Assessment: Your grade for this assignment is based on your participation.
Instructions: This is an at-home, computer-based assignment. Using the Research Proposal Worksheet and any other notes you may have taken during the class discussion (or other additional discussions), edit the Research Proposal page under Assignments in your class websites. Each of you should contribute to this page by adding content, correcting grammar, etc. Of course, this is not supposed to a very long proposal so if you came to the assignment late and feel that you have nothing to contribute, you may just want to make a comment.
In terms of structure, make sure you give your project a title and separate the sections into I, II, III...as shown below.
Below is a sample research proposal.
Children of Biracial Couples
I. What do I want to know?
What are the unique experiences of
biracial children? Children of
biracial relationships far too often face situations where they have to
choose one side of their culture to "fit in." I would like to know the effects on these
children? For example, because of
identity issues, do biracial children not do as well in school?
II. Why do I want to know it?
Society's perception is that children of biracial relationships are unable to "fit in" normally and that may affect their educational outcomes. However, in large cities like New York, biracial populations are rapidly growing and becoming the norm. Additionally, in the 2000 census, people were allowed to identify as more than one race. As a result of this research, the government can be better informed to more fully understand how issues around race and family might affect educational and, therefore, economic outcomes.
III. What do I think the answer is?
Despite more dated research studies,
statistics, bias misconceptions and pressures, more recent research probably
shows that biracial children have a strong sense of who they are and tend to
achieve in school just as well as monoracial children. They do not always think of themselves as
half one race and half another.
IV. How do I intend to find out?
I will use a variety of library resources as well as conduct field work in the form of a survey and in-depth interviews to complete this project.
