Qualitative Dissertation Methodology. Nathan Durdella
science research frameworks. In fact, unless your study’s background justifies the use of a survey in a mixed methods design, including one in the study would run counter to conventional approaches in social science research—especially if you use a survey with a small sample size or a sampling technique that is purposeful or to recruit participants for later interviews. What is more, using a survey without justification potentially could confound the study’s results and findings and unnecessarily extend time to complete the dissertation study and degree program.
The claim that you must use multiple qualitative data collection methods for a “valid” study. Like the need to use survey research methods in a clearly qualitative research design, when students (or faculty advisors) argue that multiple methods must be used in a dissertation study, they generally cite the need to triangulate data. In these instances, I generally ask, Why do you need to triangulate data through methods alone? As we will see in later chapters, we have several strategies to ensure credible, dependable, transferable, and confirmable studies in naturalistic inquiry with a single qualitative data collection procedure. These strategies include adoption of practices to mitigate researcher bias and participant reactivity and the use of multiple approaches to triangulate data by data source (e.g., persons, processes, events, documents), data type (e.g., textual, numeric, audio, video), and data collection procedure (e.g., personal interviews, group interviews, observations, critical incident reports, etc.). Here, avoid the use of extra steps in data collection, steps that can have a ripple effect on data analysis and interpretation and can add time on events in the context of the study.
The insistence that more than one research case and/or data collection site be included in your study. Along similar lines as the previous argument (which all seem to be logically connected), student advisees or faculty colleagues sometimes share that students need to work with multiple sites in a dissertation study—irrespective of the research problem, purpose, or questions. Generally speaking, if a study’s research problem identifies a need for a comparative approach to explore or understand a phenomenon or a group across institutional or organizational contexts, then a multisite design would be appropriate. By contrast, to include more than one site in a study without justification makes little sense in qualitative research methodology and may delay research progress if issues with access and permissions arise. What is more, the selection of sites without the use of a standard purposeful sampling strategy or strategies adds to the mess of a multisite study that appears to require a single site only. Why messy? When students include more than one site in a study without tying the decision directly to the background, they risk running into problems with data access and permissions and not maintaining a comparative lens throughout the data analytical and interpretive phases of the study.
The notion that case studies are the best approach to conducting qualitative studies in applied or professional fields. While generally uncommon, I have heard this argument from some colleagues. In fact, these colleagues contend that students in applied fields—like education, social work, urban planning, or public health—may not have the requisite skills to design and conduct a full ethnographic study, for example. In addition, they argue that students in these programs tend to have time, resource, and career restraints that prevent them from traveling and/or entering the field for a year or more to conduct an ethnography. Indeed, doctoral students who work full time or have career and/or family obligations may be limited in what they can do in the field. However, the fact that they cannot complete all of the activities within the standard length of time does not mean that these students cannot adopt or borrow principles of qualitative research traditions such as ethnography, phenomenology, grounded theory, or narrative inquiry. In later chapters, we will discuss strategies to scale methods and procedural steps in the context of data collection and analysis in these traditions. If a dissertation study’s research problem, purpose, and questions support the use of a research tradition and a student’s interest in using such a tradition is strong then this is an appropriate approach. Doing so generally enhances a study’s results and findings, usually brings more meaning to research activities, and connects students to a broader community of researchers connected to the tradition.
Connecting qualitative methodology to coursework.
One of the strongest mechanisms to negotiate dissertation methodology is program coursework. In fact, curricular offerings represent the most important and generally most efficient approach to not just develop the components of a methodological framework but complete the background work necessary to justify design and methods associated with a study. Generally speaking, the structure, sequence, and content related to courses in doctoral programs offer a range of options to students to navigate through the early development of a dissertation research framework and methodology. Indeed, standard courses tend to include theory, content, methods, and application or field-based courses—completed over a 2-to-3 year period. Looking at these courses through a dissertation methodological lens, they can be seen as follows:
Yearlong pro-seminars and semester content courses in subfields or areas of study may support developing an understanding of major figures in the empirical and conceptual literature and facilitate initial and even more advanced development of a research problem, purpose, and questions.
Methods courses cannot only build the knowledge base and skill set to design and execute an entire dissertation study but also allow students to develop the essential components of a methodological framework—from the assumptions and foundational concepts of research design to specific procedures for data collection and analysis. Frequently, these courses force students to get into the field and pilot instruments and experiment with procedures—all of which advance conceptually and sometimes pragmatically elements of dissertation methodology.
Field-based or research apprenticeship courses may offer students opportunities to consult folks at potential data collection sites and in research settings similar to those that will form the locations where they will perform data collection. These experiences may allow students to build rapport with gatekeepers, flesh out research questions, pilot data collection instruments—interview protocols or descriptive observation guides, for example—or get to know the lay of the land at data collection sites.
Whether at the start of a program or near the end of curricular degree requirements, reading and written assignments, lectures and activities, and instructor and peer discussions can move students toward a firmer understanding of what they want to do in their studies in terms of design and methods and support actual work in the development of their dissertation methodology chapters. In fact, you can negotiate or situate dissertation-related work in almost all of these elements of program coursework. In a position in which students grasp what they will do or have an early or working draft of their dissertation methodology drafted, students tend to consult their dissertation chairs with a stronger position, which may potentially mitigate the effects of recommendations—or strong suggestions—related to methodology from their chair.
Key Questions to Ask Yourself
How have I leveraged my coursework, campus work, and professional work to advance how I approach my dissertation methodology?
What do I need to do to utilize these resources to support the development of a design and methods for my methodology chapter, including negotiating methodological dimensions with my chair and/or committee?
Collaborating with faculty and peers to advance qualitative dissertation methodology.
In addition to coursework, the work that students do outside of class can relate directly to dissertation research. In fact, a range of options may be available to students on and off campus to support dissertation work, including the following (see Figure 2.3):
Funded or sponsored faculty research generally supports graduate student dissertation research. Where faculty serve as a principal investigator or co-principal investigator on an extramurally funded project—whether publically sponsored or privately gifted—student opportunities in project administration positions and research assistantships emerge. These positions may offer students experiences in instrumentation, data collection, data analysis,