I have chosen to explore Option 2. If I could choose any subject to research my topic of interest would be childhood diabetes. The reason that I am choosing this topic is because my mother is a diabetic. I am interested in finding out all that I can about diabetes because I have heard that diabetes can be genetic. If it is genetic I would like to make certain that my brother who is seven years old is tested early on.
Since my research will not be restricted to certain rules and limitations I know that I will be able to come up with some great results. My participants will be children who are from families that have diabetes. This will assist me in figuring out whether diabetes is passed down from family members. I will observe the diets of the participants and review medical records of family members of the participants. This will give me some information on the risk that is involved in the children developing diabetes. This study will be a long process because most diabetics’ are diagnosed because they have not eaten properly over a long period of time.
This research will make a positive contribution to the children and their families by determining whether diabetes is genetic or not. If families know that diabetes is genetic they can then start to monitor what their children are eating and change their diets to assist them in a healthy way of eating. This will be a positive outcome because we will all have healthier children because the awareness of childhood diabetes is now known. Awareness is very important in childhood diabetes. Research is very important and if it were not for research and researchers we would not know a lot the concepts, theories, and behaviors that are tied to Early Childhood Education. As a researcher I will maintain professionalism and I will make certain that all of my participants are treated fairly. I will not treat my participants as objects rather than subjects (Mac Naughton, Rolfe, & Siraj-Blatchford, 2010).
Reference
Mac Naughton, G., Rolfe, S.A., & Siraj-Blatchford, I. (2010). Doing early childhood research
International perspectives on theory and practice (2nd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Hi Sharon,
ReplyDeleteAfter reading your blog I found it interesting that you are passionate about childhood diabetes. It is always important to know if some of our diseases that we are diagnosed with as adults will transfer to our children. Also, we have to know what to look for just in case one of our children in our care has not been told that they have diabetes. Furthermore, I had no idea that most diabetics’ are diagnosed because of eating habits. Good information to know as an educator myself!
Sharon, I think this is an awesome topic for you to discuss. I grew up with my grandmother having diabetes my entire life and it never crossed my mind to research this topic, for me to see if it is genetics or anything. What are the causes for it? Will it ever go away? What is effected by it? These are all great things to know. I know that you said that you only wanted to do research on the children that have it. But, will that be accurate if you don't at least compare it to the children that do not have. How will you go about retrieving the medical records for all the families. This now gets into informed consent and what if the parents do not provide it? Will you ask the child for their consent as well or will it be irrelevant? Awareness is such a big parents for educators. So many of our parents come to us unaware. How will you make them aware of the issue at hand? What can you do to ensure that the participants in your research know that they are not subjects, but in fact they are objects? Good luck in your endeavors.
ReplyDeleteGreat post Sharon! I see Tymeshia has been reading this week's course material, "What to do when researchers come to your classroom." I had similar questions but Tymeshia beat me to them! lol Nonetheless, it looks like you have been thinking through a research method, which I am sure will help you as you formulate your method for this course's research stimulation topic!
ReplyDeleteGreat questions ladies, I'm in the process in researching information on childhood diabetes. I certainly will keep you all posted because I'm excited about finding the answers myself...Thanks for sharing your point of view!!!!
ReplyDeleteHi Sharon, great topic to research! This topic is so interesting as it brings forth the question....heredity versus environment? Your research could give you a better understanding on the causes for childhood diabetes. If your results show that many children are being diagnosed as a result of environment, then your findings could support and educate families on this disease. The more awareness and knowledge parents have, the better they can support their children.
ReplyDeleteI like you wish there was a cure for diabetes and I hope there will come a time when this won't be an issue that families have to deal with.