One of SEEDS’ goals is to partner with educational institutions to help develop students who will later become community leaders that work to uplift their surrounding communities.  One of our SEEDS educators, Joshua Pong, was asked to speak at an educational conference held by the International Program of Science Education at Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia in Bandung.   

Joshua spoke on the primary concepts behind qualitative research as well as its importance to educational research as a whole.  Put simply, quantitative research only indicates a relationship between two things but rarely explains why the relationship under examination does or does not exist.  Qualitative research is a wonderful tool to help explain the why of quantitative research.  It also makes for good storytelling.

The 1.5 hours were filled with emotional stories that helped the students understand research subjects as individuals.  Post-story group discussions focused on finding themes within the stories and discussing what could be learned from each.  They also practiced a bit of their own qualitative research thinking about why there are so many more male rideshare drivers than female rideshare drivers.  A good time was had by most (if not all) and the time was soon over.

We hope that, going forward, this new body of undergraduate education researchers will look to understand the “whys” of their research results as they seek to improve the world of Indonesian education.