Q methodology to determine distinguishing and consensus factors (a case study of university students' ecoliteracy on disaster risk reduction)

Abstract

Q methodology is to measure the diversity of human subjectivity, such as perspective, mindset, preferences, opinions, and attitudes. It is one of the approaches applied in mixed methods research. This paper is part of a preliminary study that aims to examine the application of Q methodology. Fourteen undergraduate students from the Faculty of Geography, Universitas Gadjah Mada, participated in this study. Data collected with Q sorting techniques using the Q-Sortware, and analyzed with Principal Component Analysis using KADE desktop. Both are software used specifically in Q methodology research. The method implementation aims to determine the distinguishing factors and consensus of students' ecoliteracy components on disaster risk reduction. The research showed that Q-Sortware tends to facilitate researchers in collecting data. However, it is quite complicated and less practical for participants. Meanwhile, the KADE desktop has an attractive interface with a tutorial that makes it easy to use. By analyzing the case study, the result showed that the students' ecoliteracy component is represented by five distinguishing factors and two consensus statements, with cumulative variations explained by 68 %. This study is, however, limited by the performance of quantitative procedures without in-depth qualitative data interpretation.