ResearchPaper_Foundation.pdf

Research Paper: Foundation

Taya Hervey-McNutt

EDU 508: Educational Research Methods

Dr. Margarita Vance, EdD, MBA

Strayer University

May 23, 2021

Introduction

A student who comes from a humble background cannot afford to pay transportation fees

to go and come back from school every day. Every student is given an equal chance to pick a

school anywhere in the country. If the school they choose and enroll in is far from their homes,

they are supposed to find a bus to transport them. If they are fortunate and get enrolled in a

school that has a bus, they will be able to get transported at a cheaper price. However, many

students who come from humble backgrounds are limited to mostly access schools that do not

have a bus. Thus, when there is no money for transport, they have to walk on foot to school.

These students reach school late and tired. Walking to school also compromises their safety, and

concentration, and health.

Purpose of the research

Every student is entitled to equal opportunity in education; reducing the gap between

low-achieving and high-achieving students (Gorski, 1). This research aims at making sure that

students reach school in time using the fastest means available. Also, transportation limits

students from selecting schools of their choice to schools that are near them. The reach will help

provide long-term and short-term solutions to the transportation barrier among needy students.

Problem statement

Poverty hinders students from accessing quality education. Poverty presents several barriers

including failure to raise school fees, failure to books, and transportation barriers. The aim of

the research is to acknowledge that the transport barrier is a hindrance to quality education by

exploring the possible causes of the problem, and possible solutions in the future.

Literature Review

High Poverty School

Some schools especially in the least developed nations are ranked as high poverty schools. In

such schools, the learning conditions of students are unfavorable. High poverty schools have a

higher student population than the school can support. The large population is attributed to the

low school fees charged by such schools. Also, the number of teachers in these schools are few

compared to the ratio of the students. Thus, a teacher teaches a class filled with more than sixty

students. students at the back often do not get what the teacher is saying, and teachers cannot do

a follow-up to all these students. As a result, many students underperform.

Accordingly, hygiene in high-poverty schools is usually below the standards. Again, poor

hygiene is because of the higher population of students than the school can accommodate. The

staff around the school are usually few in number compared to the student ratio. The staff, in this

case, are cleaners, cooks, and other stakeholders. They fail to deliver a hundred percent in their

chores because the workload is more than they can manage. Thus, important places such as

toilets end up not clean enough for students to use. Lastly, the entire environment around the

school will also not be clean enough because cleaners are not able to deliver as expected.

Students studying in such environments often get exposed to illnesses that are due to hygiene.

Overall, students going to very poor schools are at risk of getting sick.

Low National Income

According to research, in 1978, many people in China were living under the poverty line (Pęciak,

2). In a country where people live under the poverty line, its citizens are very poor. Such poverty

comes from workers receiving very low income for their labor. A worker who earns a low

income cannot have enough money to avail food on the table. Since providing the basic needs is

a problem, providing secondary needs for their family is unthinkable, and it is beyond anything

they can do. Students coming from these families look for the poorest schools near them to get a

basic education. Also, some of these children fail to join the school, drop out of school to assist

the breadwinner to get more food for the family. Hence, in a low national income nation, very

many students do not get a good education, or most of them are not at school.

Also, in a low national income nation, students cannot afford to the necessary requirements

to go to school with. School requirements such as books, uniforms, and pens assist students to

learn. Any of them missing means that students cannot get quality education since learning

cannot be complete. In a low national income nation, students do not get quality education since

they cannot get all these basic requirements. If students fail to get a quality education, then the

hope of coming out of poverty for these nations remains a dream. This is the case since the

education sector cannot equip students enough to help their communities.

Research Question

The Gaps in the Research

Traffic Challenge

Traffic challenge is a major problem for students living in urban areas. As the years

progress, the number of people owning vehicles increases. An increase in the number of vehicles

on the road has led to traffic problems because the rate at which the government is expanding

roads in urban centers is very low. Traffic mainly occurs in the morning and during the evening.

