Research Problem

I am now thinking about how to write my research problem. 

"Doctoral study should be concerned with a problem, justify the importance of attending to that problem, and persuade a reader that the evidence they have accumulated on the topic sheds new light on the issue. So, the essence of the doctoral dissertation is not recount or summary. It is extended argument. A dissertation that contains little argument may well struggle to achieve the stated goal of making a scholarly contribution." (p. 117)

Kamler, B. and Thomson, P. (2014) Helping doctoral students write: Pedagogies for supervision (2nd Edition) Florence, KY: Routledge

What is my problem?

"The problem indicates the need for the study. In writing up your problem statement, be sure that it refers to an important, authentic, genuine problem that we know little about, but that is significant and therefore worthy of investigation. Ask yourself: So why is this a problem? The fact that there may be little in the literature on the subject is not a problem. For every problem there has to be a worthwhile reason for the study to be conducted...
All qualitative research emerges from a perceived problem, some unsatisfactory situation, condition, or phenomenon that we want to confront. Sometimes the source of research is around a particular scholarly debate, a pressing social issue, or some workplace phenomena we want to better understand. Basically, the problem statement is the discrepancy between what we already know and what we want to know. A research problem is driven by what Booth, Colomb, and Williams (2008) state is "incomplete knowledge or flawed understanding. You solve it not by changing the world but by understanding it better" (p. 59)."

Bloomberg, L. D., & Volpe, M. Completing your qualitative dissertation: A road map from beginning to end (2 ed.). Los Angeles: SAGE Publications, Inc