Qualitative Research PDF

Running
head:
WHAT
DOES
EDUCATION
MEAN
TO
THE
HOMELESS
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What Does Education Mean to the Homeless?
By: Jasmin Santiago
Qualitative Communication Research
Fall 2014
Columbus State University

Running Head: What Does Education Mean to the Homeless

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Abstract
In this qualitative research assignment we question a new study of “what does
education mean to the homeless?” As a group we wanted to question a stereotype that
comes with the stigma of being homeless– lack of education. We sought out to find the
truth behind it by getting the perspective from the homeless, which is rarely heard. By
gathering their stories we formed the themes: defining knowledge, ignorance, hope, lost
opportunities, the value of education, denial, and perspective. A lack of sources made it
hard to fully research how the homeless define or value education therefore our
interviews were crucial. Three participants we interviewed from the Homeless Resource
Network in Columbus, Georgia ranged from different educational backgrounds– some
college experience, a high school diploma, and a GED. This diversity supported our
ethical standpoint on the topic.


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Introduction
When considering how our society in America perceives social status, a stigma of
laziness and begging is initially placed on those that are homeless and live in poverty.
Those with a higher status usually obtain more resources, income, and education;
allowing them to live a better life. When our project initially began we came across a
study about the poor researched by DeVito. He found that the poor make “self-fulfilling
prophecies [and] predictions about [one]self and [how one can] fulfill them”. For
instance, in DeVito’s research they compared the analysis of a poor child versus a rich
child. Both groups of children viewed pictures of coins and were then asked to estimate
the size of the coins. The poor children estimated the coin to be much larger. This
correlated to the idea that fewer visual cues were needed for those to perceive objects that
they wanted more, than those that did not want them (DeVito, J. A., 2009).
Considering this study of how the poor had a greater desire and value for certain
objects we began to question how they might view or value education? The importance of
having a college degree in order to obtain a good job and prosper has increased
substantially. Therefore our curiosity sparked due to the fact of our culture in this era
being so dependent on education. We pondered if those that lived below the poverty line
and didn’t have the same chances at those resources would have the same value or view
on it.
The common belief in our society today is that those with higher education will
also have a higher salary. This is important because money is the currency used in the
exchange of basic human necessities such as food, water, electricity, and shelter. If a


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person does not have the monetary amount required in order to purchase said necessities
then they will be forced to live without these resources.
Regardless of how the interviewees may have fallen into homelessness, as a group
we wanted to explore if the status of education, or lack there of, is a major factor to how
they define their successes and failures. We sought out the perspectives and/or denial
from the homeless on educational standpoints and how they would define knowledge,
ignorance, hope, lost opportunities, and the value of education.
As a group we question this stereotype– lack of education that comes with the
stigma of being homeless. Finding out the perspectives of the homeless would bring us
the research that had not been done prior to. We have to rely on our one-on-one
interviews to gather that information. We plan to explore the types of struggles and
obstacles whether it is mental, or emotional for these homeless individuals. And the
differences each individual may hold through the affects of different educational
backgrounds.
Review of Literature
The search through multiple academic articles to define what education meant to
the homeless and statistics on what major education level the homeless demographic
obtained left little to no sources. The unclear answer left the topic of how the homeless
define or value education open ended. We questioned the cliché that played a big role of
impacting the image of how the homeless are perceived in terms of education.


