Linking Research Design, Research Problem, and Research Questions - Essay Example

?Linking Research Design, Research Problem, and Research Questions Introduction Qualitative research was in the past restricted to research linked with social sciences. However, it is now more widely used in other fields to provide an in-depth understanding of how human beings behave and the reasons to justify that behaviour. Qualitative research answers questions in the form of ‘how’ and ‘why?’. Qualitative research questions deal with individual cases and provide greater depths and understanding of each case while looking only at the practical and pertinent information. There are five most common approaches used in qualitative research. These are ethnography, grounded theory, case study, discourse analysis, or phenomenology. The method that is to be used in this qualitative study is ethnography. Ethnography helps to get an in-depth understanding on the aspects of culture which influence the phenomenon under study. It is often used to gather data that is derived from experiments and observation rather than from theory. Ethnography is particularly done with the end purpose of enabling the researcher to describe the people targeted by the study. The research topic proposed in this paper concerns finding the reasons for the increasing rate of dropouts from institutions of higher education. The research topic can be better phrased as “Curbing the increasing rate of school dropouts from institutions of higher education”. The purpose of this research is to find out the reasons that lead to students dropping out of school. By being able to get a clear understanding of why students drop out from school, this data can be used by the government ministry in charge of education, school boards and other key players in the sector to devise policies and strategies which will gradually bring down this drop out rate. Problem statement The rate at which students are dropping out is increasing at an alarming rate. All over the world, there are headlines that detail the numbers of students that drop out of school, especially higher education. According to a report by the US Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), there are two principal classifications of factors which contribute to students dropping out of school. These are financial and social. The NCES also reports that the rates of dropouts have been increasing over the last decade. For example, between 1992 and 2002, the status rate which is the rate of students dropping out without completing school increased from 14.6 to 22.5 per cent. In South Africa, the high rate of university dropouts, which was at 11.2 per cent in 2008, is deemed to be a monumental threat to the future of the country. This is the situation in many countries. Much has been done to try and curb the rate of dropouts but these numbers are astonishing. Something needs to be done urgently to help this pathetic situation. How ethnography is used There are two main types of data that will be collected for this research. These are primary and secondary data. The former will be collected through structured interviews with key respondents such as school principals, district education officers, lecturers, tutors, mentors, students and other key people in the ministry involved with education, interviewer observation and field notes. Focus discussion groups (FDGs) may also be held to get insight on what are the reasons for this phenomenon. FDGs involve having the researcher as the facilitator or moderator as the group discusses the factors that lead to dropouts and initiatives that can be implemented to help curb this. The FDGs will mostly comprise of students in higher education institutions and recent graduates. The ideal age would be between 18-26 years. Secondary data will be collected from reflexive journals, analysis of published and unpublished documents and reports and also other data that will be relevant to this study. Research Questions A research question can be defined as the question or questions posed that the research answers. It is usually a broad-based inquiry that is made as an open-ended question rather than a closed-ended question, unless for a specific reason, a closed-ended research question is needed . It is referred to as the thesis statement at the undergraduate level. Developing a research questions is one of the first steps taken by a researcher. To develop a strong research question, the researcher needs to brainstorm to identify the underlying themes of the research and then use these to develop several research questions and by tabling the pros and cons of each question, the researcher is able to choose the best questions which the research will answer. Elements of a good research question Among the elements of a research question, it must be useable, accurate and clearly defined. One of the major functions of a research question is that it guides the design of the study i.e. how the research will be conducted and reported. After final selection of the research questions, the researcher needs to refine the research questions before using them in their research proposal. The questions may need to be altered further during the finalization of the research proposal. There are other elements of a valid research question. One is that it should indicate the relationship between two or more variable which are an independent and a dependent variable. A good research question should clearly inter-relate the research question to the literature review and the problem or issue indicated in the study. Lastly, a good research question is “the overall focus of the study, it is the study’s goal” . The three research questions formulated for this study are: 1. Does the high amount of school fees charged by institutions lead to students dropping out of school? 2. What peer pressure related factors (such as drug abuse, thinking it is cool, etc.) lead to students dropping out of school? 3. What are some of the measures that can be put in place to curb the high rate of school drop outs? All these are qualitative research questions and are testable, clearly defined, and accurate. The first research questions forges a relationship between high amount of school fees and the rate of dropping out of school. The former is the independent variable with the latter being the dependent variable. The second question indicates the relationship between peer pressure related factors which is the independent variable and the rate of dropping out of school which is the dependent variable. The last question relates the measures that can be placed which is the independent variable and the high rate of school drop outs which is the dependent variable. References Andrews, R. (2003). Research questions. London, UK: Continuum International Publishing Group. Sue, J., Price, C. J., & Straker, L. (1998). The researching therapist: a practical guide to planning, performing, and communicating research. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier Health Sciences.  Read More