Order Description
FAMILY CASE STUDY

Part 1 and Part 2 are related and involve conducting a case study on a topic relating to questions of diversity and familial stress and supports. The purpose of these assignments is to get you to think about the structural forces operating on families (i.e., immigration, racial and ethnic inequalities, governmental policies) and how these forces differentially affect the family system and the children’s wellbeing. You will need to identify sources of stress and support for the family and give due attention to inequalities experienced by families and individuals who do not reflect the dominant images of Australian families.
Case studies are used widely in the social sciences. A case study involves a detailed examination of a single subject, event or setting. For this case study you are required to interview a parent or primary caregiver who is either:
(a) A new immigrant to Australia (less than 5 years in Australia)
(b) A family whose descendants are from a non Anglo-Saxon racial or ethnic group
(c) A single-parent family
(d) Grandparent carer
(e) A step-parent
(f) In a same -sex relationship
(g) An Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander family
Your chosen participant should care for at least one child who is currently attending preschool, long day care or is enrolled in primary school. It is important that you become as knowledgeable as possible about the specific ethnic, cultural or structural characteristics of the individual you will be interviewing. You may wish to rehearse or role-play the interview questions with fellow students before conducting the interview. Keep in mind that interviewing requires active listening and probe with follow-up questions to facilitate the flow of information. It is a good idea to use a digital recording device for the interview, but it is not essential. What is essential is taking detailed notes. If your participant doesn’t want to answer any questions or appears uneasy about discussing a topic, drop the question.
PART 1: 400 words plus 10-15 questions.
In the first part of this assignment you need to present a rationale for why you have chosen your particular family as well as develop an interview schedule. The rationale only needs to be a few paragraphs in total and should demonstrate an understanding of the family type as well as a brief overview of whom you plan to include in your case study and why. When deciding how many questions to include it is important to keep in mind your interview should be kept to a maximum length of about 30 to 40 minutes (this equates to approximately 10 to 15 questions depending on the level of detail). While you are free to choose what questions you wish to explore you will need to ensure the following areas are addressed:
1) Demographic characteristics of the family (ie., socioeconomic level, age, education, employment, cultural group, family size)
2) Specific challenges that the family faces (i.e., what are some of the social forces thatthe family had to confront and accommodate?)
3) Family strengths
4) Access to informal support networks (i.e., friendship groups, extended family members)
5) Access and use of formal support services (ie GP, Child Health Maternal Clinic, Family Services, Migrant Resource Centre, Single Parent Family Association)
6) Relationship with their early childhood educational service (i.e., Do carers/teachers view families in a positive/negative way? How ‘inclusive’ is the educational setting?)
While you are not required to include a great deal of reference material in this part of your assignment you will need to have completed a significant amount of readings and review of the literature to ensure the questions you develop are appropriate and suitable for attaining the type of information you will need when writing up your case study.
PART 2: 2500 words
Part 2 represents the second part of this task and involves conducting the interview and the formal writing up of your case study. In writing up your case study it is important that you provide a critique of the research literature and draw on your interview data to either support or argue against theoretical arguments and ideas. In writing -up your case study you need to ensure that you address the following six key areas (as outlined in Assessment 1):
1) Demographic characteristics of the family
2) Specific challenges that the family faces
3) Family strengths
4) Access to informal support networks
5) Access and use of formal support services
6) Relationship with their early childhood educational service
Case Study Structure
There is a range of formats researchers use in writing up case studies. It is important to remember that this is not a formal empirical study; rather it is a limited, informal case study intended to help you gain a greater understanding of the familial stresses and supports and diversity among Australian families. You should follow the conventions of academic research writing in your report. Include the following in some form in your report:
• Some background about your participant (age, ethnicity, family situation etc)
• Purpose of the study
• Identification of key research issues and theoretical arguments
• A description of the interview setting and questions asked
• What you learned about your participant in terms of the six key areas outlined above (i.e., stresses, strengths, formal and informal supports, relationship with early childhood service) and how this relates to the research literature (i.e., identify both inconsistencies and consistencies)
• Implications and recommendations for children’s services
You will also need to include a reference list and a copy of your interview transcript as an appendix. It is important that you delete all names, places or other identifiers from your transcript.
As a guide to your planning, it is expected that the Reference List should contain at least twelve references that are journal articles, book chapters or books.