Research Design and Methodology

Complete the following questions in a substantive way also reply to the following two students with at least 150 words

(1) Please describe what you will be researching for senior project briefly, so that your colleagues have a general understanding of your research.

(2) Now that you have submitted your senior project research proposal, think about the courses you have taken in your major. Thinking about theories, concepts, events, etc… that you have learned in your major coursework, discuss 1-2 that resonate with the research you are proposing.

(3) As you respond to your colleagues, after you have read the description of his/her research proposal, do you see theories, concepts, events, etc… that he/she has not mentioned, but could have some relevance?

(Daniel)

Going back to our second week’s discussion and reflecting on the questions asked of us; “If we only did it this way, we could do it better” or “I’d love to introduce a new idea to out team” or “I’d like to understand how a particular system operates”, I kept coming back to the notion of parent education in youth athletics. Parents are clearly part of the equation and need to be apart of the process in terms of athletic development. So how do I frame this in terms of a senior project? What is it that I want to become an expert on? As I look specific to my environment, we see examples of unacceptable parent behavior on the sidelines of soccer matches, and how that behavior affected the children. Parents pushing their children beyond what they were capable of handling, to the point to quitting the sport because it simply was not fun to play anymore. As noted in our discussions, a concern was risen about finding enough research material on the topic. By broadening the scope of parent education to include all youth athletics, regardless of a specific sport, more information has been available.

In a general sense, what I will be researching is two-fold. How parent behavior (either positive or negative) can have an affect on their children’s experience in youth athletics, and, the importance for organizations to have a parent education program in place to help families and organizations best satisfy the needs of the players (children).

The couple of areas that resonated with me in thinking about this topic as it related to previous courses taken hit on ideas such as organizational management and societal needs. Organizationally, athletic groups need to decide who they are and what they stand for. Many organizations may find that if they review their mission/vision statement that there is something in there about developing the whole player. In order to do that effectively, parents need to be part of the process. A more pragmatic approach, if an organization is less concerned about any holistic development of the players, would simply be that unruly parents (customers) make for bad business (loss of revenue, resource drain, etc.). Society’s needs, wants and desires can many times shape what is and what is not acceptable by the general populous. As those needs, wants and desires evolve so does what is deemed acceptable. Something that was considered unacceptable 10 years ago, may be commonly accepted today. From an athletics perspective, actions and attitudes from decades ago may be completely unacceptable by today’s standards. As an athletic community, can we become the society that dictates what is acceptable and / or unacceptable and hold each other accountable?

(Taras)

My senior project proposal revolves around the conception and development of a unique subculture orientated clothing company. I wish to uncover the framework of how a company like I have envisioned can be built. From the fabric to the distributors I want to find holes in the process of generically used models in hopes of developing a tailor-made model that works for the unique concepts I have envisioned. Examples that of research I will look for include anti-marketing success factors, rarely used stitching process and growth models for nitche items.

The first concept I have learned in school that I feel will further my research would be the collection of management principles. Whether its the steps to ensuring ethics in the workplace or manipulation of management styles to ensure production, I plan to put many of my newly found management skills to use in managing a team of artists and developers to make something like this possible.

Additionally, I most definitely see the basic accounting skills I have learned to be imperative in the collection of my research. A huge part of this ordeal will depend on basic budgeting knowledge to already be in place. This way, I can focus in on the specifics of costs rather than learning how to use them in the first place.