What most interests you about quantitative/fixed research designs? Is this a form of research you believe leads to “truth” and is something you are drawn to? What concerns do you have about the use of quantitative research methods?
In the hope of exploring the possibilities of providing education to the refugee camp population through new technological advances. My interest is to use quantitative/fixed research design as this is used to measure opinions, behaviors, attitudes, and other variables. Quantitative methods allow large scale data collection from many subjects, and the possibility to study many variables and how they are interrelated. The data in refugee research is to understand the experiences of violence and displacement that are informative assessment where the data can be collected through their own experience stories and refugee voices and these quantitative tools can be used to analyze which can be used to examine the relationship that is between the research areas and the refugee population.
The descriptive design helps to get answers to questions like what, when, who, where, and how which can outline ways to accomplish the depth of the study. The situation, problems, trends, and services can further help to find the exact situations at present and could be accommodated in the future, the problems encountered in finding solution to education, and the services that can be rendered to these camp populations. I will also be in the possibility to do correlational research between the group by e.g. age, culture, and language being related to education, academic achievement, school attachment, and school adaption.
Is this a form of research you believe leads to “truth” and is something you are drawn to?
The theory will be based on pragmatic observation, grounded on my personal experience working for the United Nations High Commissionaire for refugees for fifteen long years, and based on the training and experience gained and also having served these vulnerable people, I was drawn to finding a solution for the refugee population. With the conflicts around the world and people fleeing their own homes just to be protected, education has only been offered to some ages and not for all. Having selected the quantitative method in the hope of determining the extent of a problem and by quantifying the variations to arrive at a positive approach. There will be limitations of this tool as new populations are generated as the instruments used must be revalidated as either the populations have been resettled in their own homes or migrated to another country as refugee resettlement program. The generated data can be used later in developing more focused studies, for the future.
What concerns do you have about the use of quantitative research methods?
The descriptive research results cannot be used to discover a definitive answer or reject a hypothesis as observation methods are used on descriptive methods. A disadvantage of this descriptive design is that the studies cannot be reviewed nor repeatable. Focusing only on the numbers can lead to missing information on the big picture that can help in the research. On the other hand, protecting the individual is an ethical issue in experimental research that required special consideration. I also must keep in mind that there is a big responsibility to fully inform the participants that their consent can be withdrawn at any time if they elect to discontinue participating in the research.
References
Robson, C., McCartan, K. (2011) Real world research – fourth edition
Shuttleworth, M. (2008) Descriptive Research Design, Explorable.com website
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