Pagtatanong-Tanong: An Indigenous Research Method Each of you is a member of a research team that is traveling to the Philippines for a one-month long, research study during which you will conduct a...

Pagtatanong-Tanong: An Indigenous Research Method Each of you is a member of a research team that is traveling to the Philippines for a one-month long, research study during which you will conduct a series of interviews in a rural community. Your home university has trained you to uphold the following principles of research: The researcher must remain objective. It is important not to become too emotionally attached, or disclose personal information, to research participants. Procedures should be standardized. The questions asked of participants and the conditions under which they are asked should be as uniform as possible. Participants should not be subject to the influence of others during the interview process (unless the researcher wants to study this). Thus, participants should be interviewed on an individual basis. However, before your trip, you all have read about and spoken with experts and members of this community in order to learn more about the culture in which you are planning to conduct your research. You have learned the following information: People are unaccustomed to being asked a series of questions in sequence and responding in a regimented manner. People are uncomfortable discussing personal opinions or behaviors with a stranger with whom there will be no future relationship. People are more comfortable speaking in a conversational manner in which each person discloses information and contributes to managing the process and content of the conversation. Both persons contribute to the conversation. People may be uncomfortable along with a stranger, particularly if the stranger is of a different gender or social status. In addition, you and your colleagues have learned about a research method indigenous to the Philippines called Pagtatanong-tanong, which follows these characteristics. The researcher uses a tentative outline of questions that are revised based on input from the participants. The researcher and the participants share equally in determining the content and structure of the interview. A relationship is established between the researcher and the participants such that the participants feel comfortable asking the researcher questions and expect that they may have contact with the researcher in the future. The researcher starts interviewing with a group of participants. Interruptions in the interview process are not seen as distractions, but as an opportunity to check on the reliability of information obtained. Question: Now, as a research team, discuss how might you modify your research methods and protocols in order to effectively conduct your interviews. Which research principles would you be willing to reconsider and which principles would you continue to uphold? What do you follow and what do you sacrifice for the research project? Since you all are not members of the rural Philippines, what are your thoughts about the validity of information collected through the Pagtatanong-tanong method? Do you think that the Philippine method would yield useful information back in the United States?