On Saudi Arabia, Essay Example

Research Question Development

A population of clients typically seen in family therapy that I find interesting is recently immigrated Islamic families who have a difficult time coping with the cultural changes that they have encountered in the United States. Islamic families from many Middle Eastern countries, such as Saudi Arabia, are used to living in a political and cultural climate in which men are dominant to women, and women are not typically given power in familial and political relationships (Saudi Arabia, n.d.). This is problematic because many of these families have children attending school in this country, and are finding that they have a difficult time relating to others as a consequence. Therefore, my question is “How do immigrant families from Saudi Arabia cope with the role of female teachers in the schools of their students?”

An experiment could be conducted to answer this question, as Saudi Arabian Middle Eastern families could be observed both at home and during parent teacher conferences. Furthermore, the female teachers could observed during telephone calls and other interactions in order to gain information about potentially positive or negative interactions. A survey could be issued to achieve this same purpose. Saudi Arabian parents, both male and female, could be questioned to determine how they feel about the role of their child’s teacher, and how they feel about a woman being in this kind of leadership position. Furthermore, the child and teacher could be issued similar surveys to determine more about their interactions with the parents on this topic.

It is also important to consider that although many Saudi Arabian female children do attend school, some are not permitted to (House, 2012). Therefore, it would also be important to examine the impact of attending school for the first time as a confounding variable in the examination of this relationship.

References

House, Karen Elliott. (2012). On Saudi Arabia: Its People, past, Religion, Fault Lines and Future. Knopf.

Saudi Arabia. (n.d.). Family. Retrieved from  http://dpuadweb.depauw.edu/$1~mkfinney/teaching/Com227/culturalPortfolios/Saudi_Arabia/Family.htm