Social work with children and young families

My proposal focuses on Aboriginal families and the various issues that arise in their local communities. It emphasizes how crucial it is to take into account foster care and compassionate ship care for some of the families who might not be doing things appropriately. Kinship care is a significant component of Aboriginal culture and spirituality and is frequently the preferred method of raising children. Despite enduring traumatic events, these families choose to support one another. They lay a significant focus on appropriate ship care since they are obviously unwilling to entrust their children to the care of others. For some of the families, however, it is difficult to provide safe care for their children due to adverse experiences and trauma. Therefore, they opt to commit their children to foster care.

The objective of the proposal is to expound on the numerous methods that could be undertaken to develop the social welfare of Aboriginal children on their families.

Social workers follow a strict code of conduct that dictates and outlines the different obligations and ethics. We should make sure that the families are willing to commit their children to foster care. Furthermore, social workers are called upon to uphold and respect the culture of any persons when placing them under supervision. Most importantly, every child deserves to grow up in a safe environment where their needs are taken care of and where they do not face any form of abuse.

Literature review.

This review delves deep into the Aboriginal families. The Australian government is focusing on enhancing viability among children with expertise under kinship care. To better understand the information policy of the affected families, various researchers have been taken to monitor kindship placements. Different articles have also identified and the connection regarding care facilities under indigenous people (Vandenberg, 2009).

Literature has spotted some of the challenging factors that raise concern for the Aboriginal people. According to Ivec and Braithwaite, child protective services regularly visit different Australian families to assess any problems that children in these families may face. Poor healthcare facilities and unsafe cultural surrounding are among some of the questions that raise eyebrows. To protect children, different strategies have come up to help solve the problems. These include identifying some of the traumatizing and ethical issues affecting Aboriginal families before presenting a solution strategy (Winship, 2011). In his article, Boetto suggests that by analyzing legal foundation, it is possible to establish childcare facilities among target families.

In his research paper, Collin Vezing proposes different ways of improving quality care for these families. The author’s goal is to identify necessary steps for a better and more efficient child care services. He states that cases of child abuse are rampant and present adverse consequences. According to him, maltreated children often miss the opportunity to access higher education. Out of home care leads to emotional trauma and may subsequently lead to cases of suicidal thoughts among children. The author recommends the introduction of kindship and fosters care practices to provide the sense of security for the unfortunate children (Vandenberg, 2009).

Mendes and Baidaw emphasize that kind ship program has highly promoted the inculcation of homecare facilities among Aboriginal families. Out of home care facilities have played an enormous role in pressuring the foster care to understand and respect the Aboriginal attitudes and behaviors as it reflects on their culture. He further acknowledges that the Australian government has played a huge role in encouraging positive attitudes towards the different perception of the affected individuals. Thus, by carrying out this research, the aboriginal families get support and their culture is respected and appreciated (Winship, 2011).

Some research papers have touched on the adoption of literature practices which could play a huge role in identifying some of the pressing problems that foster care faces. They compare different actions that could lead to the improvement of foster and kinship care. The author of the research has also outlined numerous risk factors that different families encounter in regards to their surroundings and healthcare facilities. Due to some of these issues, some children miss an opportunity to study. Education is essential, and every individual in the community must take part in promoting child care and upholding their welfare and wellbeing (“Sociological Methods & Research 40th Anniversary”, 2011).

Research design.

Method.

This proposal contributes to the numerous researchers conducted in Australian context through different methods. Among the ways is quantitative methodology which ensures an extensive exploration of the research. A qualitative study increases reliability and relevance. This research serves as a reflection of the numerous challenges that Aboriginal face about their environment.

The objectives of the proposal include:

A strategy to find good foster families that incorporate the culture of Aboriginal children when raising them.

The different ways in which a kind ship program has developed to allow adoption of children.

The different challenges faced by Aboriginal families.

Quantitative.