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The opportunity presented itself to our group since this would be one of the first
real studies examining this discussion. Although it was a challenge since there was a lack
of academic sources we took advantage of it through our interviews. Through one of our
participants ‘Dana’ we found she had completed close to two years of college and we
found this to correlation with our research from an article that dealt with the statistics
that, came to no surprise, showing that those with “greater income had higher growth of
an educational level” (lves, 2012). This was ironic because she was the only participant to
currently have a job and have a home, whether it was governmental living was never
defined. But it didn’t seem like a coincidence that Dana was statistically the only one
with the better odds out of the three participants.
Research showed how governmental housing really attempts to provide long-term
housing to homeless people, especially those with disabilities. It revealed that the average
cost to set someone in this situation would be about $55,000. And the real issue at hand
was that there was no real guarantee that the person would actually make a serious
attempt to support themselves to get out governmental living and get back on their own
feet. It showed that many communities gave inconsistent amounts of funding from the
government and had inconsistent criteria supporting it (Moulton, 2013).
In another article it investigates the discontinued question if the homeless were to
give the opportunity to take the chance of changing their lives would they take it or
would they continue their lifestyle? In this research it observed the opportunity of giving
a homeless man $100,000 to change his life yet the end result ended in failure to take full
advantage of it. This provides an “important opportunity for questioning how the
rhetorical work can contribute to a more dynamic culture” (Loehwing, 2010).


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Meanwhile another dilemma presented itself through the elderly homeless, which
is a small, but emerging population at risk. This research directly connected to our other
participant ‘Willie’ whom was 64 years of age. Not enough services are available to help
the elderly our research suggests; especially since many have chronic, health problems, or
addictions (Kutza, & Keigher, 1991). Much like our participant Willie, the elderly
homeless still face struggles with drugs and is a specific subgroup that needs special
attention. This research even targets key words such as ‘frail’ and ‘vulnerable’ to describe
the elderly homeless demographic (Kutza, & Keigher, 1991).
Different subgroup studies focused on families who become homeless are mainly
women with dependent children. “Homeless families are reported to have a variety of
complex needs; however, little is known about the experiences of families once they are
re-housed.” The aim of this study is to explore psychosocial issues of single mothers
following a period of homelessness just like our participant ‘Dana’. Qualitative semi-
structured interviews gathered data from 21 women living in a UK Midlands city and
found that despite so much anxiety from that lifestyle they did achieve personal growth
and overcame homelessness in the end (Tischler, 2008).
In another research, the discussion of how from an outsiders’ perspective as those
that are ‘better off’ in comparison to the homeless interrogate them. Regular people that
are financially stable try to be caring by saying homeless people are ‘are just like me’ but
this study proves that it is in fact only reinforcing that negative connotation of being
homeless. The study also examines how the public divides homeless people into
categories of those deserving and undeserving of living below the poverty level. For
instance, “the distinction between the ‘honest’ and ‘dishonest’ poor are those who suffer


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poverty as a submission to god and those that are poor as punishment for moral failing”
(Schneider, & Remillard, 2013).
One article we came across did conjoin that the lower level of education had a
higher increase in crime, which correlate with those that are homeless. It reminds the
reader that just because the person is unemployed does not mean that they have a steady
source of income. Although most homeless individuals are participants of receiving extra
money from the unemployment department from the government the study shows that
people are more likely to commit a crime if they’re income declines (Yildiz, et. al, 2013).
Methods
Qualitative and Quantitative research both are very resourceful and important
when it comes to a means of going in depth and gathering specific data. Although in this
project we made use of qualitative research as our primary focus because we wanted to
gather our data through interviews and really learn about how “people think or feel about
something” (Esterberg, 2002, p. 36) and “recall personal experience[s]” (Esterberg, 2002,
p. 59). Our group took this route because qualitative is useful to get a more personal
approach and easier to examine nonverbal in behavior.
The method we used to obtain our information for our project and research was by
interviewing three homeless participants at random sampling at the Homeless Resource
Network here in Columbus, Georgia. Before the interview began we had to ethically
make sure how much privacy the participant wanted. They had the right to not be
recorded or videotaped and to be anonymous by name. Since consent is vital to the


