Online classroom of Ronald Castillo y Maglaqui, Professor of Political Science at the University of Santo Tomas - Faculty of Arts and Letters. But for the time being, starting 2022, this blog serves as a student's public notebook of thoughts while he undertakes his international PhD in Asia Pacific Studies at National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan. Reach him through rmcastillo@ust.edu.ph
Tuesday, December 11, 2018
Pol 3211 Presentation on NGOs and Networks
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Cn3nxcGdrnogZAV_vfSvNn9w3eyjvMEg/view?usp=sharing
Also, note the concepts:
Top-down approach, and bottom-up approach in state-society relations.
Horizontal, or sidewards direction, and upwards or vertical direction in Civil society and organizations relations.
Friday, November 30, 2018
Parliamentary Procedure
Here’s the summary notes for parliamentary procedure.
The materials cme from the following sources:
They are pdf files. Some of you may want to read them in preparation for the activity.
I also include a link here to a decently made video if a parliamentary simulation.
Scenario goals and guidelines for the simulation:
Body should elect it’s own officers. Remember, officers are members of the bureaucracy, they will not participate in debates, and they will also have no voting rights. They have their own official duties.
1 Chair
1 Secretary
2 Secretariat Members (1as sub secretary, 1 to design and create the official seal to be displayed above the seat of the Chair, and to be used along with letterhead on the official documents)
1 Sergeant-at-Arms
Each student should’ve spoken at leadt 2x for the duration of the 2 sessions. Once to speak for oragainst a motion. Once to query a motion proponent or one of the speakers. (45 pts)
(15 pts)
There will be several sessions in 1 meeting. Each begins w a call yo order and ends in adjournmeny.
1st session is election of officers and plotting if agendas for the next few sessions.
At least 3 motions discussed in the realm of local Philippine Politics.
Only 2 motions passed.
At least 2 Resolutions discussed in the realm of Philippine International Politics.
Only 1 resolution passed.
1 of the motions referred to a committee with instructions to report for the body to decide.
1 of the motions referred to a committee with powers to act.
1 of the motions should be unfinished business for the next session to finish.
1 of the motions should be log-rolled.
No motion should pass without being amended.
At least 1 amendment should be amended.
There should be at least 2 caucuses.
1 vote result should be recounted.
Rules should be suspended once for an important readon in the house.
Wednesday, November 14, 2018
Pol 3211: History of IR PPT and Sample Paper
All links accessible only by through official UST gmail accounts.
History of IR
Sample Paper 1
Sample Paper 2
History of IR
Sample Paper 1
Sample Paper 2
Wednesday, October 17, 2018
3211 Comparative Politics: Discussion Area
Pls comment a query on the online lesson on the comment section. Use your official UST google account.
Sunday, October 14, 2018
Writing Chapter III
Chapter III is composed of 7 parts.
- Method
- Respondents or Participants/Selections
- Locale of the Study
- Research Instrument
- Data Gathering Method/Procedure
- Data Analysis
- Ethical Considerations
Many students and writers mistake that many parts of this
chapter is a patch of paraphrases defining the parts. Keep in mind that the thesis is YOURS. Hence Chapter III is where you narrate and
justify the procedure on how you intend to answer your problem, and to prove
your thesis statement.
In method you will
discuss 3 to 3.5 things.
- Method
- Approach
- Deisgn
There are two basic Methods:
Qualitative and Quantitative.
Advanced methods are Quanti-Quali and Quali-Quanti.
How does one determine or justify which one to use?
Qualitative is used when there is not enough authorities or
not enough data to conceptualize the thesis statement. You will do qualitative in order to help gain
insight into the essence of the phenomenon.
As extension. Because of this,
the writing of Chapyer IV should be more righ than rigorous. It means, that there should be more high
level of abstraction of concepts. Deep
explanations of ideas.
Quantitative if there’s an existing theory that rightly fits
the phenomenon. You will do quantitative
in order to test the theory using statistical tools. It will be more rigorous than rich. It means that there will have to be more
focus on the accuracy of the data in order to arrive at the conclusion. It will be careful attention to details and
ensuring that every detail match perfectly in order to avoid questions on
accuracy.
There are three basic approaches: Historical, Descriptive, and Experimental.
A qualitative historical research explains (studies) the
past.
A qualitative descriptive or quantitative descriptive explains
(studies) the present.
A quantitative experimental project or predicts (studies the
possibilities of) the future.
Take note where the method and the approach matches.
A warning to keep in mind is that experimental approach may
seem fancy as a word to use. But again,
make sure that you can justify. It’s the
most rigorous among the approaches. And
you will need cutting edge statistical designing for that.
For political science writers. There is an additional approach.
