What do you find challenging about writing a project justification statement? Why is the project justification statement such an important part of planning for your Applied Doctoral project? Provide a brief synopsis of your project justification. Make sure to describe how this project justification validates the need for a study on your topic.
*Recommended References:
Kennedy, M. (2006). Justifying your study. Retrieved from https://msu.edu/user/mkennedy/digitaladvisor/Research/studyrationale.htm
Maxwell, J. A. (2005). Conceptual framework: What do you think is going on? In Qualitative research design: An interactive approach (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CO: SAGE Publications. Retrieved from http://crlte.engin.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2013/06/Maxwell-Conceptual-Framework.pdf
Narrow Your Topic. Retrieved from http://www.library.arizona.edu/help/tutorials/narrowyourtopic/
*Here is last week’s discussion you may build off of:
Research Focus
Research has to be different from any other form of inquiry, and the difference is in the kind of issue, situation, and problem that is the focus of the research. Kennedy (2006) suggests that the critic of research can be from the bias of the population selected, or improper selection or phrasing of the research questions. Therefore, all the aspects of any research study influence the validity of the findings. The research question, sample, comparisons, data collection, and interpretation of the data have to be persuasive.
The focus of my research is the correlation between school shootings and mental health. However, since the issue of school shootings and mental health is broad, the study has to be narrowed down to a specific related issue. Maxwell (2005) suggests that one of the ways of narrowing down and justifying the research focus is through finding the research gaps in the area of study. The most appropriate way of finding the research gap is through reviewing the previous literature on the concerned topic, in this case, school shootings and mental health. The research gap identified in the study helped in coming up with the research topic—The Perception of School Counselors on Prevention Strategies Used for School Shootings.
In contrast, the research gap identified does not necessarily identify an appropriate research topic (Maxwell, 2005). The research topic has to cover an issue that is present in our day to day life. Therefore, since the issue of school shootings has been prevalent in the last few years, there is a need to research on the perception of school counselors regarding the strategies that can be used to prevent the shootings. The findings of the research can be used by scholars, policy makers and healthcare practitioners on the quest of decreasing the frequency of school shootings.
References
Maxwell, J. A. (2005). Conceptual framework: What do you think is going on? In Qualitative research design: An interactive approach (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CO: SAGE Publications. Retrieved from http://crlte.engin.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2013/06/Maxwell-Conceptual-Framework.pdf (Links to an external site.)
Kennedy, M. (2006). Justifying your study. Retrieved from https://msu.edu/user/mkennedy/digitaladvisor/Research/studyrationale.html