PhD Research Proposal

PhD Research Proposal

CONTRIBUTIONS AND CHALLENGES OF EARLY CHILDHOOD ADMINISTRATORS TO ATTAIN QUALITY EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION IN THE BATTICALOA DISTRICT OF SRI LANKA

You do not rewrite all the part.

1..Please write about research paradigm

Participants part please write only why select this Batticaloa. No need to write beginning part.

No need mixed methods to write

Write qualitative and quantitative approaches correction

No need to correct thematic analysis part

Correct survey and interview

Correct the ethic part

Chapter 3: Proposed Research Methods, Analysis of Data

3.1 Introduction The aim of this research is to explore the contributions and challenges of early childhood administrators in attaining quality early childhood education in Batticaloa district, Sri Lanka. Research paradigm

Research paradigm is missing ..

Please write couple of sentences in here.

What going to be a oveall approach and understanding or under taking the research.

For example. Quantitative app---- figure go to black and white becourse in the figure tell it

Qualitative appo going to be making some reporting or area infinitive or something

May be going to interperate or may be critical theory or might be deconstructed or something

This research will use a mixed method approach in which qualitative and quantitative data will be collected. Further, the data collection process will be guided by the research questions. Thus, surveys and interviews will be the data collection tools for this research.

3.2 Participants

This research participants will be early childhood education administrators Who they are?????/ dc are they early ce administrators.

. The researcher will contact the Early Childhood Educational office for permission to contact to participate with early childhood education administrators including the District Coordinator (DC), Regional Assistant Director (RAD), Early Childhood Care Development officers, and Preschool principals. All participants will be selected from the Batticaloa district, Sri Lanka.

Batticaloa district, Sri Lanka.

Why choose Batticaloa district? participants coming from particular district -low socia economic, and oppounity compare to other district thus, fewer early childhood centers it is

3. 3 The research approach: Mixed Methods

In research, a mixed method is the systematic integration of qualitative and quantitative data within a single investigation (Regnault et al., 2018). De Torres et al. (2023) asserted that qualitative researchers are interested in exploring and understanding the experiences of individuals within a social group. This research will focus on the experience and perceptions of early childhood administrators in the Batticaloa district, Sri Lanka. The quantitative approach involves collecting quantitative data, such as using numbers, tables and figures (De Torres et al., 2023). The authors further explain that combining qualitative and quantitative data collection approaches is seen as mixed methods research. The term mixed methods are also defined by Brannen (2017) as the process of collecting, analysing and mixing quantitative and qualitative data from the research process to attain a deeper understanding of the research questions. In this research, the researcher will collect both quantitative data which is demographic information focussing on the early childhood administrators qualification, years of working experience and available support from the government through survey responses and qualitative information about administrators real experiences, opinions and emotions about their current contributions and challenges through interviews to better understand the research questions. Thus, in this research the mixed method approach will help answer the research questions by collecting and analysing quantitative and qualitative data to provide an in-depth understanding of the challenges faced by early childhood administrators to attain quality early childhood education.

3. 4 Qualitative and Quantitative approaches

This study relies on qualitative and quantitative data. Qualitative data is used to better understand the contributions and challenges of early childhood administrators to attain quality early childhood education in Batticaloa district, Sri Lanka. According to Ajimotokan (2022) a qualitative approach entails conducting investigations that focus analysis of emotions, opinions, viewpoints or perspectives. The main aim is to explore and understand how individuals or groups attribute importance to issues related to society or humanity-related issues (Ajimotokan, 2022). In this research data collection tools will be surveys and interviews. Interview questions can help capture the participants thoughts, feelings, and experiences (Brannen, 2017). The researcher will examine the perspectives and experiences of early childhood administrators in this study.

Here should talk about quantitative data similar to qualitative..

Ajimotokan (2022) stated that the quantitative approach emphasises numbers, tables and figures in the collection and interpretation of data. The survey will collect both qualitative data and quantitative data. Surveys can help capture the administrators level of qualifications, working experience and available support from the government. This type of data will be collected using numbers or tables from early childhood administrators.

Should talk about quantitative data analysis how will analysis quantitative data????

