Research Design
This three-article dissertation will be developed in several stages. This project will be mixed by its nature and based on the analysis of qualitative information to contribute to a conceptual and theoretical framework and quantitative information to support the importance and effectiveness of the chosen intervention (Harwell, 2011). The chosen method aims to introduce and explain an issue. The task is to describe a problem and develop a solution that has an impact on a problem. A literature review will be improved with the help of a narrative study and survey research to describe personal attitudes and opinions about gender inequality in higher education. Creswell and Creswell (2017) explain narrative research as a type of work where a researcher has to communicate with people, gather their stories, and combine different points of view to answer the main research question. An interview is a method to gather qualitative information in this kind of research (Maxwell, 2009). Open-ended questions will be developed beforehand regarding the results of the literature analysis and the identification of the major themes. Survey questions will be used to prove the correctness and appropriateness of the topic.
There are three articles with the help of which the theme of gender inequality in higher education leadership will be discussed. The first stage includes a review of the literature that is related to the gender gap, social concerns, and the peculiar features of higher education in the United States. The literature will be gathered and divided into several sections to explain the essence of the gender gap and its development in the field of educational leadership. The comparison of the work of profit and non-profit organizations can improve the results and formulate clear conclusions that will influence the creation of the second phase.
Interviews will be conducted via email at the second stage. People will be asked about their job roles, the impact of status at the workplace, and the presence or absence of gender issues in education. The participants should share their personal experiences and combine their knowledge with the theory if possible. Such an approach will help to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the already developed studies and explain if the gender gap is a problem that bothers people. Interviews will be developed in a written form where the participants should answer five questions. Such a form of communication is helpful for the researcher because a certain part of the work (recording) will be done. The only task that should be done is content analysis and the identification of similar and different opinions on the same issues.
The last stage of this dissertation project will be based on survey research distributed through social networks. The purpose of this part is to understand if people are ready to change their attitudes about gender inequality in higher education leadership. Several short and specific questions will be created with several possible answers (Mrug, 2010). This method helps to gather enough demographical, behavioral, and geographical information about the participants and their relations to gender inequality.
Mixed research will be justified due to the possibility to gather different types of information and analyze it from several perspectives. Social networks are helpful tools to cooperate with people regardless of their geographical location or availability. This methodology promotes a deep understanding of gender inequality in higher education.
Research Questions
The main research question that should be answered in terms of this three-article dissertation is as follows: “What is the impact of gender inequality on leaders and administrators in higher education, including profit and non-profit organizations?” Much work should be done to develop a sophisticated answer relying on the goals, researcher’s expectations, available resources, and chosen approaches. Therefore, several supportive questions should be taken into consideration. These questions are:
- What are the main challenges for employees in higher education?
The answer to this question helps to identify the main problems in the field of education and determine gender inequality as a basic concern. - What is gender inequality in educational leadership?
This discussion is useful for giving basic facts and definitions of the problem and important concepts. - What are the historical, psychological, physiological, and behavioral causes of the gender gap?
This evaluation promotes an understating of the situations when gender inequality cannot be neglected. - What were the solutions to gender inequality in higher education in past studies?
In this part of the work, it is possible to clarify what kind of work has already been done on this problem. - Can training be used as an intervention to solve the problem of gender inequality?
Finally, it is expected to discuss personal contributions and ideas on how to decrease the negative impact of gender inequality in higher education. Personal opinions and attitudes should be used to introduce an effective conclusion of the work and the importance of the mixed methodology chosen for this project. It is wrong to neglect one of these questions because all of them promote the successful development of the events and the creation of an informative three-article dissertation.
References
Creswell, J.W., & Creswell, J.D. (2017). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (5th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Harwell, M. (2011). Research design in qualitative/quantitative/mixed methods. In C. Conrad & R. Serlin (Eds.), The SAGE handbook for research in education: Pursuing ideas as the keystone of exemplary inquiry (2nd ed.) (pp. 147-165). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Maxwell, J. (2009). Designing a qualitative study. In L. Bickman & D. Rog (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of applied social research methods (2nd.) (pp. 214-254). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Mrug, S. (2010). Survey. In N.J. Salkind (Ed.), Encyclopedia of research design (1473-1477). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.