Continue: Three Abbreviated Research Plans

Submit Draft of an Abbreviated Qualitative Research Plan

You will apply qualitative research methods this week when you develop a qualitative research plan that seeks to answer your research problem and research question.

•Consult Table 9.1 (p. 174) in the course text, Research Methods to guide you in polishing your abbreviated qualitative research plan.

•Draft an introduction for your abbreviated research plan.

Next, ask yourself the following questions:
•What are your research questions? To what extent can you test them? How would you justify the viability of your questions?

•Why would this design be the most appropriate for answering the research questions? Conversely, why would quantitative and mixed methods not be appropriate?

•What approach would you select for this study (ethnography, grounded theory, case study, phenomenology, narrative)? Why is that approach the most appropriate one for answering the research questions?

•What theoretical framework or perspective would you use?

•What would be your role as the researcher?

•What is your target population? How would you identify and recruit participants? What factors would contribute to determining appropriate sample size? You will not need to calculate sample size for this assignment.

•If appropriate for your plan, what instruments might you need?

•What data collection procedures might you use? Why would those be the most appropriate methods to use? How would that data help to answer your research question(s)?

•How would you ensure quality and reliability of data?

•What are threats to validity? How might you mitigate them?

•How might you analyze the data?

•What are the ethical considerations related to the plan?

The assignment:
Craft a 2- to 3-page paper in which you
◦  Provide an introduction.
◦  Provide a purpose statement.
◦  Provide viable research questions.
◦  Generate a written research plan that addresses the above questions.

Scenario:
Elected and appointed officials at all levels of government are faced with the dilemma of raising demands for services and diminishing financial resources needed to meet those demands. The traditional method of using a public agency to implement policy and deliver services is no longer possible or even desirable in many cases. Governments in the United States and throughout the world have formed partnerships with nonprofit or nongovernmental organizations as a means to implement policies and deliver services. In many cases, the new partnerships have placed administrators from two very different organizational cultures in direct contact with one another on a daily basis. Public and nonprofit administrators must learn to accommodate the organizational culture of their counterparts if the new partnerships are to succeed. Scholars studying in the fields of public and nonprofit administration can provide a great service to their counterparts in practice by addressing the research problem of how to integrate the organizational cultures of their two sectors.

Reference / Course Text:
Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches
◦Chapter 9, “Qualitative Procedures” (pp. 173–202)