Effects of Homelessness on the Education Sector - Research Paper Example

?Research proposal Effects of homelessness to the education sector Summary Homelessness refers to a of having no reliable dwelling place. Such people live in the streets and relocate from time to time. Unfortunately, the number of these people in the American population keeps increasing despite the developing economy. Homelessness is not only a symptom of deeply rooted poverty but is also a result of ineffective government institutions, policies and their subsequent implementations (Burt, Pearson & Montgomery, 2007). This condition makes it impossible for the government to budget effectively for its population since the rising rate of homelessness makes it difficult for the government to account for every person in the economy. The government lacks the actual statistical figures on the number of the homeless in the society thereby making it impossible to keep track of this special population. Homelessness affects every sector of the economy; however, the education sector suffers multistage effects from the rising homeless. The American government takes pride in the high quality of education in the country. The country has some of the best international institutions of higher learning. Additionally, the government understands that the reputation of the education sector lies in the number of its population that graduate from the highly reputable institutions. Homelessness on the other arises from the inability of the population to afford housing, which is indeed a basic human need. To most people education is never a need but a want necessary for survival. People apportion the needs more priority than human does wants. This implies that a portion of the population that cannot afford adequate housing and therefore live in the streets cannot possibly afford education. When the number of the homeless rise, it therefore means that the number of those not in the education systems also rises. Research purpose This research therefore seeks to determine the factors that lead to the appalling situation despite the developing economy. In doing this, the research seeks to investigate the causes of homelessness in the American society by tracking the currently homeless. It is evident that the homeless population is on the rise, the research therefore seeks to analyze the current society and determine the factors leading to the rise in the homeless population. Additionally, the research fuses the increasing homeless population to the academic standards of the population as postulated by the national education standards. The American education sector has a number of incentive most of which aim at attracting more students into the system. Additionally, the government provides free and compulsory ordinary and advanced level education of up to the twelfth grade. It is therefore detrimental to establish that a number of people in such a system still do not access the affordable educational services. Just like in other developed economies, the number of students in the educational system diminishes with the advancement in the academic level. This implies that the number of pupils in primary schools is more than those who proceed to the secondary level and the subsequent tertiary level colleges and universities. The research therefore seeks to determine the source of miscommunication between the different level of education in the country and the relationship between the increasing number of the street families and the diminishing number of students in institutions of higher learning. However, it is also understandable that not all students who drop out of school end up in the streets as homeless. Additionally, not all homeless people live in the street. The research therefore seeks to determine the destination of the other students who drop out of the education and the alternative shelters for the increasing number of the homeless given the fact that not all the homeless live in the streets (McNiff & Whitehead, 2006). The determination of the discord among the diminishing number of students in the institutions of education and the increasing number of the street families constitute the primary objective of the research. This implies that the research will seek to determine the factors leading to the increasing number of street families and other forms of homelessness in the American societies especially in the urban centers. The secondary objective of the research is to determine the role of the government among other existing authorities in curbing the negative trend. It is obvious that the government has some basic information on the increasing rate of homelessness in the American society and the fact that the negative trend in one way or another affects the education system negatively. It is therefore worth investigating the efforts of the government thus far in elevating the devastating statistics. In doing this the research will seek the thoughts of government authorities in relation to the policy formulation and implementation. However, the research does not seek to influence the actions of the government but merely bring to the public domain the factors affecting the quality of education in the country. Subject recruitment and selection The research is multifaceted and therefore uses a number of subjects of different ages. The primary source of the data used in the research includes the school going age members of the society who unfortunately do not attend any school. This implies that the research’s primary sources are aged between the ages of seven and eighteen (Maree, & Van, 2009). The nature of the group includes a number of less educated and tender aged members of the society and therefore requires the use of an all-inclusive language that is effectively understandable by the members of the age group. Besides this primary group, a bigger proportion of the subject includes older generation, which includes the parents of these children and the stakeholders in the education sector in the region. This second category of respondents have varying levels of education with the parents of the children having a questionable education level while the other stakeholders in the education system have higher levels of education and will therefore have effective responses to the research questions. The different academic levels of education of the respondents beginning with the younger children, their parents and the subsequent academic stakeholders require different tactics in approach. These include developing effective questionnaires and different approaches to the data collection processes, which include body language and effectively structured questionnaires written in simple and easily understandable language. In approximation, the research incorporates five hundred homeless children in New York. Additionally, the research incorporates fifty education stakeholders and other approximately two hundred parents and guardians of the homeless children. However, it is understandable that the American economy is stable enough and it is therefore difficult enough to single out the homeless from the rest of the human population. In such a situation, the researcher singles the street families most of whom are easy to locate and use them to find other homeless families. Research scope The American society has a number of social stratifications. However, the economical gap is evident with certain neighborhoods within the larger cities habiting the society’s poor. The research therefore recruits its subjects from specific locations within the city. The