You have to identify which approach in the study of politics
does your research fall into:
- Institutionalism (old or new)
- Behavioralism
- Postbehavioralism / Normativism
- Postmodernism
Design varies depending on the goal of the research.
For qualitative:
There should be two basic designs.
Phenomenology – if the goal is to know based on the
experiences of people. If one’s purpose
is to describe the phenomene based on the experience of the people involved.
Case study – is also experiential, but it’s purpose is to
know what makes a particular situation unique.
Case studies are best used for model studies. E.g.
You can’t propose solutions without models. You can’t discuss problems also without any
cases. Case study fits best here.
To write: Identify and explain each. One to three paragraphs
will do.
Respondents or
Participants are terms used based whether you are using qualitative or
quantitative methods.
The term, respondent, is best used in quantitative researches. The people answer by responding to surveys.
Participant or Selection are used synonymously in a qualitative
research. The people participate in an
interview, focus group discussion or any activity that can help in producing
the needed data.
The number of respondents are determined based on sample
size formula. An important factor in
this is the consideration of representation.
Is the population devided into different groups? E.g. year levels of students? Programs? Age groups?
Gender? Do these need equal
representation in the population?
Descriptive research may not require equali representation. But experimental will have to considere
having equal representation.
Selections are synonymous to participants because of the
choosing. They are not determined by statistical
formula, but by arbitrary determination of best possible number. You “select” participants because they will
be your information base. And the number
ranges from 1 to 20. This will depend on
the design used. For example. A case study of a person who behaves
politically based on TV exposure will be made to write in a Journal. That one person can be the participant. But more is better.
The principle used in adding to the number is to gain
saturation - in interviews, saturation happens when as you visit different
people, there seems to manifest a particular pattern of answers. You add because saturation is not yet
evident.
This is different in an FGD.
You limit it to 7. More will open
the possibility of free riders, and one or a few will dominate the focus group.
To write: Identify and explain each. One to two paragraphs
will do.
Locale of the Study is
basic. Simply justify why you chose the
location. The justification should be
objective, not personal.
Research Instrument
The tool to gather the primary data. For qualitative, the common instrument used
is the Questionnaire Protocol. For
quantitative the common one is the Survey Questionnaire.
There are instruments that already exist, tried and tested.
This is the best path for researchers.
But if it happens that you can’t find a suitable instrument. You construct your own.
Constructing the instrument is based on the conceptual
framework. The questions to be rated or
answered will be guided by the elements found there. For qualitative, you are looking for indicators. So you ask questions that can bring forth the
indicators if such exist. For
quantitative, you quantify the parameters.
Such as rating performance, rating cleanliness.
Once composed. The
instrument must be pre-tested. For
qualitative, have 1 or 2 people who fit the same category as your selections
(but not your actual selections) participate in a test interview. For quantitative, have around 10 to 20
surveys accomplished by people who also fit the qualifications of your
respondents (again, not your actual respondents) answer the survey.
Take note of how the test interview or the pretest survey
happens. The people will ract, not
react, not understand your questions.
After that, note, does the answers satisfy the Problem? Are they complete or incomplete? Edit the instrument as necessary.
Data Gathering Method
This is where you narrate the actual process of how you will
collect the data. Will you do a
survey? An FGD? An interview?
Is the interview structured or semi-structured? Will you be using printed primary sources? Will you interview people who experienced the
phenomenon? Or will you interview
experts on the phenomenon?
Will the procedure be done in several steps? Will it be in stages? Or Will it be in
levels.
Identify each, then narrate and explain why you plan to do
so.
Data Analysis Method
Reading the interview transcriptions is not analysis. There are tools for analyzing the data. And you choose the tools based on the approach
and design that you use. A correlational
experiment will require T-Test or Perason’s R analysis. Acase study or phenomenology will required
data thematization, tabulation, and classification. There are technologies that use these tools,
such as MS Excel and SPSS for statistics.
And MaxQDA and AtlasTi for analyzing transriptions.
Discuss in proper sequence and in detail, with appropriate
justification why you plan to use which particular tool.
Ethical
Considerations
This is where you narrate how you plan to protect the research
subjects. You declare a particular reference
for research ethics. And provide a
summary of how you plan to comply. Do you brief your respondents and
participants? Do you ask for consent to
answer questions? Do you have plans and
procedures to conceal their identities?
Enumerate and narrate. Cite as
needed.
Writing Chapter II: Review of Related Literature and Studies (RRLS)
This chapter informs the reader of the progress or
development of knowledge, from its creation until the present. Many disciplines require an age limit to
sources of no older than x years from present.
This is to ensure that the topic of the researcher is 1) timely, and 2)
not tired jaded. There are few
exemptions to the age limit rule. Samples of exemptions are classical sources or the classic material of a particular
topic. For example, you can’t discuss cultural conflict between
nations without mentioning Huntington.
