Australian Womens Workforce Participation and Childcare - Research Proposal Example

Research Proposal: Australian Women’s Workforce Participation and Childcare from 5-12 years al Affiliation Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 “What Is It to Be a Woman with Childcare Responsibilities of Children Between 5-12 years While Working in the Social Market? INTRODUCTION Presently in the Australian social working environment, both women and men are being recruited to improve gender diversity (Australian Government, 2013). As a result, women with childcare of between 5 to 12 years are experiencing challenges while they try to balance their working and family responsibilities. The paper will adopt a qualitative research proposal to expand and develop the ideas presented in the previous one. The study’s design framework will be an interpretive phenomenological methodology and the basis of the study being women experiencing challenges as they try to balance working and childcare responsibilities. The research will have literature reviews that will identify and justify underpinnings in the methodological approach through critical analysis. The chosen methodological approach will then get discussed in its philosophical and theoretical foundation and explained on how different it is from descriptive approaches. Data collection methods for the women experience study will then be explored, explaining the relevance of the chosen methods and how the data will be analyzed. The expected ethical conduction and validity will also get mentioned, and then the study will be summarized in the conclusion. METHODOLOGY This research aims at studying the women’s life experiences as they balance their working and childcare responsibilities of children between five to twelve years and to understand what it is to be the women with the responsibilities. The study also helps in giving account to the phenomenon while also gaining an understanding of the challenges faced by working women in Australian. As a result, the interpretive phenomenology approach is effective in this exploration. Hay and Sigh (2012) state that this interpretive approach focuses on idiographic information; hence, relating to the significance of the experiences or life events of individuals. The interpretive approach is therefore an important tool to the determination of such relationships. Presently, the knowledge on the experiences of working Australian women with childcare responsibilities are from the minor evidence of unguided past research and other prevailing practices (ABS, 2009). It is as a result of having inappropriate literature to improve our understanding of the experiences of such types of women (Adams, Dominelli, & Payne, 2009). Smith (2011) asserts that the inquiry process starts with the knowledge gap presented by the prior misguided research on the issue at hand. Women’s point of view may be that they provide quality services to social work despite pressures from their childcare responsibilities. Hence, following that there is no evidence to support this view, an original research is important to prove this view of point. It is because it may get discovered that indeed women with childcare responsibilities do not provide quality social services. Interpretive phenomenology focuses on idiographic information. Its main aim is to provide living experiences so as to understand someone’s unique experience from a certain context. Hays and Sigh (2012) assert that interpretive phenomenology is important because it provides an understanding of people’s life experiences and establishes meanings to everyday’s phenomena in their ideas, thoughts and lives. There are similar studies that investigated the same phenomena (Tarica, 2010). The studies explored on the subjects’ life experiences. There are several examples of hermeneutic interpretive phenomenology approach in this case. For instance, some of the hermeneutic phenomena include Thompson and Chambers (2012) study of work and childcare balance. Another study was the D.C.A (2012) study of adjustments to the working environment, following the childcare responsibilities. Thus, describing the importance of the interpretive methodological approach. The hermeneutic phenomena research approach aims at investigating the meanings of the subjects at hand to understand the human experience (Linda & Jenny, 2012). Holloway and Wheeler (2009) support the approach, where they explain that three key positions shape interpretive phenomenological research; hermeneutics, idiographic and phenomenology. It is a consensual, reasoned and validated inquiry whose objective is to grasp the taken-for-granted elements of human experience in both working and childcare responsibilities. Hence, in this case, the phenomena seeks to describe the “how” and “what” of individuals’ experiences and creates meaningful descriptions of experiences, though it does not analyze or explain the descriptions. Therefore, it helps the researcher to determine the meaning of every day’s world of women in the social works with family responsibilities, especially, the care of children between the ages of 5 to 12 years. The interpretive underpinning of this approach is in three human fields as Howitt (2010) explains. Firstly, human beings tend to be temporal beings as they bring a considerable present, past and future. The lived experiences are considered a dynamic process where the meaning gets influenced by the present, past occurrences and the possible future. Secondly, the human beings are also self-interpreting beings. They tend to be unique as they have consciousness and the ability to reflect and view their lives and attribute some meaning to their life experiences. Lastly, the daily lives of humans have meanings, which they construct themselves, on a daily basis. As a result, it describes the way that we approach, interpret, and provide meaning to every day’s life experiences. Aligning with the interpretive tradition, it is possible for the researcher to have a double hermetic (Derby, 2013). In this case, we can have two different women that may experience similar work and childcare