Study Context: Ensuring Validity, Reliability, and Credibility Research Paper

Introduction

In essence, the context of research is probably the most crucial aspects of the entire study. It defines factors involving the social, political, and economic environment in which the problem arises. Also, it includes the factors that inspire the designing, proposing, and conducting the actual research in the field. It could identify what other researchers have done as well as the underlying gaps in the literature which the envisioned research will close.

Also, the context will include the originality of approach and the future aspects of research that cannot be incorporated in the current research. Further, this discussion will focus on the variables that will form the basis of envisioned research. Lastly, the paper will elaborate on how to ensure the validity, reliability, and credibility of the research.

Context of Research

Environment Evoking Research Problem

There are political, economic, and social aspects which have evoked the problem being solved by the envisioned research. These form the environmental context within which the mistreatment, oppression, and exploitation of migrant worker occur.

First, the political autonomy of Malaysia is the main factor that has led to the oppression of migrant workers. In this regard, it is realized that the government of Malaysia has enacted laws that encourage the development of industries in congested areas of Malaysia. In these areas, the workers are rendered powerless because they can hardly access good leadership to protect their rights (Hilsdon & Giridharan, 2010).

While the government neglects the welfare of the migrant workers, underground systems emerge to connect the workers and the industries. The brokerage system takes advantage of the migrant, luring them to work under great oppression. The country lacks NGOs which could assist in offering this leadership by directing the government on best practices of humanity and rights.

The social environment is another aspect that purports the emergence of this problem (Sharma, 2010; See, 2010). In this case, it is evident that the native citizens of Malaysia consider the migrants as complete foreigners rather than fellow human beings (Sharma, 2010). As a result, the owners of industries exploit them by paying extremely low wages (See, 2010). Probably, the social environment is the major aspect that evokes this oppression.

Regarding the economic context, the companies in congested areas where the government allows industrialization to seek cheap labor. Most of these industries aim at reducing operational cost, which includes payment of wages. As a result, the economic strategies of these companies tempt them to employ the migrants who offer cheap labor. Additionally, the owners take advantage of the government’s ignorance to oppress the workers.

Also, the macroeconomic systems of Malaysia have not set the wage limits for the companies leading to mistreatment of these migrant workers. These are the aspects of environmental context which result to the problem addressed in this research.

Interests Inspiring Research

There are various aspects which inspire the development of this envisioned research that focuses on the treatment of migrant workers in Malaysia. In this regard, one of the most important aspects which inspire the research is the gap that exists in the literature. The current research has focused profoundly on the aspects such as the geography of migration, sexuality, Filipinos migrants in Malaysia, and ethnicity, among other issues.

However, they have not explored to evaluate the extent to which the church has helped in eliminating and reducing the oppression of migrants. They have not also determined how the churches could intervene in the struggle against the oppression of the migrants.

This gap has been the major driving force behind conducting the envisioned research. In other words, the research is meant to close that gap by identifying ways in which the church could offer transformational leadership to change the current status of migrants.

Secondly, the ideologies of purporting humanity, advocating for equality, and harnessing unity are roles of all human beings regardless of their religions, geographical origins, and ethnic group. All people are entitled to care for the welfare of their colleagues irrespective of the nationality.

The research is based on the premises that the migrant workers should be assisted to live a good life in Malaysia although they come from other countries. As a result, investigating how the church could help in offering the right leadership is one of the efforts directed towards purporting humanity.

Originality of Approach

In essence, the approach used in conducting the envisioned research is essentially unique in various ways. First, it is evident that the research focuses on an area that has not been studied by another researcher. Particularly, previous research studies have not researched on the intervention, position, and role of the church in solving the oppression of migrants in Malaysia.

Additionally, the research is based on a combination of various research method and approaches. For example, the research involves the use of two research methods, including exploratory and constructive methods. Exploratory research aims at investigating other issues revolving around the problem. This investigation will determine whether there are other factors conjoined to the main problem statement.

On the other hand, constructive research method aims at developing solutions for the identified problem. The combination of two separate methods is an authentic approach to the envisioned research. Additionally, the research incorporates qualitative and quantitative research methods. This method is commonly known as the pragmatic method of research (Schram, 2006).

Another aspect of research that purports authenticity is the use of a flexible questionnaire. This is not a commonplace type of questionnaire that is used in research studies. It is an authentic idea developed to ensure that the questionnaires can include new themes as opposed to the fixed ones.

Lastly, the sampling method is an original idea developed by combining two methods of sampling, which include purposive and random sampling. The combination develops another authentic sampling method known as the random sampling method. The authenticity of the research is based on combining various methods that could give reliable results.

Future Research

There are issues that cannot be incorporated in this research owing to the cost, scope, and relevance of research study. As a result, they will be handled in future research that could be rooted in these ideas. For example, the research will be concentrating on the inputs of churches and other NGOs to eliminate oppression.

However, it is evident that the importance of the church is to provide the right leadership that could assist in fighting for the rights of the migrant workers. These rights can be granted by the government, considering that it is the supreme organ in the system. As a result, future research could make inquiries on how the government could be involved fully. This will be the final stage of eliminating oppression.

Data Collection

Mixed method research is time-consuming due to the integration of the two methodologies of research, including quantitative and qualitative methods (Trochim & Donnelly, 2010; Shank, 2006). This implies that the method of data collection should be reliable, effective, and satisfactory. In this light, data will be collected by two methods ensuring that the respondents are reached within considerable time.

