RE: Unit 6.1 DB: Sampling Procedures

COLLAPSE

Tanya, I am intrigued by your suggestion that convenience sampling is often applied to action research. From somewhere in my thinking, I must have connected convenience sampling negatively. This statement has me pondering the usefulness of a convenience sample and its applicability to action research. Golzar et al. (2022) explain convenience sampling as the most readily available to the researcher. They continue sharing that all researcher will start with inclusion criteria and then reach out to the targeted population to seek their potential involvement (Golzar et al., 2022). With this outline, the sample would be anyone who fits the criteria, is within easy access to the researchers, and is willing to partake in the study. While this method may provide a cost and time-effective method of sampling, it does hinder the results, as there is potential for selection bias (Golzar et al., 2022).

Interestingly, with action research looking to support and help populations find solutions to problems through a collaborative approach, convenience sampling in some situations makes sense. As you shared, a school counselor may explore solutions to test-related stress with the students in their school. This would be convenience sampling, but the setting allows this to occur. On the other hand, if a counselor wanted to explore the effects of food costs on family well-being- convenience sampling may not be applicable if the researcher lives and works within wealthier areas. If they choose to pursue samples within these areas, they have failed to provide all potential participants' voices from being heard (Stringer & Aragon, 2020).

While initially, I wanted to disagree with action researchers using convenience sampling, upon further exploration, there may be times when this sampling style is appropriate. I would still be cautious, as there is a risk of selection bias. In your example, the counselor may only include the students they know struggle or have a goal in their IEP to reduce stress, teachers who currently have the counselor caseload in their classroom, or other limiting selections due to convenience.

please use citations in the answer and also use references at the end and make sure that the references coincide with the citations