Phenomenological study of social adjustment for female students transitioning to coeducational college

¶ … Girls' High School Experience on Entering a Co-Educational College

Proposed Qualitative Research Project

Qualitative research, unlike quantitative, is an investigative research activity that studies societal and/or cultural events, psychological, educational, or sociological phenomenon, or historical and philosophical trends that are described, not on the basis of numerical data, rather seeking to uncover and give meaning to events that are interpreted from the participants' perspective. As such qualitative research attempts to determine the tenor and characteristics of a particular group of people. Most often the approach to a qualitative research activity is phenomenological in design wherein the research investigator attempts to determine the significance of the phenomenon being investigated through a determination of the structure and essence of the experiences of a group of individuals. It is from this perspective that the present research activity is being proposed, namely to investigate, from the participant point-of-view, the changes that might or might not have take place when individuals leave a same sex high school (female) and enter a coeducational college.

Background. For today's youth the possibility of traveling to the far corners of the world by the click of a "mouse" may well broaden one's experiences and add to the learning paradigm. However, absent in our mega technological world are events and individual actions that cannot be explained by computer facilitation. What Rene Descartes stated centuries ago, "Cogito Ergo Sum," I think, therefore I am" has given way to my computer thinks, therefore I am. Unfortunately, the explosion of technology has created a world of quantification, a world fast becoming absent human interrelatedness and expression, and a world void of human voice. Today a graduating high school student can sit in front of a computer and escape into a world of virtual reality, avoid the sharing of all emotions if desired, and enter a chosen college without even having personal contact with an environment that will shape and form their life forever. The extent to which this last tenet is singularly important is with respect to female students coming from a single-sex high school and enters a co-educational college - an almost bipolar situation.

Having participant access for the situation cited above this research investigator is determined to shed light upon the issue by way of seeing how, if at all, coming from an all girls' high school setting would affect them as they enter a co-educational college environment. The research study is phenomenological in design by way of case study and focus group composition.

Problem Statement. Knowing that coming from varied environment an individual can often encounter frustration, bewilderment, anxiety, and even failure when entering a new environment, the problem of value, experience, and expectation transfer is, and can be, a problem for the transferee. Within this scenario it is important therefore to explain and give reason to the possibility that female high school students coming from a single sex high school and entering a coeducational college might possibly run into social adjustment problems.

Research Question. On the basis of the problem cited above the following research question is being presented: To what extent will an all girls' school high school education impact upon a female student's social interactions in the freshman year at a co-educational college. Secondary main effect questions are presented below:

What are the most salient differences between social interactions at the high school level vs. freshman college level?

Do you belong to a sorority in college?

Other questions will be developed depending on the information gathered from the two-sample interview-observation situation. The list above, therefore, is simply to be used as a guide to the final questions being assembled for the focus group situation.

Self-Reflection

The art of self-reflection is part and parcel of qualitative research. Self-reflection is, by all measures, one's ability to know what one has learned from the expressions of others. For this research investigator I am the research instrument charged with the task of evaluating a very subjective topic, namely, the expressed feeling of others who have been placed in a situation that might possibly, or possibly not, cause possibly cause feelings of social inadequacy, personal anxiety and frustration, and even depression. Therefore, conducting the qualitative research study in the area of female high school students from an all female high school entering a co-educational college provides a means whereby needed information can be garnered with respect to that which cannot be measured numerically, namely, expression, body language, language tone, and hope.

As a socio-metric approach is being implemented for the proposed study this researcher is able to reflect upon their own social interaction situations wherein many of the same feelings were held as those of the participants. As such those who participated in the study have generated a great deal of understanding for this researcher. Further, involvement in the study has shown this investigative researcher the value of a quality response that cannot necessarily be quantified and reduced to a mathematical or statistical coefficient.