Читать книгу Qualitative Dissertation Methodology - Nathan Durdella - Страница 64

As early career faculty emerge, new disciplinary leaders assume gatekeeping posts in the field, established scholars reshape their research agendas, and late career faculty vacate their positions, the theory and practice of research evolve. In response to changing epistemologies in the discipline, pedagogical and technological innovations on campus and in the field of research practice, and broader social and political patterns, researchers update methodological approaches and procedural steps to gather and interpret information. These evolutionary changes extend to dissertation research, too. In fact, what we see as dissertation research now would not have been considered such research in the past—and may still be eschewed in some quarters of the academy.

When we consider the historical role of dissertation research in graduate education, we see where conventional monograph dissertations remained a centerpiece of degree requirements. Indeed, gaps in graduate student preparation in doctoral programs historically focused on research and the demands of the academic labor market (Austin, 2002). More recently, while not widespread, many academic departments have responded to the more competitive market in higher education—marketing to prospective applicants and attracting the most talented undergraduate students and early career professionals. In some academic recruitments, search committee chairs and members expect competitive candidates to have a broad set of teaching skills and knowledge of pedagogy and instructional technology—in addition to a solid grounding in the foundations of research in the discipline and documented evidence of the potential for scholarly research production.

In addition to this shift to prefer candidates who can teach and use technology, many faculty seem to be moving toward a broader view of graduate education—where scholarly contributions need to be connected to practice and nonacademic jobs hold value for degree completers. Given the continuing reliance on contingent faculty in U.S. higher education institutions and the declining state resources allocated to public colleges and universities, academic job opportunities are more difficult to find. What is more, fewer Ph.D. graduates are going into academic posts—with alternative academic opportunities attracting students to nonacademic jobs. These “alt-ac” or alternative academic jobs may involve campus administrative posts or work in libraries, museums, or research fields—including nonprofit and community organizations (Bousquet, 2015). While closely connected to or aligned with academic work, these positions do not require the same scholarly research qualifications or experience in designing, conducting, and disseminating traditional research studies. Instead, prospective applicants for nonacademic jobs generally need more applied research skill sets and writing skills that appeal to a larger audience. Moreover, incumbents in these alternative academic careers may need to develop and demonstrate more advanced or specialized technology skills than what is required for teaching and scholarly research.

The patterns in academic and nonacademic career tracks for graduate students have been associated with changes in how faculty in doctoral programs interpret and support dissertation research. In many institutional contexts, these efforts may not yet be codified in graduate education policy or widespread in practice, but some faculty advisors now support students who pursue alternative forms of dissertation research—outside the normative book-length monograph that uses standard research approaches. These approaches include a series or “suite” of shorter essays or paper, either connected thematically or topically or discretely and uniquely (Smith, 2010a, 2010b). In addition, Smith (2010b) enumerates several new twists on the traditional dissertation:

 collaborative research projects with peer and/or faculty advisers,

 digital projects linked by theme or application,

 scholarly or literary translations, and

 public scholarly projects.

Add to these alternative dissertation formats comic books and video game applications (Patel, 2016)—and you can see how the traditional dissertation is in transition. Of course, comic books and video games as dissertation texts generally relate to the scholarly literature and exhibit characteristics of academic work. As such, a comic book may be used as a mechanism to learn about a broader set of concepts, or a video game—much like larger trends in instructional use of gaming apps—may be played to apply scholarly literature to practice.

▼ Figure2.2 A Range of Dissertation Research Formats

The efforts to add options to traditional dissertation approaches appear to be gaining ground among departments as evidenced by policies or guidelines in program handbooks and websites. Recently, doctoral programs at a diverse set of institutions have experimented with digital or online centers of activity, collaborative or group research projects, and multiple journal manuscripts. For example, during her work as a graduate student in the English department at the University of Maryland, Amanda Visconti designed, developed, and successfully launched and defended her interactive digital dissertation—a website where viewers can interact with James Joyce’s Ulysses. In another example, the University of Michigan’s Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, School of Public Health (2015, p. 17), offers the following two options to students:

The Dissertation can be written in the traditional book format or it can be composed of 3 papers of publishable quality that are related to one another. The traditional format develops an argument throughout the dissertation and provides details and findings of the research done by the student, with each chapter building on previous chapters. The three-paper format includes an introductory and a concluding chapter that preface and draw from all 3 papers, respectively, but each paper should be able to stand-alone. While it is not required that any of the 3 papers are submitted or accepted for publication at the time of the Dissertation defense, many students will have submitted at least 1 of their 3 papers before defending the dissertation.

Here, students in the program may adopt the traditional monograph dissertation or the suite of three manuscript-length articles or papers. Similarly, at Washington University in St. Louis’s Department of Education (2015, p. 13), students “may complete either: 1) a traditional monograph (single narrative write-up of the study), or 2) Three (3) to four (4) published or stand-alone ‘ready-for-publication’ papers. One of the standalone manuscripts included in the dissertation can come from the student’s Doctoral Qualifying Portfolio.”

Beyond individual faculty and outside of program contexts or institutional environments, larger academic associations appear to be open to new approaches to dissertation research work. For example, through the MLA, folks in English and humanities disciplines have considered alternative approaches to the traditional dissertation. Spanning nearly a decade—since a 2006 report on tenure and promotion—the MLA has grappled with how to reframe dissertation research work. More recently, the MLA has formally considered how to reimagine the dissertation in graduate degree programs. Through a presidentially commissioned task force, the MLA brought together department chairs and leaders in the discipline to discuss alternatives to the dissertation (Jaschik, 2012).

Reflecting the momentum of the movement to reconsider the dissertation, the Council of Graduate Schools (2009) has examined the impact of information technology and specifically digital technology on graduate education. In fact, the Council of Graduate Schools (2016), with support from ProQuest, underwrote a project on changes to the dissertation, culminating in a workshop where a group of higher education leaders convened to discuss the future of the dissertation. Clearly, these recent trends among individual faculty, departments, institutions, and broader associations points to an increasing acceptance and use of alternative forms of dissertation research for students whose career interests or job prospects lie outside the academy.