experiences in their life though the experience can have different interpretations. For instance, in the past they had their mothers taking care of them as they worked in the social environment. The main aim of the phenomena approach is to maintain the central point of the subject being analyzed to interpret their living experience meanings (Tracy, 2013). Therefore, the phenomenology is used in gaining a further understanding of the individuals’ living experiences. The goal is achieved through describing the structure of the phenomenon and the subjects’ individual experiences. Thus, the value of the approach to this research is that it will help to determine the causes of the challenges that Australian women face as they carry out their work and home responsibilities. The approach benefits the women as it aims at determining the causes and the solutions to the issue (Howitt, 2010). Herman (2009) argues that a participatory research is more effective in determining the life experiences of the subjects at hand. The research gets geared towards conducting and planning the research process with individuals whose life actions are under study. In this case, as previously established, the study will stick to the interpretive phenomenological approach. Unlike Herman’s participatory approach, interpretive phenomena asserts that the researcher should not disengage their misconception. Therefore, in this case concerning the experiences of women with both working and childcare responsibilities, research is best taken in an interpretive phenomena stance. The aim of the phenomena’s inquiry is to capture certain experiences from different individuals. For instance, the Thompson and Chambers (2012) study of work and childcare balance experience shows a strong theme of calling forth the need to determine the challenges that women undergo. Mckenzie et al point that they undergo challenges while trying to balance their childcare and job responsibilities. Hence, through this method it is easy to explore on the theme, understand the main challenges, and try to find a solution to them. Smith and Colleagues (2013) add that interpretive phenomenology emphasizes the reflexivity place. Reflexivity is the capacity of the humans to position themselves and reflect or consider inter-subjective dynamics between data and researcher. Interpretive paradox puts the experiencing subject at the endeavor center. However, instead of attempting the impossible work for seeking to reduce the researcher’s role, the phenomena make the positive step of exploring and acknowledging the role. The researcher’s feelings and thoughts get admitted as important; hence legitimate inquiry components, and their divergence or congruence from those of the subject are proper inquiry matters. As a result, this dynamic position has the implication of the requirement for researchers to create personal-professional self-awareness that shows reflexivity. Therefore, following the exploration of the women’s experience in their past, present, and the expected future, it is possible to uncover the essence of what it means to a woman with childcare and job responsibilities. Thus, the interpretive phenomena approach is the ideal way to research on the question at hand. SAMPLING Sampling is the process of selecting a population’s unit subset to gain information and knowledge (Babbie, 2015). The sampling formula is selected because the sample characteristics makes reference to the targeted population (Hennick, Hutter & Bailey, 2011). Hence, in the process one needs to justify the method due to various questions such as can I make procedural errors that may affect the results? Can I make errors in the sampling? How can I determine the accuracy and size of the sample result? There are different types of sampling useable for the research, but in this particular research, the study will use the maximum variation sampling that will help in providing participant sample. The maximum variation sampling or heterogeneous sampling refers to a purposive sampling technique that captures a wider range of perspective, ranging from typical conditions to the extreme ones. The conditions or units may include individuals from different genders, ethnic background, nationalities and socioeconomic statuses (Tracy, 2013). It is clear that the women demographics needed are varied and many. These women may range from young adults who have just had their first child and the elderly ones with more than one child to take care of along with the job. Some of the women are single mothers, and some are married; hence different backgrounds though all should have undergone the challenges of job and childcare responsibilities. As a result of different demographics, it is possible to have different themes that will require further future research. Smith et al. (2013) stated that the phenomena research requires a fixed sample size, and there should be no additional data later or during data collection as other approaches do. Hence, the sample size of this study will be 30 participants that will be selected from different characteristics. It is essential to have the fixed sample as it provides the ability to investigate on the normal phenomena occurring in the participant’s daily life. It is achieved through excluding the extreme conditions or cases. Additionally, the sample is also manageable following the complex data to get collected and analyzed. Furthermore, the sample only gives a small scope on the phenomenon or the matter at hand and it does not generalize the conclusion. Often, some of the anticipated participants do not turn up for the research or to give information; thus the low response of the potential participants. Hence, it is important to consider contacting more than 30 women so as to achieve the targeted sample size, who will give information (Babbie, 2015). RECRUITMENT It is important to consider the potential challenges in the recruitment. In most cases, the challenges include the design of the study and participant characteristics; comprising of personal preferences and demographics. The techniques used in recruitment included financial