You will identify a problem or issue of interest within the Christian community that warr

Description:

You will identify a problem or issue of interest within the Christian community that warrants further investigation. You will write a proposal, justifying how you would further explore this problem or issue in a piece of social research.

Please note that an abstract and at least 13-15 academic resources are required for this assessment, as well as a standard AC cover page.

Note: In your proposal, you must cover the following areas:

Define an issue of interest that warrants research
o Example: The often-observed decline of engagement of baby boomer generation members in Pentecostal churches.

Provide a hypothesis regarding your proposed study
o Example: “It is the hypothesis of this study that change in leadership structures and the change of forms of worship contribute to this phenomenon.”

Provide a short literature review on your area of interest, noting any gaps in the research and justifying what you will explore

o Example: Acknowledge a lack of literature in this area for Pentecostal churches in Australia, so other fields that could provide relevant literature would be “changing leadership structures” and “changing worship styles”, the development of the mega church movement, etc.

Outline and justify an appropriate research theory

o Example: Critical realism – acknowledges an objective reality, but also that we do not have a complete understanding of that reality.

Outline and justify an appropriate methodology
o Example: Qualitative surveys comprising a mixture of closed questions

to collect relevant demographic data (age, gender, etc.) and open

questions to discern attitudes regarding the issues of interest.

Design a research tool to explore your research problem, in line with your theory and methodology (to be placed in an appendix at the end of your paper and not counted in your final word count)

See above – the final tool design would be in an appendix

Justify the design of your research tool

o Example: “In this case, interview results would allow us to engage in content analysis to perceive the main themes that arise. Demographic information would allow us to differentiate this information based on gender, level of church participation, etc. (if a big enough sample was analysed). Overall, these methods allow us to build up a narrative of why people of certain demographics might feel unengaged, rather than simply stating that they are feeling unengaged (as would be the case with a Likart scale), or to attribute their lack of engagement to a decline in their spirituality without assessing this assumption.

• Outline any ethical issues you may have to resolve in order for your research to be appropriate (e.g. maintaining anonymity of participants, ensuring the holistic safety of participants, etc.)

o Example: “Participants will fill out the survey via the internet, which constitutes their consent. Demographic information collected will not be sufficient to identify individuals. It is recognised that participants may feel depressed after this survey – and so a number for Lifeline and other helpful services will be provided.

• Explain how you will analyse the results collected from your study (e.g. statistical analysis, content analysis, etc.)

o Example: Content analysis will be used to analyse open questions. Specifically, major themes noted will be tallied, with those most commonly noted explored further in the ‘discussion’ section of a research paper. Using statistical analysis software, such as SPSS will also allow a comparison of results between different demographics in the respondents

• Explain how your findings could be of use to the Christian community
o Example: Results could be implemented into training on engaging with people over 55 years of age.