Читать книгу Qualitative Dissertation Methodology - Nathan Durdella - Страница 6

Qualitative Dissertation Methodology: A Guide for Research Design and Methods emerged from my work with doctoral students in education. After several years teaching applied qualitative research design and methods with education doctorate students and advising doctoral students in an education doctoral program, I have observed a few of patterns. First, I have noticed that students struggle with conceptualizing and designing a qualitative research approach for their developing dissertation study—arguably one of the most challenging tasks in a dissertation research proposal. As late as the start of their second year in a doctoral program, students enter a critical period of intense research skills preparation and writing work as their dissertation proposal takes initial shape. As their dissertation project emerges as a focus of doctoral study during this time, students are generally underprepared to complete their dissertation projects as they have typically not yet completed required methods and/or dissertation writing coursework and have not yet discussed details of research design and methods with their dissertation advisor, chair, or major professor. They are further challenged by the tasks that accompany the development of an approach to systematically investigate a problem in theory and practice.

The range of students’ struggles with qualitative research design within dissertation studies extends from basic organization in a dissertation methodology chapter to standard concepts that we use in qualitative research design and methods (and the application of these concepts across research contexts). In fact, several dissertation advisees and doctoral students with whom I have worked seemed challenged by foundational principles in naturalistic inquiry, including ontological, epistemological, and methodological concepts and the related skill sets required to execute a qualitative dissertation study. From sampling, recruitment, and selection to data collection and analysis, students arrived in the second year of their doctoral programs eager to design their qualitative methodological frameworks but lack an understanding of how to approach an admittedly imposing set of tasks. Here are some of the typical questions that students ask often: How do I select sites for data collection? What are the steps to sample participants? What strategies should I use to recruit potential participants? Which interview techniques work best with focus groups? Do I need to use an instrument for observations? How and when do I begin data analysis? How do I ensure credibility in my study?

Beyond challenges with conceptual and practical competency, I have witnessed students fail to develop the peer-, instructor-, and advisor-support system that they need to undertake the process to develop a qualitative methodological framework for their dissertation study. This process—marked by intense emotional dynamics, intellectual engagement, and often physical and mental demands—tends to strain students who sometimes balance work activities and professional obligations (not to mention family commitments) with academic course requirements and the demands of dissertation writing. By the second or third year in a doctoral program, students typically have established productive relationships with peers, likely have been assigned or have selected a dissertation chair, have interacted with several professors who have served as class instructors, and perhaps have worked closely on a research project with a faculty member. Frequently, these relationships support students’ general needs in their courses, but they tend not to extend to their specific needs to develop a research framework—including a methodological framework—in order to conduct an investigation into problems of practice through their dissertation studies.

During their first and second years in their tenure as students in doctoral programs, students generally need specific resources to develop a working research framework for their dissertation studies and a strong peer, faculty, and research network to support their dissertation writing work—particularly with the complexities and intricacies of their qualitative methodology writing. In my work with students over the years, I have realized that what we provide students through coursework, workshops, seminars, informal and formal advising sessions, and social events do not adequately prepare them for dissertation work. In my teaching and advising activities, I have struggled with how best to enhance what students need to know and be able to draft a methodological framework for their dissertation research projects. Through an evolving mix of formal and informal changes to my teaching and advising practices, I have worked to enhance how students learn to draft, revise, and present their qualitative methodologies in their dissertation proposals—and this work is what led to this book. This book is a way for me to extend the reach of my teaching and advising work and connect with a broader network of students who are undertaking a similar process: constructing a qualitative dissertation methodology.

The need for the book is clear: dissertation work presents challenges to graduate students in selected fields. While dissertation research facilitates students’ interaction with scholars and practitioners and supports students’ career development, dissertations often serve as a set of tasks that individually or cumulatively function as a barrier to program completion (Burkard et al., 2014). In fact, the mean time to degree for doctoral students currently stands at 10.1 years, and students who do not complete doctoral programs tend to do so at the point of the dissertation—remaining all but dissertated (ABD)—and this average time to degree is far longer for students in terminal education programs (Snyder & Dillow, 2015). One of the pivotal points in a dissertation study is research methods—forming the methodological framework that guides student researchers’ work in the field and rounding out the research framework the undergirds the study’s results, findings, and recommendations. Indeed, what tends to challenge students in education is not just the understanding of social science research concepts but the application of specific requirements of research approaches to their applied dissertation studies. For example, students who use a grounded theory methodology in their dissertations are generally challenged (Wu & Beaunae, 2014). While less evidence exists, we know that students in applied fields and social science disciplines struggle with dissertation methodology.

The books currently available on the market to doctoral students offer an incredible selection of resources to support the dissertation research process. In fact, students have a full range of topics from which to choose a book that addresses both common experiences and specific issues in dissertation writing. Across fields of study or in a specific program, from overall emotional support to sets of tasks to write a chapter or a section of a chapter—these books reflect the intense effort that dissertations represent. As a group, they generally approach dissertation writing and development in a conventional, five-chapter structure—whether more generally in their methodological approach or more specific to quantitative or qualitative research. Further, some books include personal advice on organizing yourself as a researcher and practical guidance on overcoming challenges in designing and executing dissertation studies. In addition, some of these books offer more specialized approaches by discipline (i.e., education) or methods (i.e., qualitative) or adopt a more scholarly approach and conceptual view of the dissertation writing process. While these competing books provide useful advice on how to think about a dissertation study and offer a valuable framework to organize a dissertation study, they tend to focus on the dissertation as a whole—the complete dissertation study with many parts. In all of these books, the treatment of the dissertation proposal or complete dissertation works well, but the authors respectively tend to limit discussions of specific issues and steps in constructing qualitative methodology. In fact, while they offer essential advice, insight, and guidance on how to navigate the dissertation research process and design a research study, these books offer far less complete information and practical approaches on how to methodologically design a qualitative dissertation study.

In contrast to these sources, Qualitative Dissertation Methodology: A Guide for Research Design and Methods moves from the typical five-chapter framework to a single-chapter focus—methodology—to cover the specific issues, challenges, and dimensions of dissertation methodology with a focus on the dissertation in education and the applied social sciences. In fact, this book moves from a more cursory—albeit useful, applicable, and relevant—treatment of dissertation methodology to a detailed discussion of the specific components and a step-by-step guide to the standards requirements of qualitative approaches to dissertation methodology. Using the book as a guide, I offer students and faculty an accessible, immediately applicable framework to conceptualize their methodology and write their methodology chapter—from considerations in selecting an advisor to defending the choice of methodology to working with a committee in the proposal hearing phase to planning for data analysis and dissemination in the final defense. The book provides conceptual information needed to design dissertation methodology and the practical guidance required to work within the advising structures of graduate programs and organize a chapter on methodology in a dissertation study. Further, the book describes the contextual process to connect one component or section of the thesis and dissertation methodology chapter to another—creating a transparent, seamless plan to collect, analyze, and interpret data.