incentives, communication method, and assertive tracking. Data collection method, ethical issues and control of participants, are also important elements to consider (Tracy, 2013). In this research, the recruitment of the subjects will take place before the ethical approvals are granted. It is important also to give the participants a degree of reciprocity and advice on the findings and outcomes. Furthermore, the research can be important to the participant if they get to know that the research has never been done before. There is supposed to be a direction on how to carry out the research and how the participants will share the information (Tracy, 2013). In this case, the participation criteria will act as the guide direction of the research. The participants are supposed to participate voluntary for they are the most important elements in the research. Additionally, it is important to have a common language between the recruits and the researcher (Tracy, 2013). In this study, English will be the main language. The participants should be able to speak English and in the social work environment with both childcare and job responsibilities and are capable of taking part in the interview process. The participants excluded will be those that are too elderly and too young or have any cognitive disabilities like hearing or speaking disabilities. The extreme cases such as women with disabled children will also get excluded from the study. Additionally, those participants who cannot speak English will also be excluding from the sample, but they can also take part as an alternative sample in another study. Women who will take part in the study will get recruited through the social works recruitment record to find out those women who are married or those who are single but with childcare responsibilities. Hence, the record will make it easy to find the suitable women to contact, after they gain ethics approval and willingly accepting to take part in the study. They will have contacts with their email messages and some through phone calls. DATA COLLECTION AND MANAGEMENT This research aims at understanding the experiences that women undergo as they try to balance their job and care of children between 5-12 years. Therefore, to collect valuable information it is important to consider field observation and one-on-one interviews (Holloway & Wheeler, 2009). Interview data can be records of audio recording, written notes or video recording. In this case, there should be the questioner and the responder or interviewees. For the one-on-one interview, it is important to provide the participants the view of equality sense, and there should not be a lopsided power relationship between the participant and the researcher. In this case, all women should be treated equally; the young adults and the elderly ones, the single mothers, and the married ones. To have the inside view of the phenomenon, it is important to consider second-order data (Holloway & Wheeler, 2009). The research will employ a semi-structured interview with guide questions without setting fixed questions for the interview. Hence, the participants can give more information, thoughts and opinions compared to the rigidly structured interview that limits the answers most of the time. Hence, this interview approach will focus on having a conversation pattern and exploring the participants’ feelings and thoughts, ideas and meanings, attitudes and meaning behind experiences. Furthermore, the participant will mostly control the interview instead of the researcher. Hence, second-order is appropriate for this study as it makes the participant capture and recall their experiences. Researchers use field observation as it minimizes distortion between the observer and the observed subject that may be produced by an instrument such as a questionnaire (Herman, 2009). The process involves a natural setting and the background or context of behavior also gets include in the field observation of both the individual and the environment. In this case, the observation in the field provides the researcher the ability to see directly the relationship between the services provided by the woman in the social works and the challenges she balances with family duties. Additionally, the direct observation also gives the researcher the appropriate questions to ask during the one-on-one interview; thus, gathering the most important information. Good data management is required to obtain the necessary information without losing any data. The observational process requires one to have the main research questions and point down the linking information that give an answer to the study. The notes can provide information such as what stresses the women in jobs and their families, how they manage their responsibilities, and the kind of feedback that the social work employers give about their services. The observation notes will inform the research on the subject at hand (Herman, 2009). Additionally, during field observation, the researcher can also decide to take videos, for instance when they are working, that may determine their rate of providing services. DATA ANALYSIS As it is for all qualitative data, the phenomenological data is analyzed through a process such as coding (axial, selective and open), making sense of the significant phenomenon meanings and categorizing. As the researcher analyzes the rich interpretive data, then essence or common sense begins to emerge (Kellett, 2010). The analysis stage comprises total immersion for as long it is required to ensure both a thorough and pure interpretation of the phenomenon. The interpretive data is usually analyzed using the iterative method. The study will use observation and interview as it is established above, and then the researcher will reflect upon it informing the study. Additionally, articles should be analyzed to develop reflexive and subjective view. The data analysis determines the research report (Howitt, & Cramer, 2011). Therefore, in this case, it is important to use the horizontal pass data as it develops the report with the gathered information. Horizontal pass data analysis