I’m very excited to announce that my latest book will be published by Routledge next week! Coauthored with my friend and colleague, Karri Holley, the book will provide a guide for Ed.D. students pursuing a qualitative research dissertation. The Qualitative Dissertation in Education: A Guide for Integrating Research and Practice walks readers through every step of the process from deciding on a topic to preparing for the final defense. We wrote the book to serve as a manual for students working on their own or as a textbook in a qualitative research class. In today’s post, I will share the preface from the book to give you a better sense of what we attempted to accomplish. I can’t wait to see how this will help Ed.D. students!
Preface
For many decades, the dissertation represented the culmination of study for doctoral students in higher education. The status of the dissertation prompts hand-wringing from students and faculty. Students often arrive at the dissertation stage exhausted from the completion of required coursework. They also are likely balancing numerous areas of their personal and professional lives with the dissertation, such as full-time employment outside of the university, care of children or aging parents, or their own health issues. Faculty advisors probably chair dissertations in the same way they experienced the process some years ago as they went through their own doctoral programs. Faculty may be overwhelmed by a high number of students; they likely also balance competing demands for their professional time and energy.
Faculty members who have worked with doctoral students tell many stories of students who excelled in coursework only to struggle with the dissertation. Other students barely survive coursework but thrive under the freedom and autonomy of the dissertation. Between the two of us, we have a combined 26 years of working with doctoral students, including chairing dissertations. We are among the first to acknowledge that the dissertation is a complex, difficult endeavor, and that students may not proceed through the dissertation in the same manner that they proceeded through required coursework. This simple fact cuts both ways: students’ past academic performance does not predict their performance during the dissertation process.
As we wrote this book, we were consistently reminded of the unique and highly personal nature of the dissertation. No student experiences the dissertation process in the same way as another. The dissertation game is played by a set of unique rules, which you must learn and adjust to in order to complete your degree. While coursework should develop and refine the writing and research skills necessary to complete the dissertation, the classroom environment differs from the one you will experience with the dissertation. Some of the challenges we see come from the relative lack of structure inherent to the dissertation process when compared to classroom-based learning. The dissertation process typically lacks built-in deadlines such as a syllabus, due dates, and regular engagement with classmates and the instructor. When students are unfamiliar with the steps of the dissertation, they may find themselves wandering aimlessly. Even knowing the steps does not guarantee the ability to seamlessly complete the process—or to negate the feelings of “one step forward, two steps back.”
The book is written for doctoral students in education, but also may be useful in other professional or applied disciplines, who are pursuing a qualitative approach to the dissertation. We seek to not only distill the elements of the dissertation process, but also to emphasize the unique characteristics of qualitative research and offer the steps necessary to complete a rigorous, high-quality qualitative dissertation. The term “qualitative research” spans across different types, methods, and philosophies, but a shared emphasis on documenting and understanding the human experience exists. Using this approach successfully means aligning the research design with the research purpose and questions; defining the scope and boundaries of the study; developing skills in interviewing, observing, coding, and data analysis; and keeping track of multiple transcripts, documents, and the like. Each of these elements should be taught as part of the doctoral curriculum. The dissertation offers students the platform to put all of these elements into practice.
We reflected on the doctoral students with whom we have worked as we outlined this book. Many of them were students in professional Doctor of Education (EdD) programs including an accelerated executive-style EdD designed to help mid- to senior-level professionals complete the doctorate in a way that aligned with their professional careers and personal lives. The program moves quickly, and each step of the curriculum is designed to prepare students with the necessary skills needed to complete the dissertation. Other students progressed through a more traditional-paced program, reaching the dissertation stage after two or three years of coursework. Regardless of program, a few students—highly capable, highly motivated, many at or near the top of their professional careers—would struggle to complete the dissertation. What is it about the dissertation process, we wondered, that might cause these issues, and indeed, cause some students not to finish their degree?