Traffic occurs in the morning since the majority of the people are going to work, school, and

meetings. Accordingly, traffic occurs during the evening because people are coming out of work,

school, and from other activities. Traffic is a transport barrier for students traveling by school

bus, and students traveling by other means. There are times when traffic gets out of hand, i.e.,

vehicles remain stationary for a long time. Other times, traffic moves slowly. However, no matter

the case, students do not reach their destination in time.

Traffic may arise from road accidents. Two or more vehicles may get involved in an

accident, and this leads to the blockage of roads. Until the vehicles involved in the accident get

removed, and the victims of the accident get helped, no vehicle will be able to pass through.

Also, the vehicle that the students are traveling in may experience mechanical problems such as

puncture, or engine breakdown. In case of this, students will continue with their journey to

school after a mechanic has attended to the vehicle.

Students Failing to Raise Money for Transportation

In one of the above paragraphs, it was mentioned that poverty limits students from raising

money to pay for transport. Parents of such students have no money to give to their children as

the fee for bus transport every day. Some schools have a school bus for transporting their

students but to get this service, parents have to pay for their students. In many cases, the fees set

are usually high for parents living under the poverty line. As a result, children from parents who

cannot raise this fund fail to secure a seat in the school bus. Also, some schools do not have a

bus, and their students have to look for other means to reach school. Students in schools that

have no bus have to use public transportation, such as public busses. The challenge with public

busses is their prices. Unlike school busses, public busses are paid for before getting transported.

Parents have to pay twice, that is, in the morning, and during the evening. Thus, public

transportation is expensive for children who come from humble backgrounds.

Poor Roads

The challenge of poor roads is mainly experienced by students living in rural areas. Rural areas

are usually considered less developed in every aspect, and this includes poor roads. In schools

that are unfortunate and have marram roads, they remain inaccessible, especially during rainy

days. Poorly maintained roads make students fail to get to school on time because drives face a

real huddle driving on such roads. Also, it is very easy for vehicles to get into an accident.

Accordingly, vehicles are at risk of getting mechanical problems. It is unfair for a student to pay

their transport fee and fail to get to school on time because the vehicle he/she is traveling in

experiences mechanical problems caused by poor roads. Also, this case affects teachers too.

Teachers fail to get in a class on time because they get delayed since the roads are impassable.

Hypothesis

Poverty should be treated as a national problem since it affects everyone apart from

children from families living under the poverty line. It is expected that schools should take the

first step to solve this problem. The school has power over its students. Hence, it can come up

with ideas concerning how to help solve the problem of the transport barrier. For example, a

school may choose to organize extra lessons for students facing transport problems. This will

ensure the affected students reach where their fellow peers have reached in their academic work.

The research will reveal that it is important for schools to own a school bus. A

school bus is very essential in transporting all students to school and from school every day.

Also, schools will have to pay special attention to students having a challenge raising money for

transportation by allowing them to raise the money in small amounts over a long period of time,

or helping these students raise the money. This will have to be the case because there is no way

for a student coming from a humble background affording to pay extra money for transportation.

It is also expected for the government to step up and address the issue of poor transport

networks. The problem of poor transport will not end if students and teachers cannot reach

school in time. It has been seen already that roads especially those located in rural areas are

impassable. These roads have been termed as impassable because they are poorly maintained, or

due to their nature, in case they are marram roads, they are impassable during a rainy season. The

government should start paying attention to roads, especially roads leading to schools. It must

then develop them using the latest technology. Lastly, the government is expected to maintain its

roads from time to time to prevent the roads from getting damaged or reaching the point of being

impassable.