refers to the open viewing of the collected data to elicit the patterns, specific terms, language and emotions, themes and phrases linked to the experiences discovered. Additionally, it is important to have a reflective and in-depth reading of the collected data to find evidence of the discovered themes (Hays & Singh, 2012). Additionally, the readings determine if any element or theme may be exaggerated or if there are any alternative means. The phenomenological study in the social working environment themes like “I am tired”, “Its stressful”, I cannot concentrate” and “It is okay” came up throughout the research. ETHICS Ethics refers to the norms that distinguish between unacceptable and acceptable behavior (Gray, & Webb, 2010). There are diverse grounds as to why it is significant to adhere to ethical norms during the research process. They promote the research objectives such as truth, knowledge, error avoidance, enhancement of collaborative work, holding the researchers accountable for the public and building public support. It is not ethical to harm the participant or any public member during research. Any emotional or physical stress, deception, deception, presenting misinterpreted or false results or violating confidentially are unethical. Hence, the research objective will have to get ethics approval from the ethics committee before conducting the research as Clifford and Burke (2009) suggests. The prediction of the outcomes or findings will also get presented to the ethical committee including the advantages of participating in the research (Swain & Bigby, 2009). For instance, some of the outcomes will be finding a way to ease up the challenges that women face as they do their social works and at the same time take care of their children between 5-12 years. Additionally, the participants, in this case, the women; will also have to get ethical approval to take part in the research. The participants should not be in any case harmed due to participating in the research as a declaration of confidentiality or anonymity; hence, the calling for willingness to participate. The interviewer should also hold confidential some of the interviewees’ emotions (Swain & Rice, 2009). It is because sometimes the topics can make the interviewee emotional. In this setting, a woman can be moved by the how her employee overworks her and yet they know that she has family childcare responsibilities. They can also be emotional as they think that they spend less time with their children. Therefore, a researcher who handles carrying out the interview is supposed to have good communication aptitude so that he or she can to dredge the emotions or feelings in an appropriate way. Additionally, the researcher may also decide to follow up the situation and determine a possible solution in a bizarre situation. Hence, it is ethical for the researcher to take care of the emotions and feelings that may arise during the research or the interview (Allan, Briskman, & Pease, 2009).. RIGOUR AND VALIDITY Rigor refers to a researcher’s attempt in using a fixed or tight research design in a study. Qualitative research rigor has two approaches; post-criterion and criterion. Criterion approach shows robustness in the qualitative inquiry with characteristics such as trustworthiness and authenticity. It shows that rigor equals relevance and truth. On the other hand, post criterion rejects the reliability and validity concept (Clifford & Burke, 2009). It undermines the qualitative research acceptance as a systematic process and has results of giving an important contribution to the enhancement of the collective knowledge. Rigor can be enhanced through various techniques. Firstly, self-reflectivity enhances rigor as researchers’ assumptions, and biases are documented and how their perceptions have been changing throughout the study. In this setting, having been in both work and family setting, this must be documented and reflected in enhancing rigor. Secondly, face validity has the interpretations checked through presenting results on the participants focus group as Hennick, Hutter and Bailey, (2011) suggest. It can be achieved by collecting a smaller number of the women and presenting the collected data to determine if the findings were same as those mentioned in the interviews. Validity refers to the ability to verify the collected data (Miles, Huberman & Saldana, 2014). The researcher should determine if the participants have accurately described their phenomena experiences or if the interviewer altered the participants’ responses. Additionally, in this setting the participants’ language will be same as the interviewer’s language, as Kellet (2010) proposes. CONCLUSION The research objective is to research on the question “what do Australian women experience as they balance their work and childcare responsibilities”. As a result, the researcher uses the qualitative research proposal to carry out the research. The study uses the interpretive phenomenological methodology as justified by relevant literature reviews along with philosophical and theoretical foundations. The research will use the sampling method and adopt interview and field observations to collect data. The collection of data also raised up the need to examine ethical considerations. In-depth analysis, rigor and validity is paramount to ensure that there is the most accurate and appropriate data to answer the research question on Australian women. REFERENCES Australian Government, Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. (2013). Closing the gap: Indigenous reform agenda. Retrieved from http://www.fahcsia.gov.au/ourresponsibilities/indigenousaustralians/programs-services/closing-the-gap Date of Access 21st May 22, 2015 Adams, R, Dominelli, L & Payne, M., (2009). Social work: themes, issues and critical Debate. (3rd edn) Australia: Palgrave Macmillan Allan, J, Briskman, L & Pease, B., (2009). Critical social work: theories and practices for a socially just worl. (2nd edn). Australia: Allen & Unwin. Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), (2009). 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