Qualitative Dissertation Methodology. Nathan Durdella
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.
Purpose of Qualitative Dissertation Methodology
Qualitative Dissertation Methodology: A Guide for Research Design and Methods integrates the unique dimensions of qualitative research approaches with a dissertation research guide, supporting doctoral students and faculty who supervise dissertation research through the development of a qualitative methodology for dissertation studies. I hope that the book conveys the idea that designing and writing a qualitative dissertation methodology chapter can be done! As a guide-in-action resource—within the context of differing approaches, intricate complexities, and unique facets of dissertation methodology—the central outcome of the book is a draft methodology chapter for a doctoral dissertation that uses qualitative research design and methods. As a guide for individual students and faculty dissertation advisors or a textbook and supplementary resource, especially in doctoral-level courses and workshops in dissertation writing, design, and methods, there is a range of uses for the book. Indeed, students or faculty can pick up the book to support a specific task in constructing their dissertation methods chapter qualitatively or approach writing their dissertation methodology more generally. As a text for a course, the book can be assigned in doctoral writing courses and dissertation seminars—from dissertation proposal preparation courses to yearlong, pro-seminar-type course—and semester-long dissertation writing programs or short-term “boot camp” workshops.
The book offers doctoral students in education and other applied professional fields and social science disciplines a comprehensive guide to conceptualize, design, and write a qualitative methodological framework for their dissertation. Presenting a section-by-section approach to thinking about and writing a qualitative methodological framework in dissertation studies, the book combines components of dissertation advising and writing with social science research concepts. This approach contextualizes research design and methods within the conventions of the dissertation—serving as a guide to plan for and write thesis and dissertation methodology, a key area of need in doctoral programs today. In fact, some of the top areas where I see students challenged as they begin the dissertation research process is in the understanding and application of research design, the connections between components in a dissertation methodology, and the organization of a dissertation methodology chapter. Further, I observe challenges among students with negotiating and managing relationships with dissertations chairs and committees—often related to decisions about methodology or related activities that emerge from methodological decisions: recruitment, data collection, and data analysis. While current texts serve to support dimensions of the thesis and dissertation research process, I struggle to find a comprehensive text that offers master’s and doctoral students in applied social science fields a complete resource to guide them through the development of their methodological framework.
Of course, approaches to dissertations and dissertation methodology chapters vary, and disciplines tend to require slightly different formats or contents in dissertations. Within the methods chapter, for example, some programs require data collection instruments be presented separately from data collection procedures whereas other programs treat them as a single element and present them together. While approaches vary, programs where monograph or book-length dissertations serve as the culminating research experience of a course of study leading to the terminal degree tend to rely on the five-chapter or similar format—and in the middle of the five chapters lies in methodology. The common elements of a methodological framework in a dissertation generally follow a brief introduction: research design or tradition, research setting and context, data sources and research sample, data collection instruments, data collection procedures, and data analysis procedures. Further, whether part of a broader discussion of trustworthiness and quality or as a standalone section, an exploration of researcher roles and strategies to mitigate researcher bias and participant reactivity can accompany dissertation methodology in qualitative research. Against the backdrop of the varying dissertation formats that students and faculty use, this book accounts for differences in programmatic approaches and is intended to address the unique needs to conceptualize, design, and write a qualitative dissertation methodology of students and faculty alike.
Audience for Qualitative Dissertation Methodology
I wrote Qualitative Dissertation Methodology: A Guide for Research Design and Methods primarily for students in doctoral degree programs in U.S. colleges and universities. Specifically, the primary audiences for the