Hotel Santika Malang
Hosted by PSLD UB
This workshop is jointly organised by AIDRAN and PSLD in Malang on 23 November 2018. About 52 participants attended the workshop. They were researchers, disability students and activists from around East Java, and local government officials. The workshop was led by Professor Patrick Keyzer. This workshop is one of the activities conducted by AIDRAN in collaboration with PSLD with the objective to share experience in researching disability issues. This training is organised by Center for the Study of Disability Studies and Services, Universitas Brawijaya (CDSS UB) and Australia-Indonesia Disability Research and Advocacy Network (AIDRAN), La Trobe Law School La Trobe University, Sociology Department UB, and UB Law Faculty.
Nominal Group Technique is one methodology that researchers use to gather data and information. It is a group process involving problem identification, solution generation, and decision making. It can be used in groups of many sizes, who want to make their decision quickly, as by a vote, but want everyone’s opinions are taken into account (as opposed to traditional voting, where only the largest group is considered). By using NGT as a methodology, researchers can extract answers to questions from small focus groups of six or more people. Participants in the group can give their answer in a group setting and learn from others on the range of answer. This process allows the participant to get a perspective on the intensity of the issue. The different answers that are collected from the group might also help researchers to build questionnaires to dive into a thorough and detail information or data.
Another key benefit of doing NGT is to help researchers avoid confirmation bias in social science research. NGT is a research exercise that allows researchers to analyse a different perspective gather from each group which could lead researchers to go deeper into getting further elaboration, for example, on the nature of the differences or the level of experience or the other sociological backgrounds of participants in each group.
At this workshop, participants practised the NGT data gathering with participants being asked to reflect on a research question “Apa yang bias dilakukan oleh Pemerintah untuk memajukan hak penyandang disabilitas di Indonesia”. Participants were divided into seven groups. Each group listed the answers from every member of the group before sharing it with their group. The group then discuss openly and compile their first six responses. The responses are then pooled for the member of the group to “vote” on the outcomes to build a group consensus.
From the exercise, participants learn how NGT allows researchers and individual to work in a group to develop agendas and action lists. This exercise also allows every individual to have their view and discuss it within their groups before developing group consensus. It can also be used to build questionnaire items that have content and construct validity.
