Qualitative Dissertation Methodology. Nathan Durdella
right fit for your study
Discuss key principles that guide the development of a qualitative dissertation methodology and qualitative dissertation research process
Develop a timetable within which you can complete a qualitative dissertation methodology
Identify strategies to select a dissertation chair and describe criteria to select dissertation committee members
Implement strategies designed to enhance and maintain relationships with faculty involved with your dissertation research project
Chapter Purpose
This chapter examines strategies to successfully develop a qualitative dissertation through a discussion of an actionable set of recommendations for research practice that guide initial considerations in dissertation work and advising. The chapter explores critical early decisions that doctoral students make: confirming that qualitative research is the best fit for their dissertation research study and tying personal goals to qualitative research goals in a dissertation research context. Next, the chapter reflects on how qualitative research approaches structure work in a dissertation, including practical implications of working as a qualitative researcher. Topics include executing a study on schedule and strategies to select a dissertation chair and committee members. Further, the chapter looks at the other major decisions that students make at early stages in the dissertation research process: working with a dissertation chair and committee to co-construct qualitative dissertation methodology. Situated within the dissertation advising process, the chapter focuses on three foundational principles that form the basis of a plan to complete the dissertation study efficiently: select the right topic, work with a chair who knows qualitative research, and assemble the best dissertation committee. The chapter ends with a discussion of strategic practices to initiate a change in dissertation advisors and/or committee members, when warranted, and enhance relationships with faculty and student colleagues to support dissertation methodology development work.
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Key Chapter Concepts
Ensuring that qualitative research is appropriate for your research interests
Goal setting in qualitative dissertations
Qualitative dissertation methodology work
Dissertation chair and committee member selection criteria and strategies
Ensuring that Qualitative Methodology Is the Right Fit for Your Dissertation Research Interests
In all likelihood, you have thought seriously about or even committed to using qualitative approach in your dissertation study that is qualitative—and maybe you have already started work on the background and/or qualitative research design of your dissertation proposal. In my own dissertation research work, I committed early on to using qualitative research design and methods, taking methods classes in qualitative inquiry and using a yearlong course sequence to pilot a qualitative dissertation study. (Ultimately, I pursued a new topic but retained a qualitative research approach for my dissertation study). Wherever you are at in your efforts to develop an approach to gather and make sense of information for your dissertation project, you must confirm if qualitative research is the right fit for your research interests.
When you consider qualitative research, the general purposes associated with approaches that use qualitative research design and methods tend to cluster around a few central concepts—which offer a clue to what qualitative researchers value and do in their work. Taken together, these concepts reveal what qualitative researchers do—the goals of their projects, the work that they do in the field, the products of their fieldwork, and the stories that they tell. These ideas relate to the following:
1 description;
2 discovery (Ambert, Alder, Alder, & Detzner, 1995);
3 exploration, especially related to how and why people behave (Ambert et al.);
4 interpretation (Peshkin, 1993); and
5 verification (Peshkin).
Here, you can see the overarching directions of qualitative research, with an aim toward extended exploration of in-depth descriptions of human social life. Indeed, the overall approach in qualitative research traditions moves researchers into the field to learn from and discover folks in their daily lives. This inquiry approach to social and behavioral science research is distinct from quantitative and mixed methods approaches, which generally focus on hypothesis testing and prediction.
Given the arc of qualitative research, you should be interested in exploring and describing (rather than hypothesis testing and prediction in quantitative research). Do you have an interest in description and exploration? How does your current thinking about your dissertation project measure up to the general interests and focus of qualitative research? Before you answer these questions and set the course of your study, you should complete an initial review of the empirical literature in areas related to your research topic and interests. No need to do an exhaustive search, evaluation, and synthesis of research work related to what you want to do right now! Unless you are at a stage in the research process where you have a good grasp of current work in the field, you can focus on recent publications and/or readings from class discussions and assignments to distill an early research problem and purpose—which will allow you to confirm if the qualitative approach that you have in mind is the right one for your study.
Developing a Qualitative Methodology for Your Dissertation
As a current graduate student in a doctoral program, you have committed to completing a course of study that few people follow. If you complete coursework, pass qualifying exams (or a set of exams over multiple years), and conduct and defend a dissertation study, you will be awarded—you will have earned—a doctoral degree. In fact, if you successfully complete these degree requirements, you will join the ranks of about 1% of the U.S. population with doctoral degrees (Nettles & Millett, 2006).
Designing an executable—doable to done—dissertation study relates directly what you propose to do methodologically (and otherwise). This is particularly relevant in qualitative research, which requires fieldwork—more on this in Chapter 6. What is important here is to consider the factors that shape how you spend or will spend time in your study—and what tends to impede progress during project implementation. For example, will you sample and recruit in your own organization or need to access and gain permission offsite? Will you travel or stay local for data collection? Consider sampling, recruitment, and data collection activities in your timeline. Think about what the scope of your dissertation study is.
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Select a research purpose connected to qualitative research goals.
The overriding goals of qualitative research—description, verification, interpretation—all tend to offer a broad range of opportunities to develop a research purpose and question for a study. If you randomly sampled (ironic, yes?) dissertations that use a qualitative approach, you would find that they share methodologically characteristics: they explore, describe, detail, and interpret facets of human social life—what people do, say, make, and believe. The emphasis here is on understanding experiences—collective and individual—of the human condition and learning directly from folks who form the participants of your study. Across social contexts and settings—from institutions, communities, families, and groups—qualitative research aims toward in-depth synthesis, analysis, and interpretation of what it means to live as members of groups and in human societies.
Until you move into specific research traditions, the products of qualitative inquiry often look alike. That is, they generally share similar language and focus that can be seen across research purpose statements.