This question (and our inherent belief that students are capable of finishing the degree) motivated this book. Below, we provide an outline of the book to help navigate the dissertation journey. The structure of this book follows a road map and will guide you through the steps of the dissertation from idea to final defense. Of course, each dissertation experience is unique to not only the student but also the degree program and university. In some situations, you may be asked to complete required steps other than those outlined here. For readers outside of the United States, you may experience country-specific requirements and steps. Nevertheless, we review the common stages and steps of the process to help explain and plan for the dissertation—and we do so in a way that assumes every student’s potential to write a rigorous dissertation that is well-conceptualized and well-executed. Be sure to discuss the particular requirements of your program with the faculty and dissertation chair. Ask questions and gather information from all available, reliable resources.
About This Book
This book is written to be responsive to the needs of the unique reader. Some readers might find it helpful to read the book starting at the beginning, while others may find that the table of contents provides a helpful roadmap to their specific situations. The book is broadly structured chronologically, taking the reader from the start of the dissertation process (pre-proposal) through the successful defense of the final dissertation. Part I covers the pre-proposal stage. We encourage students to understand the characteristics of qualitative research, especially related to an applied academic discipline such as education and the work required of students pursuing a professional doctorate. In Chapter 1, we review the dissertation structure and format; walk readers through ways to select a dissertation topic; and discuss how you might leverage your professional experiences when writing a dissertation. Chapter 2 reviews the most common obstacles we see doctoral students encounter as they work on the dissertation. In this chapter, we acknowledge that many of these obstacles are shared among students (a reminder that you are not the only one experiencing the issue), and we also offer specific strategies for confronting these issues in a productive way that helps you move forward.
Part II examines the dissertation proposal. The proposal is one of the most crucial elements of the dissertation process; a strong proposal sets up the student with the tools, knowledge, and timeline necessary to complete and defend the dissertation. In Chapter 3, we reflect on the structure of the proposal with a focus on Chapter I, including the problem statement, purpose of study, research questions, and significance. Chapter 4 examines the dissertation’s literature review. The literature review not only demonstrates to the dissertation committee that the student has examined in depth the relevant literature to the study and considered its implications, but the review also allows the student to determine what is known about the topic and where the dissertation might fill a gap. In Chapter 5, we briefly review the most common qualitative approaches used by doctoral students in education, summarizing not only the history and details of the approach, but also the advantages and disadvantages to each. This chapter includes suggestions for future reading related to each approach, which should give students the chance to understand more details about the methodology. The last chapter in this section, Chapter 6, presents ideas on designing the dissertation, including connecting research questions to method and data; understanding the importance of units of analysis; selecting the best approach; and inherent limitations of research design.
Part III emphasizes the active dissertation stage which involves data collection and analysis. This section builds upon the previous by emphasizing connections between choice of research method with the intricacies of data collection, as one example, as well as how decisions about research design (such as the research site) will shape data analysis. Chapter 7 outlines the components of data collection. We emphasize how these components vary among the different qualitative approaches, including individual interviews, focus groups, observation, and document analysis. Regardless of the approach, students must make decisions about sampling strategies and site selection. Again, these decisions are inherently connected to ones made previously in regards to research design. This chapter concludes with a discussion of transcription, which leads in Chapter 8, analyzing your data. Effective data analysis requires understanding not only the steps involved in the process, but also issues of organization, data management, validity, and research software.
The final section, Part IV, covers the development and writing of dissertation chapters IV and V as well as the final defense and next steps. We discuss organizing and writing findings in Chapter 9 with a special consideration on deciding what data to present and how. Chapter 10 gives insight into Chapter V of the dissertation, which requires you to answer the research questions, make recommendations for scholars and practitioners, and consider the implications of the work. In Chapter 11, we offer an overview as to what can be expected during the final dissertation defense as well as what it means to join the ranks of the scholar practitioner. To avoid confusion, we use Roman numerals when referring to chapters of the dissertation and Arabic numerals for reference to the chapters in this book.
As we outlined chapters, brainstormed ideas, and discussed conflicting approaches to key dissertation elements, the book’s primary purpose remained ever present, which is to empower students with the actionable knowledge that is necessary to understand how the process should work. Indeed, one of our main goals was to make the often unwritten and implied rules of the process, more explicit and transparent for doctoral students. We hope that will find the discussions in the following pages helpful both for understanding the dissertation process as well as qualitative research. Bringing together your professional expertise, an understanding of the dissertation, and a strong qualitative research design background will enable you to meet the requirements of your doctoral program and prepare you to assume the mantle of scholar-practitioner.
