Qualitative Approaches

PE Prof7 Paper details: Qualitative Approaches Suppose you have been asked to review and reevaluate the fin" rel="nofollow">indin" rel="nofollow">ings of a quantitative, quasi-experimental, state-level study regardin" rel="nofollow">ing the impact of the Guardian ad Litem (GAL) program in" rel="nofollow">in a sin" rel="nofollow">ingle state. Data has been collected for 200 children over two years. One group had GALs assigned to them and the other did not. The GAL program attempts to provide a voice for abused and neglected children through the use of citizen volunteers as opposed to attorneys. GALs act as advocates for children in" rel="nofollow">in judicial proceedin" rel="nofollow">ings and placement in" rel="nofollow">in permanent and safe homes. The study evaluated the effectiveness of the program in" rel="nofollow">in achievin" rel="nofollow">ing positive outcomes for the children. These outcomes in" rel="nofollow">involved everythin" rel="nofollow">ing from court contin" rel="nofollow">inuance and closures, in" rel="nofollow">increases in" rel="nofollow">in services, and adoptions and number of placements. The study concluded that, although it did make a difference with respect to most of the outcome variables, there was no apparent effect on types of placements of the children durin" rel="nofollow">ing the study period of two years. Placements ranged from least to most restrictive such as permanent homes, foster homes, shelters, and in" rel="nofollow">institutions. As a reviewer, you suspect that this fin" rel="nofollow">indin" rel="nofollow">ing or absence thereof might be illumin" rel="nofollow">inated by a different approach so you propose a qualitative evaluation design to focus on this question. Because children are bein" rel="nofollow">ing used in" rel="nofollow">in this study, are there ethical considerations that must be considered along with the method selection?