3.5 Data analysis: Thematic analysis Thematic analysis is a method of analysing qualitative data. Thematic analysis will be chosen for this research because it is a well-known method for identifying, analysing and reporting themes in data (Peel, 2020). As highlighted by Maguire and Delahunt (2017) the purpose of a thematic analysis is to find the underlying themes within the data by thoroughly reviewing the survey responses and interview transcripts and identifying patterns in the meanings. Additionally, thematic analysis generates valuable insights from data encompassing the opinions, experiences, and emotions of participants (Maguire & Delahunt 2017). The process of conducting a thematic analysis of data consists of six essential steps (Terry et al., 2017). These steps include: familiarising with the data, generating codes, constructing themes, reviewing potential themes, defining and naming themes and producing the report (p.29). Thus, the researcher will follow the six essential steps of thematic analysis of the qualitative data collected:

Step 1: Familiarising with the data:

The first step in any qualitative analysis is reading and re-reading the transcripts (Maguire & Delahunt, 2017). To become familiar with the data, researcher read the interview transcripts and survey responses received from the participants several times. An in-depth comprehension of the qualitative data is ensured by this stage (Seth, Chadha & Bhatia, 2022). In this study, the researcher will familiarise herself with the collected data by re-listening to the audio-recorded interviews, developing the transcripts and reading these transcripts many times to understand the data. Similarly, responses to qualitative surveys will also be read many times to understand the data.

Step 2: Generating codes:

The data will then be coded. Meaningful themes or patterns will be found and labelled by the researcher in this step (Peel, 2020).

The codes will emerge from the data

Step 3: Constructing themes:

Researchers will actively attempt to find themes after coding by grouping relevant codes. This procedure entails categorising codes into themes that capture data relationships and commonalities. In addition, in this stage, the researcher will develop the initial drafts of a written piece of writing and maintain a sense of flexibility and sincerity for modification (Terry et al., 2017). For example, in this research, the themes could include a variety of topics, such as Theme -1 Administrators contributions, Theme -2 Administrators challenges, Theme -3 Resources and so on.

Step 4: Reviewing potential themes:

In the fourth phase, researchers review and develop the preliminary themes that have been identified in Step 3 (Kiger & Varpio, 2020). In this research, the researcher will gather to each theme and develop about contributions and challenges of early childhood administrators to attain the quality of early childhood education.

Step 5: Defining and Naming Themes:

In this stage of theme refinement and the goal is to identify the essence of what each theme is about (Maguire & Delahunt, 2017). To make each theme more specific and communicable the researcher will describe it and give it a unique name.

Step 6: Producing the Report:

The last phase entails drafting a report that explains the themes found and how they relate to the research objectives forming an all-encompassing story based on qualitative data (Peel, 2020). The stage of writing up themes follows the step of defining subjects.

3.6 Data collection Methods

The research question focuses on the contribution and challenges of early childhood administrators to attain quality early childhood education. Discovering the contribution and challenges in this research may be best achieved by utilising tools that capture qualitative and quantitative data. In this research, the data collection methods used will be surveys and interviews. Surveys can collect both qualitative and quantitative data while interviews gather qualitative data based on the design of the research questions (Klem et al., 2022).

3.6.1 Surveys

One data collection method that will be utilised in this research will be an anonymous survey. Queiros et al. (2017) stated that surveys are less costly and can be implemented remotely through communication tools to overcome geographical barriers. Further, Rice et al. (2017) indicated that surveys allow for different methods of communication between the researchers and participants, such as emails, websites and social media platforms. In this research, the survey will be conducted online using the online survey platform Qualtrics. The survey will be administered to early childhood administrators to gain an understanding of such things as: administrators qualifications, years of working experience and available support from the government. Participants in this research will be invited to complete the survey within four to six weeks of receiving the survey link.

3.6.2 Interview

The interview is a data gathering instrument which allows for flexibility in both time and mode through the use of multi-channel such as face to face or online interviews. There are essentially three primary types of interviews, namely the structured interview, the unstructured interview and the semi-structured interview (Sahoo, 2022). In this research, the researcher will use semi structured interview which is flexible for the interviewer and interviewees (Sahoo, 2022). In Sri Lanka early childhood education administrators are very busy with their administrative work and semi structure interview will allow the resreacher to gather data according to the administrators availability. Semi structured Interviews can generate in-depth information and be particularly useful to investigate the experiences, opinions or attitudes of interviewees (Monday, 2019). The author further indicated that semi structured interviews capture the respondents emotions which makes it easier for the researchers to understand the real situation. In this research, the interview will focus on early childhood administrators real experiences, opinions and emotions about their current contributions and challenges in their attempts to attain quality early childhood education in Batticaloa district, Sri Lanka.

3.7 Ethical Considerations

Be Applying for ethical clearance to

Considering human ethics clearance, this study will not pose any risks to the participants participating in the study. Regarding participant private information, the study will be considered low risk because it will not ask for participants personal details or ethnic and cultural backgrounds.

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