I am a trained health professional. I have skills and qualifications to competently do any qualitative research. This is because; I have previously done descriptive and cross-sectional surveys. However, my major limitation is my choice of study area. This is because; the site where I intend to perform the study is well known to me. In addition, I have known people in this area. Therefore, it is likely that I will be bias in my sampling criteria.
I will use ethnography method. This is because; it is a qualitative research design which explains cultural phenomena. Hence, it is the based empirical research approach that I can use to make proper deductive analysis. Through the data that I will collect, I will be able to understand the social welfare characteristics, the compositions and formations of the societies that promote emotional implications of stress among the international students. Sociology makes good use of ethnography, thus it is desirable to use ethnography method since, and stress implication is a social problem. In addition, ethnography has been used in many fields including classrooms (Salvado et al., 1999, p. 57). Thus, when it is used, the probability of failure is greatly reduced. Hence, it is the best in stress implication studies.
The participants in this study must be international citizens, because the objective is to assess stress implications on international students. Therefore, to access these participants, I will contact the international student’s organization. Through this organization I will be given contacts of all the international students. In addition, I will get information on the meeting times and venues. Indeed, with this information, I will be able to reach all the international students selected for the study. However, the most important thing is that, through the International Student Organization, I will be able to inform the students of for the study and invite those who will be willing to participate.
I will use systematic sampling approach. This will be the best approach for this study to ensure representation without any bias (Thornberg, 2012, p. 57). Certainly, through this sampling procedure, I will manage to have an equal chance of participation for all the international students. I will generate a list of names of all these students. This list will help me to come up with a sampling frame. Indeed, through a computer generated method, I will get to know the nth person to include in the study. Thus, with this computer generated method, I will come up with the names of the chosen participants.
I will collect qualitative data using a number of data collection tools. I will use questionnaires and interview guide. I will also conduct focus group discussion to enhance further understanding of the data collected. Through the questionnaires I will collect data on the demographics and socio economic status. In addition, the questionnaires will consist of a section on likelihood causes of stress and the implications of the stress. In addition, there will be a section on the effects of stressful moments to students. The same information will be included in the interview guides as well as discussed through focus group discussions.
The review boards and the international student’s organizations will willingly accept the study. However, convincing the students to voluntarily participate will not be easy. This is because, students usually prefer privacy. Thus, they are not likely to participate if the other students are aware that they are the participants. However, through email administered questionnaires, the problem will be partly solved.
Reference
Salvador, T., Genevieve, B., and Anderson, K. 1999. Design Ethnography. Design Management Journal.
Thornberg, R., and Charmaz, K. 2012. Qualitative research: An introduction to methods and designs. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley/Jossey-Bass, pp. 47-69.