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qualitative interview process and they have the right to privacy as an American citizen,
this was the first issue we had to approach as interviewers (Moore, & Murray, 2012). All
three participants consented to being recorded and videotaped so we used a camcorder on
the first day of our interviews along with audio recorded from our iPhone, and a regular
camera on the second time of interviewing.
We decided to do random sampling so that the results could have been more
honest and not have a biased result for what educational levels each person had. We
simply spoke to the woman in charge of the Resource Network about what our study was
and that anyone who was willing could come into the room and participate.
The room itself was very bland, bright, gloomy, and isolated. There were two
long wooden tables with a gap in-between for room to walk around. There were two
windows covered by the blinds allowing a substantial amount of natural light into the
room. We positioned the interviewees facing the door with their back against the wall so
that they had a clear view of the door so they could feel more comfortable. My group and
I decided to have a prerequisite plan on the placement of the chairs; one was diagonal
from the interviewee to create a relatable and close feeling instead of all of us being
directly on the opposite side, so it didn’t feel as intimidating but rather more welcoming
and comfortable.
We gathered three participants, a middle aged woman that we labeled as ‘Dana’
that had completed close to two years of college experience, an older male in his later
years of life that was a military veteran and had completed a high school diploma labeled
as ‘Willie’, and a younger male ‘Joe’ in his early 20’s that completed his GED because
he had dropped out of school at one point.


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We had initially wanted three separate individuals with different education levels
so we could see if there was a correlation or any substantial differences in social status
that may impact how they value and define education themselves. At first glance, the
assumption that our group made based off of prior knowledge and stereotypes is that
most homeless individuals have not made it far enough to get a diploma or at minimum a
high school diploma, if possible. Surprisingly we gathered three participants with three
separate educational levels in our random sampling disproving the stereotype of the lack
of education that comes with the stigma of being homeless. As our research came to a
close we began to notice specific themes in our work that correlated with several of the
participants when we began to do coding.
Analysis
Before defining what education means to the homeless we need to embark on
what education means in the first place. According to the Webster Dictionary, education
is the process or art of imparting knowledge, skill and judgment. With this definition set
in the back of our minds we went straight into analyzing our research through our
transcripts and we came across several themes that correlated with the three of our
participants, ‘Dana’, ‘Joe’, and ‘Willie’. All the themes that we found were hope,
perception, denial, lost opportunities, defining ignorance, and the value of education.
The first theme we found in our transcripts that connected the participants was
hope. When it came to the participants ‘Joe’ and ‘Dana’ this theme was a means of what
drove them to want to get out of homelessness. They both had children themselves that


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were enrolled in school and now being new parents they saw what a big impact and role
education played a part in life and they wanted better for their kids. Just as ‘Willie’
stated, “I go to the library I take my kids to the library. I teach my grandkids not to follow
my footsteps.” Their children’s education and better future is what motivates them for a
brighter future and for ‘Joe’ that meant wanting to get a better education for himself, “I’m
trying to get into Columbus tech now because like I said I, my daughter is two and she’s
gonna have to go to school herself sometime so, I’m going there, I’m trying become, I’m
trying either do business or go the dream that I wanna do is music”.
For ‘Dana’ she believed strongly against the ‘can’t word’ being something that
would hold herself or her children back, “obviously they do homework we [mumbles] be
like, ‘ugh momma I can’t.’ no mmm no we don’t do the can’t word.” She strongly felt
that giving into negative thinking would make her or her children take two steps back
instead of moving forward:
“When I, when I got into my situation, I basically when I got to where I’m
at now, [um] bout two weeks after that I, I got hired at McDonalds, and
then prob like a month or two after that I found my apartment, ya know,
and that, that came from getting up and actually wanting, wanting to do
that for myself, ya know, [um] not feeling sorry for my situation not
saying oh god I’m here and I can’t do this, I can’t do that, no, mmm.”
Being the only woman we had the chance to interview I noticed in the interview
itself she was the most guarded out all the participants. According to our research about
women going through homelessness tend to be more guarded because when “women had
achieved personal growth as they had managed to escape violence, overcome


