Research Proposal Outline See below for a more detailed description of headings

Research Proposal Outline
See below for a more detailed description of headings and subheadings which you may use to guide your outline. Not everyone will have every section (for example, qualitative research questions rarely have hypothesis), however everyone will have most sections. Do your best to answer these prompts. I would expect that you would write this as an outline (not a narrative paper) so it would be structured in the same way that it is below. You will be presenting these in pairs, so you need to know enough to describe this to your partner. As you present this to your partner, it may be a good idea to note what things they have questions about or the sections that you had a harder time describing so that you can work more on those sections.
Section 1: Abstract
• Describe the issue, concern or question that you have selected for your project. Why it is important, what methods you will use to address it, and implications for your research.
Section 2: Introduction, including supporting literature
• Describe the issue, concern or question that you have selected for your project. Clearly identify why this is important to you and the social work profession (i.e., significance of your topic) with supporting literature. The supporting literature should review what we know to date about the problem. Identify the major studies in the field as the basis for your review. This should all go towards specifying the research question(s) and/or the goals of the project. Include the research question and hypothesis (if you have one) in this section.
Section 3: Research Methods (be sure to include your specific research question!) (Suggestions for subheadings: Sample, Context of Research, Position of Researcher, Position of Participants, Measures, Data Collection and Analysis).
• Describe the community that you are working with (sample). Why have you chosen this sample? How were they recruited? What are the demographics?
• Context of Research: Describe the context of the research (agency, community, individual, family and situate them in socio-political, cultural and geographical settings) specific physical and/or historical locations (i.e., your agency/community setting), your assessment about the problems/interests/issues/concerns based on your observation/experience and analysis).
• Position/role of the Researcher: How you will fit in the project? What roles would you play?
• Position/role of the Participants: Who are your participants? (not the ideal groups, but real people who will be in your study). What roles would participants play? Are they just respondents to your interviews, or are there other roles they may engage in, such as data interpretation/analysis. What are your strategies for co-learning and empowerment of participants? (if this is applicable)
• Measures or scales that you are using? How did you choose them? (ie “this measure has been used to assess similar phenomena and demonstrated high internal consistency and reliability…”)
• Data collection techniques; how the data is collected (standardized measures, photo-voice, story-telling, videorecording, focus group, ethnographic interviewing, guided/structured interview, short survey forms, photos, drawings) . Why have you chosen this method? Why is it the best method for this research question? Attach an interview guide, questions and other data gathering device if you have these done already.
• Data analysis techniques: what techniques will you use to analyze your data?
Section 4: Ethical Considerations
Explain how your plan of research addresses 1) a social problem or SW practice issue that is consistent with SW ethics and goals and 2) how it is sensitive to the issues of group differences, including gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc. Also discuss how you will approach and protect your participants/interviewees or those involved in your research project and how you will handle ethical issues that may arise.
Section 5: Implications for the work
Explain what could “come out” of this work; how it relates to your issue at hand and also to the broader social work landscape; how it is advancing social justice in some way; how it could impact practice, programming, future research, and policy.
Section 6: Limitations and Strengths of the Research
Explain what some of the limitations of this study were and how you accounted for them (or not, there will always be limitations that cannot be reconciled, that is OK).
Explain some of the strengths of the study. For example, does your research design allow for something new to be illuminated and add to the existing body of literature? Is this a unique population of study that you have unique access to? These are just examples of things you could include in this section.
Section 7: Plan for Dissemination
Explain where and how and to what audience you would want to communicate your findings. You can talk about communicating these findings to more than one audience and talk about why you chose that audience and that format of dissemination.
My topic is youth homelessness
And my research question is
“How does youth homelessness impact the physical and mental well-being of young individuals, and what support systems are in place to help youth homeless.