Exploring the Role of National Culture on Attitudes towards Education - Research Proposal Example

?Exploring the Role of National Culture on Attitudes towards Education: A Research Proposal It is obvious that a person’s family background in terms of socioeconomic factors has an effect on one’s approach to education. Moreover, exposure and access to emerging information technology tools has an effect on the choice of subjects, performance, and other aspects of a student’s school life. However, there is inadequate data on the extent of the effect of these underlying factors on a person’s education, and it is difficult to establish if these are the only cultural factors. In addition, without a clear analysis of data it is impossible to determine if race is still a factor in the education sector, or if subject preferences depend on other aspects of modern life (Khine, 2011: 58). The school system should be a reflection of the multicultural nature of the United Kingdom population. Therefore, the aim of this study will be to establish the level of representation of all races, religions, and all cultural groupings in the school system. The study will identify the factors underlying the distribution of students in school, and identify any cases of underrepresentation or overrepresentation of both the minority and the majority population (Matsumoto and Vijver, 2010). The distribution of members of minority and vulnerable groups in the education system will be an indicator of the success or failure in implementation of policies that aim at protecting the poor, minority races, minority religions and other groupings that are at a disadvantage that predisposes them to discrimination. Preliminary studies show that the education system in the United Kingdom is representative of all groups in society; however, many other factors hinder the even distribution and parity within and without the school system (Khine, 2011: 174). After data collection and analysis, the researcher should estimate the gap between the current situations and the goals that the education sector aims at achieving. After identifying the gap, one can give recommendations for stakeholders to follow to ensure that culture only has positive effects on perceptions towards education and not negative effects (Khine, 2011: 250). Significance of the Study Education is the only way to ensure the survival of the civilization, mainly by passing existing knowledge to the younger generations and giving them the capacity to seek further knowledge. However, in the face of globalization, the old methods of transmitting knowledge have become out-dated, especially since the world has become more competitive with the need for people to keep up with changing conditions. Moreover, these days the world is information-driven and no one can afford to have out-dated information. The United Kingdom emphasises on historical happenings and preservation of cultural values. However, in the current world, people must be ready to learn from experiences but not to keep looking back at them. In addition, all citizens must be involved in the development agenda despite their age, race or gender. This study aims at identifying the cultural values underlying perceptions on education, and making recommendations that would enable stakeholders to work seamlessly for the betterment of the country (Banks and Banks, 2009). Methodology Sampling The sample will consist of between 120 and 160 secondary schools, only including schools that have data on their student composition, performance, and are willing to give out the data freely. If more schools are willing to provide their data such that it overwhelms the researcher, then random sampling will be employed but taking into consideration the representation of schools and students. This will be the sample for the qualitative part of the study, which will be all about identifying extent, correlations and statistical significance of the interactions of various phenomena under study. The qualitative part of the study will use a cluster sample, and the importance of this sample will be to identify for trends, and look for other underlying factors that have not been identified in previous studies (Creswell, 2009). Research Design The study will have both a fixed and a flexible aspect also known as quantitative and qualitative research respectively. Both the approaches will be instrumental in accepting and rejecting hypotheses, and will confirm the truth of literature of previous studies reviewed. The main advantage of studying the effects of culture on perceptions on education is that it will clarify areas that people are already aware of, and identify new areas that have not been studied (Creswell, 2009). Data collection Qualitative data will be collected using questionnaires distributed among a few students in a mixed race school. The quantitative data will be collected from school records and government websites, and it will include the distribution of students from various backgrounds in the school system, performance of students (preferably grouped according to race, gender and other factors), and rankings of school in national examinations (preferably including other information about the schools). Data analysis Data from the qualitative study will be coded to enable identify emerging factors, accept or reject corresponding hypotheses, and confirm or refute the findings of previous studies. Statistics will be used to analyse the quantitative data and enable acceptance or rejecting of the hypotheses. Depending on the nature of the data, the researcher will use chi square or student t-test to analyse for the confidence levels and the statistical significance of the data. This will enable one to decide if the study will have provided enough information for generalisation, or further study need be done to come up with more conclusive results (Creswell, 2009). Time schedule Activity Timeframe Proposal Writing March – April 2012 Preliminary Preparation April – May 2012 Data Collection May – July 2012 Data Analysis July – September 2012 Report Writing and Submission September – December 2012 Limitation of the Study The extensive nature of this study may be expensive, and due to budgetary constraints, the researcher may have to scale down the study. Comprehensive data for use in the study may not be available and even if it were available authorities may deny the researcher access to this data. This would prompt the researcher to seek an alternative approach to the study, which may not be as effective as the initial approach. The research has many time demanding components, which may cause time management challenges and result in an incomplete or poorly completed study. Data acquired in the study may not be reliable, especially if presented by school administrations, as they may want to present the school in a better light than its current situation. There may be legal and ethical requirements that the researcher may have to fulfil before starting the study. Some of these requirements may be unachievable for the moment, and the study may have to be postponed or restructured, resulting in wastage of time and other resources. Resources Required The research will require two main resources: At least ?750 to pay bus fare to travel to data collection points, access online databases for data on schools, and buy data analysis software among other requirements. At least 10 months between the proposal and presentation of findings in the form of a report and a PowerPoint presentation. Ethical Considerations Culture is a highly sensitive aspect of the society, and if not handled carefully, it could result in gross violation of human rights. For instance, it touches on issues of race, gender and other forms of equalities and inequalities. Therefore, the researcher should consult the institution’s ethical committee to ensure that the ethical requirements of doing such a study are met. Moreover, this study involves working with people who are underage, and since they cannot make informed decisions, their guardians or teachers will be consulted, especially for the part of the study that involves directly interviewing the students. References Banks, J.A., & Banks, C.A. (2009) Multicultural education: issues and perspectives, Wiley. Creswell, J.W. (2009) Research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches, Sage Publications. Khine, S.M. (2011) Attitude research in science education: classic and contemporary measurements, IAP. Matsumoto, D., & Vijver, F.J.R. (2010) Cross-cultural research methods in psychology, Cambridge University Press. Read More