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homelessness and create new opportunities for themselves and their children” it becomes
a defense mechanism (Tischler, 2008). ‘Dana’ even went on to mention how “you just
have to not be prideful you have to be able to ask for help, cause closed mouths don’t get
fed.” This connected to our next theme of perception where depending on their
motivation of education alters how the participants viewed the outlook of homelessness
and their hope of a new future.
When looking over both ‘Joe’ and ‘Dana’ it backs up our research with how their
own perception of how “they [live and they] try [to] and downplay their homelessness in
order to be viewed as ‘normal’ to blend in with the community” (Donley, & Jackson,
2014). ‘Dana’ continuously mentioned how she had a house and a job now as stated
before, and ‘Joe’ used his appearance of dressing in a nice button up and tie by blending
in with the rest of society. “Appearance is what indicates what social status people
occupy. One of those effects leads the homeless individual to have a lack of self-worth
for themselves” (Donley, & Jackson, 2014) and since ‘Joe’ was having a job interview
later that day, it gave the perception of trying to blend in through his attire with the rest of
society. It also shows how he has a desire to move out of homelessness to obtain a
brighter future by getting a job and going back to school. ‘Dana’ made a point of stating
how she has changed her perception by not letting anything hold her back and “just all in
the day trying to get things like situated, you know, get, you know, things for my
apartment, get the help that I need as far as the resources that’s out here for me.”
Meanwhile, our other participant ‘Willie’ wasn’t as hopeful and had a different
perception because the lack of education he has and since he was 64 years old he felt like
“education really don’t mean knowledge to me no more but because I’m doing good now.


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A little bit better than I was.” He also mentioned his struggle with drugs throughout his
life is what really set him back to going further because “its doesn’t really matter if they
have a education, they could have a college degree, if they have dru.. if they’ve been
through drugs or some kind of criminal record, the companies don’t care about that
[education then]”. Since ‘Willie’ constantly kept repeating his struggle with drugs in his
interview we noticed the struggle of perseverance he’s dealt with substance abuse. When
reviewing our research we found that substance dependence creates impairment through
at least three symptoms: withdrawal, loss of control and a continued consumption of the
substance regardless of the consequences (Thurlow, et. al, 2004). Looking back at my
field notes I remembered the distinct smell of alcohol when he came into the room and
his rugged attire that suggests he may be in relapse and his perception on life and his
education isn’t as bright or motivated as our other two participants. In another of our
research sources it suggests in the case of ‘Willie’ it seems as if they are ‘seen as
choosing this lifestyle [instead of being] seen as homeless due to circumstances beyond
their control (Schneider, & Remillard, 2013). Due to this it is more common for him to
feel the negative stigma that comes with being homeless and reflects how he views giving
up.
If anything he reminisced on his past life quite frequently and what could have
been. This brings our next theme of lost opportunities and regretting of ‘what could have
been’ had they taken a different approach in life and continued their education. All three
participants share similar backstories that the moment they’re lives began dwindling was
when they lost sight of their education and career. For ‘Willie’ it was the lost of his
military career
“but I went to the military… messing with drugs, it brought me down to


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the bottom level. That’s how I became homeless.” For ‘Joe’ he reminisced on what he
once had back when he was still in high school of sophomore year,
“I wanted to become an accountant, whe-, when I first got out of high
school…I actually had, was able to, like take a position in the army for
accounting…I haven’t always been homeless, like I’ve had my own place
before, I had a car, I had a nice job, and I’m only 23, I have a […],
something happened where I wasn’t as smart as I should’ve been, that’s
why I’m homeless now.”
When it came to Dana it directly impact how she once had an opportunity at
finishing her degree and was still in disbelief how this could’ve happened to
someone like her that was once on the right track. She goes on to explain how “I
guess it brings a tore down on you, you know I guess cause you know, you know
you feel like you know I have all this education, but I’m still in this situation, and
how did I get here?” This chance of lost opportunities connects to our research
that describes how popular discourse and advocacy efforts
characterize homelessness as a social problem bound by the concerns of physical
affliction and material deprivation (Loehwing, 2010).
Another theme that we found that really only resonated with our participant
‘Dana’ was denial. This specific theme really showcased the separation of educational
levels and how she separated herself from the rest of the homeless demographic because
she felt that her education and social status with a job and house didn’t make her
homeless in comparison to others. We saw this first hand because she never called herself
homeless like our two other participants. After she mentioned that she ‘doesn’t feel sorry