Use of Questionnaires

A questionnaire refers to a set of questions that a respondent should answer to provide the relevant information concerning the research study (Wirth & Padilla, 2010). Because the study involves unique methods, flexible questionnaires will be used to allow manipulation of questions according to the emerging issues (Trochim & Donnelly, 2010). Also, this will allow the concurrent analysis to take place along with the collection of data.

Also, the questionnaires will include both closed and opened questions. Closed questions will provide predefined choices so that the respondents choose from them. These questions guide the respondents while answering questions to ensure that they do not provide irrelevant information (Patton, 2002).

Also, it saves a lot of time for the respondents. However, respondents need to express profound information about the subject even if it is not inquired (Chan & Danao, 2010). In this case, the questionnaires will include open questions which allow the provision of additional information. The additional information could inspire the development of new themes during the study (Trochim & Donnelly, 2010).

Email survey

In this online survey, questions will be composed through email messages reflecting the components of the questionnaires. The researcher will find contacts for the relevant leaders and send the survey. Phone calls will be used to notify the respondents about the survey to ensure that many respondents access their emails to undertake the survey.

Interviewing

Due to the involvement of crucial participants such as government officials, administration of questionnaires is very informal. As a result, it is important to conduct interviews that could help in obtaining information from such people. Although most of the interviews are physical, some situations will require the application of technological devices such as phone calls, emails, and text messages to save time.

The use of technology will assist in saving time for the research since the sample population could be considerably large (Shank, 2006). The application of this method allows follow up questions that help in obtaining more information from the respondents. The combination of questionnaires and interview will lead to a holistic qualitative methodology that will fulfill the research purpose and solve the problem.

Data Analyses

Quantitative Analysis

This study must incorporate quantitative and qualitative analysis because the data will have two aspects. This analysis will involve the computation of mean, mode, and variance of quantitative data. The mean will provide an overview of the respondent’s general view of the problem. The mode will assist in analyzing the number of responses with the highest number of responses to determine the intensity of each view (Plowright, 2011).

Lastly, the variance will aim at investigating the distribution of the views by the respondents. Also, the variance will provide the basis of computing the standard deviation that shows the deviation of view from the general overview as stipulated by the mean.

Moreover, quantitative analysis will involve the computation of the “p” test using ANOVA to determine the rejection of null hypotheses (Liu, 2009). In this case, the null hypothesis will be rejected when the “p” values are less than 0.05.

Qualitative Analysis

Qualitative analysis will be conducted in the following steps.

1. Reading the responses carefully and coding them.
2. Determination of the relevant themes and making a thematic summary.
3. Interpreting the findings by analyzing the impacts of the responses.
4. Triangulation of sources.
5. Making conclusions and recommendations while compiling a draft report.
6. Seeking the validation of feedback.
7. Communicating findings to the relevant authorities for implementation.

Variables

The variables of the envisioned research will include various factors. Regarding the qualitative ones, the research will include variables such as gender, nationality, and ethnicity. In this case, the oppression of migrant workers is mostly evoked by these factors. For example, the native employees discriminate between the migrants and native job seekers.

Also, the ethnicity of the migrants is of utmost importance because the natives focus on it profoundly when mistreating the migrants. Gender is an additional variable which affects the treatment of migrants.

This variable has been very relevant to the research studies concerning migrants in Malaysia. Male and female migrants are treated differently in the industries making it crucial to investigate how the churches could intervene in helping the oppressed gender.

Reliability and Validity of Research

There are various measures that will ensure the reliability and validity of the entire research. These measures ensure that the final results can be used in making relevant conclusions regarding the topic of study. These measures are applied during sampling, data collection, and analysis.

During sampling, the sample population will be collected using the random purposive method. This implies that it will incorporate the ideology of randomization and purposefulness (Stein & Kohlmann, 2010). Randomization will help in ensuring that the sample population is not collected in a manner that obtains biased results (Shank, 2006).

On the other hand, purposefulness ensures that the sample population includes the people who only have relevant information concerning the oppression of migrant workers (Grbich, 2007). Also, the population will be stratified such that it has three stratifications, including migrants, church leaders, and government officials. This will ensure a diversity of opinions in the data obtained (Stein & Kohlmann, 2010).

During data collection, data collectors will use flexible questionnaires, ensuring that the inquiries can allow for manipulation of question. The manipulation of questions allows the inclusion of new themes and removal of irrelevant themes during the study.

This implies that most of the issues conjoined to the problem are considered (Shibata & Kihura, 2010). The questionnaire will have clear questions so that the query could lead to the same answer even if the question is posed severally (Patton, 2002).

Analysis of data will also be conducted in a manner that purports relate-ability and credibility of the research. In this case, the analysts will examine data during and after collection. This is known as parallel analysis. It ensures that the questionnaire is updated to include the relevant themes and exclude the irrelevant ones according to the opinions emerging from respondents (Sheḳedi, 2008).

Conclusion

It is evident that the research problem arises due to some issues regarding the social, political, and economic aspects. These aspects form the broad context of the entire research because the problem is the sole basis of research. Additionally, the discussion has shown that the research has considered the reliability, credibility, and validity of the results.

References

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