A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS ON: THE SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES OF THE THE PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVE AND METHODOLOGY ADOPTED IN TWO DIFFERENT QUALITATIVE RESEARCHES

Abstrak

Qualitative research has substantial philosophical dimension difference from
quantitative research. Instead of adopting positivism, qualitative research
focuses on more interpretivism and Relativism philosophical perspectives.
From these two analyzed researches (Local responses to decentralization
policy in Indonesia and Two sides of the same coin: Modernity and tradition
in Islamic Education in Indonesia), we learn that both of them put their
research stance on interpretivism and constructionism, eventhough they use
different methodology. This different methodology emerges because of
different focus, goals (objectives), and questions of the research. The Two
sides of the same coin uses ethnographic method, while The Local
responses adopts interview and official document analysis. Because The
Two sides of the same coin adopts ethnographic methodology, it takes one
Pesantren as its research site and research it as one whole system.
Meanwhile, The Local responses takes six secondary school students to be
interviewed. Thus, qualitative researches can be vary depending on
research goals (objectives), focus, and problems (questions.