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for [her] situation’ we asked if she felt that’s how homelessness stuck in this situation
feel and she distant herself in the group by using the term: they. When she says that,
“they do, they think they blame, they blame they situations,… cause a lot of people tend
to go back, instead of going forward” creates a separation between herself and others in
the same situation as herself. Meanwhile ‘Willie’ admitted to his situation because he was
“involved with the wrong people… so I made myself homeless” and ‘Joe’ admitted to
“something happen[ing] where I wasn’t as smart as I should’ve been, that’s why I’m
homeless now…like I said I’m homeless”.
The last two themes really go hand in hand with one another, which is how they
define ignorance and value education. It was a common theme amongst all three
participants and they all felt very strongly about it not only vocally but also nonverbally
in their interviews. And something that I found interesting was how they all used very
similar examples explaining how and why they defined it all the way they did. When it
came to defining ignorance they all became very emotionally involved as if it was a very
touchy and personal topic for each of them, whether they had made the mistake or had
someone else make the mistake against them. They all defined ignorance in the same way
as ‘Joe’ stated more or less, “I would define ignorant as, when you know you need to do
something and you don’t do it because you don’t want to. But you know you need to do
it. Like, for instance, I think ignorance is you have to pay a light bill but instead you go to
a poker club all dang night.” ‘Willie’ gave the example, “ignorance is like when you go
to work for 8 hours for 7 dollars and hour, you know worked all day, come home, or
come back to catch out corner like everybody do, and take your money and buy drugs.
Instead of food” and ‘Dana’ explained it as “ignorance is basically when you know


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you’re doing something that is not right, but you do it anyway”. All three of them gave
distinctly similar answers and had the common example of needing to do something in
order for survival such as food or electricity but instead doing reckless addictive
behaviors in place of that. An article we found investigates how ‘addictions, family
breakdown and mental health are the social problems that mostly contribute to
homelessness.’ The researcher goes onto study whether or not ‘society gives people a
sufficient chance to fix any of these problems that they may have’ (Mago, et. al, 2013)
proving that addictions that are poor life choices such as gambling or drugs may seem
like ignorant life choices to some but is one of the major reasons that leads to
homelessness. A blog written by a man who describes himself as having been in and out
of homelessness and has faced addictions over a long period of time proposes a ‘complex
dialectic between domination and liberation that power is exerted’ from that type of
lifestyle (Schneider, 2012).
When defining the value of education they all defined it similarly as well because
they noted it as a forms of surviving. They all insisted that without a form of education
then the essentials of getting far in life are not in reach. It was interesting to see that they
still valued it so greatly through everything that they’ve been through and regardless of
stigmas it still had if not more value to them. Considering the study about how the poor
had a greater desire and value for certain objects (DeVito, 2009) we began to realize this
correlated with education as well. ‘Willie’ mentioned that one has to “get your high
school diploma and you can go further. Without that high school diploma, you stuck
homeless”, ‘Dana’ mentioned that she does “value education to a great level because it
can take you far, you know, in life” and ‘Joe’ stated, “no matter watcha do in life it all


