STUDENT RESPONSES

Student responses

Original Question- Topic 5 DQ 1

Think again of the study on the influence of high school principals’ leadership styles and academic achievement in their schools in your state. The sources of data must be aligned with the research questions and study design, and they must be feasible for administration of the study. Identify five different qualitative data sources that could be used to examine participants' experiences and perceptions about the phenomenon. Which ones are most appropriate for use with each of the GCU core qualitative research designs? What are some concerns you may have about the feasibility of using each one of the five data sources identified in the qualitative study described above?

ED Response-

Databases are used to survey the participation and involvement of the participants. The data sources, the research questions and the study design must align and must be reasonable for the management of the study. In the case of the influence of high school principals’ leadership styles and the academic achievement in their schools, the five different qualitative data sources that could be used to examine participants' experiences and perceptions about the incident are: Basic qual design - descriptive interviews, focus groups, archival, observations; Case study - descriptive interviews, focus groups, archival, questionnaire, observations; Phenomenology - long or narrative interview; other instruments would not have a tendency to produce the needed depth of data; Narrative - long or narrative interview; other instruments would not likely produce the needed difficulty of data; Grounded theory - large capacities of long or narrative interviews, observations, focus groups; collected in multiple sites or surge of interviews, focus groups, questionnaires, instruments, and observations. There might be some questions of the author when using basic qual design because the data may be outdated and ineffective in helping move the research forward. Trang (2022) posited that to gain credibility for the study, data from a qualitative study should be collected over a considerable amount of time since data that is collected within a short amount of time is a significant amount of time.  

Trang, N. M. (2022). Using YouTube Videos to Enhance Learner Autonomy in Writing: A Qualitative Research Design. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 12(1), 36-45.

DO you agree or disagree with Emily ? Why or why not?

Stacy .D.V Response-

Qualitative methodology enables researchers to make sense of reality, to describe and explain the social world and to develop explanatory models and theories. It is the primary means by which the theoretical foundations of social sciences may be constructed or re-examined. By using qualitative methodology to analyze the influence of high school principals’ leadership styles and academic achievement in their schools through implementing focus groups, questionnaires, document analysis, and observation (Steffes & Jacobs, 2021). Focus groups are most effective when researchers are trying to get more in-depth information on perceptions, insights, attitudes, experiences or beliefs from key stakeholders. The concern with this approach is timing to ensure all participants can meet at the same time. Interviews are effective for researchers when trying to obtain explanation to better understand and explore research subjects' opinions, behavior, experiences, or phenomenon. This is good to understand at the individual level but can be of concern for interview bias as well as may be out of alignment with the research problem statement depending o the added details absent in the scenario. Observation is effective when the researcher is trying to understand an on going process or behavior of an unfolding situation or event, there is physical evidence or products or outcomes that can be seen and/or written or data collection methods seem inappropriate. The concern with this approach is the time demanded of the researcher required. Document analysis is helpful for researchers to understand and categorize primary sources or original accounts from people who had personal experiences with this topic. The concern with this approach is the conclusions drawn from the documents analyzed. When selecting the appropriate data collection method there are a few considerations that must be employed, however, the most important consideration is for the researcher to clearly define the phenomenon to be studied and the alignment of the study (Steffes & Jacobs, 2021). For researcher regarding the analyzation of the influence of high school principals' leadership styles and academic achievement in their schools observation would be the best approach because it. isa less direct method than interviews or focus groups and pays careful attention tot he participant's behaviors and activities in order to gather the data regarding influence of leadership types on academic success.

 

References: 

Steffes, D. & Jacobs, J. (2021). Introduction to sampling, data collection, and data analysis. In Grand Canyon University (Ed.), GCU doctoral research: Foundations and Theories.  https://lc.gcumedia.com/webbooks/gcu-doctoral-research-introduction-to-sampling-data-collection-and-data-analysis/v1.1/#/chapter/6 

Do you agree with stacy – yes or no and why?

Ka Response- Using qualitative methodology, researchers can analyze the influence of high school principals’ leadership styles and academic achievement in their schools through the following data collection methods; focus groups, questionnaires, instruments, observations, and field notes (Steffes & Jacobs, 2021). These primary sources are resources collected by the research. When selecting the appropriate data source there are several considerations to gauge. The most important consideration is for the researcher to clearly define the phenomenon to be studied and the alignment of the study (Steffes & Jacobs, 2021). For this caliber of research, the qualitative data collection method that appears the most appropriate is a focus group. A focus group invites multiple individuals to engage in group discussion on the phenomenon (Steffes & Jacobs, 2021). In this case the phenomenon is the relationship between principal leadership styles and academic achievement in their schools. The focus group style would allow researchers to bring together different constituents whether parents, subordinates or students to answer questions centered around the leadership style of the principals. A potential concern with establishing focus groups is group think, resulting from the dominance of outspoken participants.

With the other data collection methods (questionnaires, instruments, observations and field notes) I would have concerns about bias, interviewer effect, response rate, filter responses and selective results. With interviews and field notes, the risk of bias is high. Elements of bias are dependent on the structure of the interview method. During the interview process interviewees responses can also be influenced by the conduct of the interviewer (known as interviewer effect). When administering questionnaires, a major concern is always response rate. Depending on the style of questionnaire the rate of response can range from 10% to 89% (Steffes & Jacobs, 2021). 

 

References: 

Steffes, D. & Jacobs, J. (2021). Introduction to sampling, data collection, and data analysis. In Grand Canyon University (Ed.), GCU doctoral research: Foundations and Theories.  https://lc.gcumedia.com/webbooks/gcu-doctoral-research-introduction-to-sampling-data-collection-and-data-analysis/v1.1/#/chapter/6 

 

Do you agree with Ka yes or no and why ??