research is therefore conducted in the city of New York from where the researcher locates the poor and the possible homeless within the rest of the society. The homeless in New York occupies specific neighborhoods especially in the outcasts of the city such as in the satellite city of Queens. The research findings therefore apply to the rest of the human population by extrapolation. The research runs for a duration of four months a period within which the researchers determine the relevant research respondents, collect the data from the specific group and present the research findings thereby drawing conclusions from the research findings. The huge number of respondents makes it more difficult to conduct an effective research. To beat the time constrains the researcher will hire interviewers. This does not only aid the research process but also improves the exhaustiveness of the research process. Research design The research follows an open design incorporating a number of research features; the research employs the more cost effective random sampling technique to infer the results of the research to the rest of the active population. Random sampling refers to an objective means of selecting research respondents. Through this mechanism, the researcher selects a group of the homeless society randomly and uses the group in determining the effects of homeless in the education sector random sampling has a number of strengths key among which is its cost effectiveness in comparison to the other research sapling methodologies. Additionally, the method is less discriminating and therefore has higher tendencies of determining actual results from the research respondents. Data Collection In data collection, the research uses a number of data collection methodologies. Each of the three have different advantages, it is therefore more advisable to use all of the three so that they each compliment one another. The research employs these strategies and therefore uses interviews, questionnaires and observation in collecting the research’s primary data. Interview provide the researcher with an opportunity to observe the respondent thereby making accurate conclusions on a number of factors most commonly expressed through body language. Additionally, through interviews the interviewer has an enabling opportunity to ask follow up questions thereby determine details of the significant issues of the research. As stated earlier, the respondents of the research are diverse including illiterate and highly educated members of the society, each of this group requires different yet specific tactics to acquire the most appropriate information and responses to the research questions. The research will therefore use structured questionnaires but of different formats and grammatical levels considering the different level of education of the respondents. The homeless children most of which have no education use highly informal languages, most of them cannot therefore read or write. They therefore require translation of the research questionnaires a factor that makes the use of interviews more relevant in the data collection process. Possibly the same applies to their parents most of whom have lesser likelihood of having an advanced level education. The hired interviewers will use a pre-structured questionnaire, which they will interpret for the respondent in the language that they have a better understanding. The other stakeholders in the education sector are educated enough to answer questionnaires. Additionally, such people have busier lifestyles and therefore find it more difficult to spend time in interviews. This therefore validates the use of questionnaires. In such cases, questionnaires are mailed to the respondents, they answer and mail back to the researcher. This is a convenient data collection mechanism that does not pile pressure on either the researcher or the respondent. To complement these other methods, the research incorporates the use of observation as a method of data collection. Observation provides the researcher an opportunity to make a personal conclusion on the respondents’ way of life in the streets and the manner that such a group consider education. After the collection of the data, the research employs a number of statistical data processing techniques to make imperative conclusions of the research. One of the internationally accepted data processing software is the SPSS. This software makes it easier to compare the data and compute the research findings thereby mathematically validating the claims the researcher presents in the research findings and the conclusion of the research. Presentation of the research findings is another important aspect of the research. The research therefore uses graphical presentation of the data collected in the research (Lavender, Edwards and Alfirevic, 2004). This includes the use of graphs to compare the research finding and the use of tables to compute and resent the research findings. Graphical symbols such as tables, graphs and pie charts are easier to conceptualize thereby making understanding and interpreting the research finding easier. Potential risks The researcher in the process of conducting the research faces a number of possible challenges key among which is the failure to access the respondents. The homeless are normally hostile people and normally dangerous since they prefer the use of force and bodily harm to ward off interacting with normal people. This therefore makes it difficult to contact such people. Other stakeholders in the education sector have busy lifestyles and may not therefore apportion time to the researcher. This therefore makes it more difficult to contact and draw information from them. Besides the substantial risk of failing to access the respondents, the researcher also faces a substantial risk of bodily harm from the responded especially the street children most of whom alive in violent neighborhoods and therefore express hostility to any other member of the society. Other risks of success failure arise from the lengthy research duration, which may strain the financial coffers to the researcher. Such a research that last that long and incorporates the hiring of additional personnel requires a sufficient supply of finances a factor, which may therefore hinder the effective research. Potential benefits The research is realistic and therefore addresses real life issues. It is ironical for the American economy to experience a steady growth over time and possess one of the most qualitative education system yet possess an increasing number of the homeless in its society. The homeless lack a number of services such as security and health services it is therefore worth investigating the effect of the rising number of the homeless on the county education system. The findings of the research will have direct influence in formulating educational policies thereby developing an all-inclusive society with a harmonized education system (Todd, 2005). References Burt, M. R., Pearson, C. L., & Montgomery, A. E. (2007). Homelessness: Prevention, strategies and effectiveness. New York: Nova Science Publishers. Lavender, T., Edwards, G. and Alfirevic, Z. (2004). Demystifying Qualitative Research. Salisbury: Quay Books. Maree, K., & Van, . W. C. N. (2009). Head start in designing research proposals in the social sciences. Lansdowne, Cape Town: Juta. McNiff, J. & Whitehead, J. (2006). All you need to know about action research. London: Sage Todd, E. P. (2005). Homelessness: Is society looking the other way?. New York: Nova Science Publishers. Read More