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takes a certain level of education to get it done, as small as fixing your peanut butter and
jelly sandwich when you wanna make it”. This overall proved the possibility of a
correlation between education and homelessness in our research.
Discussion
Concluding our qualitative data and finding our correlation between education
and homelessness researchers can gain a new topic since this was a new finding and
approach for knowing what education means to the homeless. Since this study hasn’t
been examined or done before this could be a great start for future researchers to develop
it further. By researching specific themes of defining knowledge, ignorance, hope, lost
opportunities, the value of education, denial, and perspective it gives a more detailed
approach on what areas correlate in similarities with more homelessness and can go more
in depth. This also allows research to pursue the perspectives from the homeless on the
stigmas attached to them and question it ethically. Our research provides new theories for
researchers to continue to look into and to question this stereotype of the lack of
education and possibly examine the majority education level that this demographic
obtains.
By beginning to fill in that gap that lacks their perspective on education it can
continue to challenge past literature that is being discussed from the outside perspective.
In our research alone we challenged the previous study that mentioned if given the
opportunity the homeless demographic would not take advantage of the opportunity to
get back on their feet (Loehwing, 2010). By having our two participants like ‘Joe’ and


17

‘Dana’ that have shown a high demand for a greater education level and wanting to
obtain a better job and/or home means they go against the stereotype and are taking
advantage of the opportunities they are given just as ‘Dana’ states “get the help that I
need as far as the resources that’s out here for me”.
Since evaluating this topic the opportunity to push education could also be
increased in a new method that might influence the younger generations and impact them
in a more direct way. In the future the chance to possibly use homelessness as a key
factor for pushing the want and need to pursue one’s education can be accessed by
possibly using homeless individuals to come in and speak to younger generations about
their experience of being on the streets. Since so many other successful campaigns such
as DARE have been used to create a dramatic approach about not wanting to do drugs or
drinking, this could easily be used as a campaign to push students to want to be the best
of their ability and avoid a lifestyle that isn’t very glamorous. The chance for the
homeless to impact younger generations and prove that they once had opportunities they
have lost and to strive to get their education may be something certain students may
really need to hear as a wake up call.


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Resources
DeVito, J. A. (2009). The Interpersonal Communication Book (12th ed.). New York City,
NY: Pearson.
Donley, A., & Jackson, E. (2014). Blending in: The presentation of self among homeless
men in a gentrifying environment. Theory In Action, 7(1), 46-64.
Esterberg, K. G. (2002). Qualitative Methods in Social Research. Boston, MA: McGraw-
Hill.
lves, N. (2012). The impact of education on household income and expenditure
inequality. Applied Economics Letters, 19(10).
Kutza, E. A., & Keigher, S. M. (1991). The elderly "new homeless": An emerging
population at risk. Social Work, 36(4), 288-293.
Loehwing, M. (2010). Homelessness as the unforgiving minute of the present: The
rhetorical tenses of democratic citizenship. Quarterly Journal of Speech. 96 (4,
November), 380-403.
Mago, V. K., Morden, H. K., Fritz, C., Wu, T., Namazi, S., Geranmayeh, P., &
Dabbaghian, V. (2013). Analyzing the impact of social factors on homelessness: a


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fuzzy cognitive map approach. BMC Medical Informatics & Decision
Making, 13(1), 1-19.
Moore, R. L., & Murray, M. D. (2012). Media Law and Ethics (4th ed.). New York City,
NY: Routledge.
Moulton, S. (2013). Does increased funding for homeless programs reduce chronic
homelessness?. Southern Economic Journal, 79(3), 600-620.
Schneider, B. (2012). Blogging homelessness: Technology of the self or practice of
freedom?. Canadian Journal of Communication. 37 (3).
Yildiz, R., Ocal, O., & Yildirim, E. (2013). The effects of unemployment, income and
education on crime: evidence from individual data. International Journal Of
Economic Perspectives, 7(2), 32-40.
Schneider, B., & Remillard, C. (2013). Caring about homelessness: how identity work
maintains the stigma of homelessness. Text & Talk, 33(1), 95-112.
Tischler, V. (2008). Resettlement and reintegration: Single mothers' reflections after
homelessness. Community, Work & Family, 11(3), 243-252.
doi:10.1080/13668800802133628


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Thurlow, C., Lengel, L., & Tomic, A. (2004). Computer Mediated Communication. Los
Angeles, CA: Sage.
W. (2010). Education dictionary definition | education defined. Retrieved December 04,
2014, from http://www.yourdictionary.com/education

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