Education-Related Issues—Narrowing the Topic
Order Description
Education-Related Issues—Narrowing the Topic
In the Looking Ahead Assignment you completed at the end of Module 3, you explored resources to identify three education-related issues. To be a change agent in the field of education, you have a responsibility to stay aware of current issues and to know how those issues positively and negatively impact key stakeholders.
For this Discussion, you will narrow the scope of each education-related issue you identified in order to formulate problems that merit further investigation. What are some of the problems—whose resolution might be informed by applying knowledge from existing research or conducting a new research study—associated with each of the issues? Why is it important to investigate one or more of these problems? Identifying issues and problems early in your advanced graduate degree program allows you more time to build on your knowledge base related to them. Further, you will be prepared to analyze and evaluate scholarly inquiry with a critical eye.
When evaluating an issue and reflecting on ways to positively address the issue, the task, at first, might seem overwhelming. For this reason it is important to critically examine the issue to determine the most important related problems. As you consider problems associated with an issue, you should be able to begin identifying potential research topics. Before you can begin planning a research study for a topic, the topic must be quite narrow. As you narrow a topic to a specific problem, ask the following:
• What has already been studied in the literature?
• How much time will it take me to complete a study related to this problem?
• What stakeholder buy-in will I need to obtain to perform this study?
• What are the benefits of doing this study?
• What are the ethical considerations related to this study?
• Will I be able to recruit participants for this study?
These questions are not inclusive of all that needs consideration when contemplating a research study, but they give you an idea of what needs to be considered when you take an educational issue and extract problems for possible investigation.
To prepare for this Discussion, review the resources shared in this module as well as the following Toolkit documents: “Narrowing a Topic,” “Refining Your Research,” and “Creating Problem Statements.” Also, review the literature to learn more about each issue, and prepare to share any useful resources you discovered with your colleagues.