If this problem is to be addressed, then the government has to be very keen. Traffic on

many roads is a result of road accidents. Road accidents may happen as a result of overspeeding,

poor roads, unlicensed drivers, and old, poorly maintained vehicles. It is expected that the

government will increase traffic rules, such as introducing more traffic officers on roads, and

introducing instruments that monitor and control traffic. Upon doing this, it will now be possible

for the government to control the speed of vehicles more strictly, reduce, and eliminate

unlicensed drivers on roads.

Proposed Theory of the Research

According to the article, Global systems thinking in education to end poverty, the world

is struggling to find solutions to end poverty in education (Briscoe,3). Already, there are so many

interventions that have been put in place everywhere (Briscoe, 3). Based on the research

published in the The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas, this

problem can be addressed through the method of simulating poverty (Engler, Strassle, Steck, 4).

When people have a clear goal of where they are going there is a huge possibility they will reach

their intended destination. One way of doing this is working with targets. Targets help people

remember where they are going every time they are down. It helps them avoid turning back or

getting distracted. Simulation poverty entails all this. It involves working with the affected

people. Parents have to join hands with teachers. Then parents will be given simulators (Engler,

Strassle, Steck, 4). This step aims to help parents provide their details such as those that can raise

money to pay for the school bus, those that can raise money to pay for public transportation for

their kids every day, parents who have vehicles and can take their children to school, and lastly

identify parents who cannot raise any amount. Then all these stakeholders will come up with

goals. Everyone is supposed to meet these goals. All the stakeholders then agree to meet at

regular intervals. These meetings are very important because they enable a follow-up to be done

on everyone to ensure they stick to their goals.

In, The Journal of Negro Education, the article published “Toward a Black habitus:

African Americans navigating systemic inequalities within home, school, and community”

specifically talks about how everyone around the community should be considered as

sense-making, knowledgeable, and performing (Lofton, Davis, 5). In one of the paragraphs

above, it is argued that poverty should be acknowledged as a problem for everyone. In countries

that have the rich and the poor, the rich usually say that the problem of the transport barrier is the

problem of the poor and should be left with their problem (Lofton, Davis, 5). People should not

follow this saying, and instead, they should acknowledge that everyone is knowledgeable,

performing, and they all make sense. Going with this idea will enable everyone to participate in

coming up with solutions to the problem. Also published in the same journal, the article,

Examining the effects of urban neighborhoods on the mental health of adolescent African

American males: a qualitative systematic review painted a similar picture. In an area surrounded

by poverty, the rate of crime is high, hence, it is important that the problem of the transport

barrier be addressed so that students will not go to school and avoid spending much of their time

in these activities (Perry, Tabb, Mendehall, 6).

Conclusion

Clearly, students will continue to fail at getting a better education if this problem

continues to persist. This will be the case because they will continue to arrive at school late,

maybe fail to show up, on top of teachers having to deal with difficulties reporting to school

within the appropriate time. If the government, teachers, parents, and students cooperate, treat

each other knowledgeable and sense-making, it will be possible to come up with a necessary

intervention strategy to solve the problem.

References

1. Gorski, P. C. (2017). Reaching and teaching students in poverty: Strategies for erasing the

opportunity gap. Teachers College Press.

2. Pęciak, R. (2020). Chińskie osiągnięcia w ograniczaniu ubóstwa. Prace Naukowe

Uniwersytetu Ekonomicznego we Wrocławiu

3. Briscoe, P. 2015. Global Systems Thinking in Education to End Poverty: Systems

Leaders with a Concerted Push.

4. Engler, J. N., Strassle, C. G., & Steck, L. W. 2019. The Impact of a Poverty Simulation

on Educators’ Attributions and Behaviors.

5. Lofton, R., & Davis, J. E. (2015). Toward a Black habitus: African Americans navigating

systemic inequalities within home, school, and community. The Journal of Negro

Education

6. Perry, D. M., Tabb, K. M., & Mendenhall, R. (2015). Examining the effects of urban

neighborhoods on the mental health of adolescent African American males: a qualitative

systematic review. The Journal of Negro Education