The quantitative aspect helps survey the society to look at the different problems that different families undergo and may lead to committing a child to foster care.

Sampling

This research will sample a couple of families and interview them about the conditions at home. The goal is to identify young people and children who seem to depress and provide a safe environment for them to vent and probably give an insight as to the life they would prefer. Furthermore, foster children may be interviewed to gain a clue on the different struggles they encounter (“Sociological Methods & Research 40th Anniversary”, 2011). In this research, subjects from Aboriginal families and those experiencing family problems will be purposefully chosen as they are more likely to present a couple of points along a continuum of foster families. This technique is popularly known as theoretical sampling or purposive sampling. To generate the sample, some families will be chosen an extended a specific criterion. These criteria are that the family must have one or more children and willing to participate in the research.

The second group of respondents will be chosen in public schools. Students with a deteriorating academic and social performance will be selected. They must also be willing to participate in the study. Informed consent from the parents will be acquired to avoid legal problems (“Index to Sociological Methods & Research,” 2006).

Collecting the data.

Different techniques of collecting data will be used. Multiple in person or telephone conversations will be necessary to engage the participants. Interviewing will be unstructured and semi-structured and will be best performed in the naturalistic or everyday surrounding.

In this research, it will be essential to cultivate an excellent researcher-subject relationship as most interviewees will be children. This link will be thought of on a continuum where there will be full participation on the researcher in the subject’s life and also instances of just observation. Full participation may include cases of involvement in the activities of the subjects (“Index to Sociological Methods & Research,” 2006). If the interview is at school, the researcher will be required to participate in the school activities while conversing with the participant.

There will also be location data collection which will mostly be in person conversations. These conversations will most likely take place at the subjects’ home or a place where they most prefer. The interviewer must choose a place more comfortable for the interviewee. These interviews will be prearranged and will take no more than two hours. The minimum amount of time, however, will be forty-five minutes. The short timeline is to keep the participant interested (Lupton, 2017). In cases where the conversations will be at home, the researcher is advised to follow the participant’s lead and gain as much insight as possible.

The research will take quite a while, and the participants will be compensated for their time. The interviews will be scheduled on a biweekly basis. All phone calls and in-person conversations will be audiotaped with the participant’s consent. Furthermore, the researcher will take down notes in some instances where audiotape will not be used (Macionis & Gerber, n.d.). Taking down these notes will be an advantage in a few cases to allow some form of normalcy when conducting the interview. It will also serve to make the subject a little bit more comfortable and avoid drawing unnecessary attention during the meeting. The notes will be saved in a computer or a hard disk (Lupton, 2017).

Data Analysis.

The analysis of the data will begin from the collection. However, a more formal and intense manner of analysis will start after all the data has been collected. The Early study will entail listening to the audiotapes from the interviews and taking down notes and observations. The analysis will include writing a profile of all interviewed families to form a transparent background material when making any deductions from the results. Moreover, taking this step will help synthesize all the information gathered (Dahlin, 2014).

Excel spreadsheets will be utilized to form different matrices when making comparisons between the subject and the various experiences. This step in the analysis will help identify the different aspects of the different families and may help establish a new domain for foster practices. Moreover, a computer software created to manage qualitative data will be used to help in the study. The most common software is Atlas ti. All interviews and recordings will be edited and entered into the software along with all the demographic data. This step will help monitor any irregularities conceived on the data. Also, specific ideas will be coded to reduce the bulk. The encrypted data will be analyzed for any similarities and examined for any discrepancies. Each interview will be reviewed, encrypted and saved.

Ethical considerations and limitations of the study

This research is bound to raise different moral issues more so when it comes to researcher-participant relationship. The intimacy that arises from spending a lot of time with each other may increase various concerns. Some of these concerns may lead to dilemmas which include respect for privacy establishments, honesty and open interaction and misinterpretation of received information (Dahlin, 2014). Ethically challenging questions are bound to come up especially when the researcher has to deal with issues which may be contradicting or when the researcher has to choose between different action techniques in the face of a conflict. Disagreements between different constituents like researchers, subject and researchers discipline, may be unavoidable in such circumstances (Popenoe, 2000). Some of the ethical obligations that ought to be taken into considerations throughout the research include confidentiality, informed consent, and anonymity.