Nor you can’t have a discussion of Realism without Morgenthau.
The Review of Related Literature and Studies surveys what
has already been written about your topic.
It creates a map and shows a missing gap where your thesis can fit in.
A good example is going to the library and looking at the shelf. Have you noticed that all compa books are lumped together in one shelf (sometimes if there's a lot they extend to the next). The same with the Pol Thought books, and the Pub Ad books. If you look at the library number, those numbers are assigned based on what they are about. Sample Political Science is "J" under that Political Theory is "JC" the books with JC will be JC+ number. Hence, Aristotle, Augustine, Machiavelli will be in "JC." Where should Hobbes be? Somewhere before Machiavelli? And any shelf will have such a sequence. But have you ever noticed if "Elazar" is in the sequence? If you haven't then that means that there's a GAP. That's what's not yet been added. Going back to your thesis, what's already been written on the topic? Has someone already done what you propose now? If yes then better drop that proposal. How about, is there a difference between your proposal and all that's been written before? If yes, then that's the GAP which you are accomplishing.
Difference between Literature and Study:
The best way to distinguish is to begin with Studies. A requirement of being a study is that it is
a scientific, methodical research on the topic.
Most journals and monographs are studies. Though there are studies that are published
in book form. The basic way to identify
is, check out if the material is a journal.
If it is then it is a study.
Anything else is Literature.
And literature can vary in many ways. Primarily, they are books. But they can also be multimedia sources, and
internet webpages.
In any research, the headings are basically based on
topics. But for some disciplines, it is
required to identify which sources are foreign and which are local.
The identifying mark is the place of publication. Whether it is a book, journal, webpage, news,
media, or a pamphlet. The place where
the material originated is what makes it Foreign or Local.
How does one proceed with writing?
Use topic headings as guided by your variables. These headings should be in the form of phrases not one or two word terms, not sentence, e.g. Federalism and environmental protection, Gender and voting behavior. There should be topics talking about your independent variable and your dependent variable. Again the point of doing this is that you are pointing out what people have already written in the past. Hence you identify what have they contributed to political science? To the specific topic you are working on? These include, where they conducted the study, what they studied, what method they used, and what findings they provided. Since this is a review or related ness. You should discuss these in relation to other writers. E.g. "Castillo (2005) and Aricheta (2004) conducted studies on gender in Japan. Castillo provided the following findings .... while Aricheta.... somewhat similar but different because..."
Aside from the Theoretical Framework, this part is mistaken
as another patchwork of paraphrases from various sources.
Again the thesis is yours.
You cite to support yourself.
In the case of the RRLS you are writing about what you know
on the development of the ideas or topics.
And you mention each Literature or Study as your identification of the
parts of that development. Since each of
these literatures and studies contribute to this progress.
Each topic should begin with an introductory paragraph for
that topic. The same paragraph will
enumerate the prominent writers or wittings on that topic.
e.g. Human rights is
a much discussed topic nowadays. Among
the present literature include….
Or Writters such as xyz (2015), abc (2015), and efg
(2016) each proposed their ideas on
TOKHANG phenomenon…
Looking at preceding sample.
Take into mind that the literatures and studies should be enumerated and
discussed ad majoritas (from oldest
to youngest) to show the chronological development.
After the introductory paragraph. Give each of the mentioned sources their own
discussion. Again, YOU discuss. Paraphrase to support what you say about the
article. Again, add paragraphs if there
are subsequent ideas in that article that needs discussion (e.g. you are
reviewing Almond and Verba who said that that there are three political
cultures. Then based on your discussion,
you might have at least two paragraphs for that. And of course, don’t forget to cite.
Provide a closing paragraph after each topic.
Definition of Terms
There are teomain parts with format subheadings.
- Operational Terms
- Conceptual Terms
Operational definitions are defined by the writer, fitting
the terms to the research. Because not
all existing definitions will be exact for your thesis.
Conceptual definitions are sourced from disciplinary
authorities. Never use the discionary or
encyclopedia please.
A very important note.
Before proceeding to define every term you might think of. The first things to define are the components
of the Thesis Statement.
Scope and Limitations
Should have two parts.
Both have format subheadings as follows:
- Scope
- Limitations
Each should have approximately 1 paragraph each.
Scope should identify specifically:
What?
Who?
Where?
When
Why?
How?
Of your thesis.
The same holds true with the Limitations, you have to
specifically identify what won’t be the topic.
Where the scope defines what IS the topic.
Along with the limitations include another paragraph, which
may be needed to be written. These include
what you cannot do. E.g. Language barrier, the researchers cannot
speak Korean, and therefore will need the services of a translator. The researchers cannot physically go to
Vietnam, hence the interviews will be conducted via Sype.
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