In developmental planning and implementation, it is critical that the policy maker understands the needs of each individual, group, and class. In this regard, it should be comprehended that the needs of one community might not be similar to those of another community hence there is need to offer services based on the features of each group.
Every group or community has different values, culture, and even practices meaning that they would not share the basic services, such as healthcare, with another group. In the given scenario, the major issue that would be facing the researcher is to establish whether the two communities share similar political and socio-economic chances. Obviously, the community that controls political power would tend to receive favours from the government while the one with no influence in government would be subjugated and oppressed.
Therefore, the community whose children and adults would show signs of illness, which is not related to genetics, might have been discriminated. In this regard, the researcher would ask whether the community is amicably represented in government. Moreover, the researcher would seek to know the effectiveness of public administrators since they should be people imbued to service delivery (Paul, & Elder, 2008).
They should always come up with policies aimed at ensuring that people do not go through various problems, such as unknown illnesses. The major question would be to establish the effectiveness and efficiency of civil servants, as well as the government of the day.
The people to be interviewed include members of the community who know the real issues affecting them. Moreover, they understand the local politics, including how it affects service delivery in the community.
If service delivery programs for the community are combined with those of the city, there is a high likelihood that resources would be channelled to one place. The most appropriate type of research is ought to be explorative in nature because the problem facing community is complex. It would take the researcher a number of days or even months to understand it.
In this regard, the researcher would better employ a mixed method research whereby both quantitative and qualitative types of research would be carried out. Some of the obstacles to critical thinking in this form of study would be related unreflective acceptance of social and political attitudes, stereotyping, loaded language, uncertainty, including unlimited access to information, and relativism.
All these obstacles would be overcome through self-reflection, expression, evaluation, testing, data investigation and reflecting on evidence, and surveillance and explanation of facts. One of the strategies entails the use of critical thinking tools, such as surveillance, analysis, synthesis, and problem solving (Harrison, & Bramson, 2002).
The major assumption made before trying to resolve the problem would be the existence of reference frame, which include an individual’s experience, the previous knowledge regarding the subject, general assumptions and cultural beliefs, and values. The reference frame is an important assumption since it has the capability of affecting the considerations of relevance, the method that the researcher would employ, the kind of evidence used, the interpretative power of the researcher, and the acceptance of other options.
In this regard, the researcher would have to understand the race/ethnicity of the community under study, its religion, cultural values, and power relations. These assumptions would give the researcher an advantage in carrying out the study. The researcher process would flow smoothly if the researcher understands some of the basic features of the community, such as economic activity.
References
Harrison, A. F., & Bramson, R. M. (2002). The art of thinking. New York: Berkley Books.
Paul, R., & Elder, L. (2008). The thinker’s guide for conscientious citizens on how to detect media bias & propaganda in national and world news. Dillon Beach: CA: Foundation for Critical Thinking Press.