Qualitative Dissertation Methodology. Nathan Durdella

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      Preface

      Origins of Qualitative Dissertation Methodology

      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