This research also raises issues about informed consent concerning children. In some communities, not only are the parents, and local authorities consulted about the permission of participation for children, but also traditional leaders chosen by the community (Moore, 1999). In various cases, parents may turn down their children’s participation in the research if their elders disapprove. It is, therefore, crucial to consider more broadly than parental consent. Researchers should be ready to work with the local authorities in these circumstances (Dahlin, 2014).

Access to children is more often than not negotiated with parents. However, even after the parents approve, the researcher needs to ensure that the child has been consulted and is on board with the involvement. Moreover, if some parents disapprove of their child’s participation in a study taking place in the classroom context, the researcher ought to be ready to deal with such a situation as it is susceptible, because sometimes such children may desire to participate in the study and subsequently feel excluded if not involved (Popenoe, 2000).

The research raises concern when negotiating consent with young people and children. It is essential to consider the nature and interpretation of informed consent when it comes to children. For instance, when a child is asked if they want to participate in a study at school, the researcher must consider other factors that may incline the child to join including the fear of school authority (Backhouse, 2010). Additionally, researchers must learn how to mitigate with the traditional administration to ensure that children consent is given freely. To deal with such a situation, it is wise to train the researcher to familiarize with a community before embarking on the collection of data (Moore, 1999).

This research also bears some limitations including the availability of a representative sample group. It is hard to find subjects especially grown-ups who are willing to participate in the study. Additionally, parents may be reluctant to clear their children to take part in the study as they do not want to expose their families. Some parents may not be ready to admit that they would give up their children for foster and compassionate ship care because they feel humiliated. It is therefore considerably hard to get willing participants who will provide accurate information without a need for compensation (Popenoe, 2000).

Conclusion.

By embracing interviewing and observation as a method of research, the researcher can relate directly to the experiences of the affected families, and this fact reflects in the report’s findings. The study report captures every aspect of domestic feuds and how they affect children. It also inculcates the public opinion as to whether improvement of foster and kinship care will serve to alleviate some social and academic problems that children undergo. The response of the affected children will be the baseline for their collective opinions while the interviews with the parents provide authentic views of the children’s lives (Macionis & Gerber, n.d.). Moreover, the opinions and concern of the parents will help in improving foster and kinship care.

The results of find are intended to give more information about foster care facilities to the public, most especially the parents. They are also vital as they will help shape the future of children who are unfortunate enough to be in the face of domestic struggles. It is imperative that the study is conducted to support the social workers understand the different improvements that need to be made in the foster facilities to accommodate children of all cultures (Backhouse, 2010). It is essential that we play our role to effect change in the community and promote a good life for our children who are the future of the nation.

Reference

Backhouse, R. (2010). Methodology in action. Journal Of Economic Methodology, 17(1), 3-15. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13501780903528929

Dahlin, E. (2014). The Sociology of Innovation: Organizational, Environmental, and Relative Perspectives. Sociology Compass, 8(6), 671-687. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/soc4.12177

Index to Sociological Methods & Research. (2006). Sociological Methods & Research, 34(4), 587-589. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/004912410603400406

Lupton, D. (2017). Towards design sociology. Sociology Compass, e12546. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/soc4.12546

Macionis, J., & Gerber, L. Sociology.

Moore, S. (1999). Sociology. Letts Educational.

Popenoe, D. (2000). Sociology. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall.

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Vandenberg, R. (2009). Organizational Research Methods. Organizational Research Methods, 13(1), 3-5. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1094428109347971

Winship, C. (2011). Sociological Methods & Research 40th Anniversary. Sociological Methods & Research, 40(1), 3-5. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0049124110392686