must assure participants that their identities will not be revealed to

the reader and raw data collected will not be released to any third party (Parahoo, 2006 cited

in Ryan et al., 2007). In this study, the ethical consideration is not being discussed by the author.

Although there is no guarantee whether the participants were fully informed about the nature

of the research and they were protected from harm, considering the researcher’s qualifications

and knowledge in the field being studied, there is still possibility that the researcher aware of

the ethical considerations toward the participants. Particularly because the interview lines are

being presented in the report. And it is primary to not use the real name of the participants.

Data collection/data analysis

All the elements of data collection and analysis are very detail explained in the method

part. The data collection strategies is well described by the author . The research in done step

by step according to what is described in the report. The researcher utilized an interactive

method in the form of participant-observation and conducted semi-structred and open-ended

interviews with the participants in the study. The three approaches steps utilized in the study

are classification of data, inductive coding, and hermeneutic/interpretive analysis.

Findings/discussion

The findings of this study is very well presented in which the author state the theory

used then relate it with the findings and supported with the data gathered such as interview
transcription. The findings are presented in the form of narrative and under particular theme.

As what Ryan et al., (2007) stated, the findings from qualitative studis can be represented as

narrative (story), themes, descriptions of the phenomenon under study or an interpretive

account of understanding or meaning of an experience.

Conclusions/implications and recommendations

All the importance of the findings are being conclude in the conclusion part of this

report. Ryan et al. (2007), stated that conclusions should reflect the findings and ideally should

offer recomendations as to how they may be developed. However, instead of presenting

possible recomendation for developing this research in the future, the author particularly

presented how the tradition in this study which is araquio, needs the continuous support of

each community and the nation.

References
References

Cresswell, J. (2012). Educational Research: Planning, Conducting and Evaluationg

Quantitative and Qualitative Research. Pearson Education Incorporate.
Ibarra, F. P. (2017). Voices from devotional ritual: Practitioners’ unity of purpose to building
community in araquio musical tradition. International Journal of Community Music,
171-192.
Ryan, F., Coughlan, M., & Cronin, P. (2007). Step-by-Step Guide To Critiquing Research.
Part 2: Qualitative Research. British Journal of Nursing, 738-744.