The Dissertation:
A User’s Guide
D r. J e f f r e y S. B r o o k s a n d D r. M e l a n i e C. B r o o k s
Department of Leadership & Counseling
U n i ve r s i t y o f I d a h o
College of Education
Presented at Education and Globalization
Conference
Phuket, Thailand
M ay 2 0 , 2 0 1 4
E m a i l : j s b r o o k s @ u i d a h o. e d u ;
m c b r o o k s @ u i d a h o. e d u
An Introduction
 Brief
Introductions
 Who are you
and why are
you here?
About the Presenters
Melanie C. Brooks
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Assistant Professor at University of Idaho
•
International education, religion and education, education and leadership
in conflict zones
•
Research studies in Egypt, Thailand and Philippines
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2 edited books, 11 peer-reviewed articles, 7 book chapters
Jeffrey S. Brooks
•
Professor and Department Chair at University of Idaho
•
Social justice, globalization, racism, school reform, leadership preparation,
distributed leadership, school culture, poverty
•
Fulbright Scholar
•
Research studies in the United States, Philippines, Thailand
•
Authored 2 books, edited 7 books, authored 25 peer-reviewed articles, 24
book chapters
•
Series Editor, Educational Leadership for Social Justice book series
•
North American Editor, International Journal of Educational Management
•
Chaired many award-winning dissertations and served on several
dissertation award committees
The purpose of this presentation
 To provide encouragement, support, discourse, and
hopefully networking possibilities for students and
faculty engaged in research
 To present some basic aspects of inquiry applicable to
both qualitative and quantitative researchers should
consider when conducting their work
 It is also potentially a first step in developing or joining
a community of scholars.
 Please be proactive and involved!
A caveat!
 I am going to cover many topics
quickly in this presentation
 The idea is to provide a selective
rather than exhaustive overview
 I suggest that the best use of this
presentation is to use it as an aid
to talk and think through aspects
of the work, don’t use it as a
definitive guide
 Finally, this is pretty much
straight lecture. Not how I like to
teach, but what we need to do to
cover the topic. Please hold
questions until the end!
Before you begin: Do your homework!
Take stock of yourself and your support network
 Reflect on your knowledge, behaviors, habits, strengths and
weaknesses as a writer and researcher
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Be honest and examine both processes and products
 After you reflect, look around you…
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Your advisor/dissertation chair
 They are NOT a one-stop shop for all of your questions and concerns!
 They also have strengths and weaknesses
Other program/departmental faculty
Your fellow students
 Ideally, students at ALL phases of the program
Students and faculty you meet throughout the university and throughout
your field
Other people in your life
 Life will not stop because you choose to do a qualitative dissertation
Start now: Establish and nurture your support network
Conversations to have with people in your network
 Ask about their professional goals and share yours
 Discuss how the project can be valuable for both of you
 Discuss each of your strengths and weaknesses, related to the
project
 Ask if they can suggest anyone else with whom you should
speak with about the project
 Discuss mutual expectations

The difference between an advisor and a mentor
 If this is someone who will read your work:
 How long do you need to read and give feedback?
 What kind of feedback do you feel most prepared to give?
 Editing for content, style, and grammar
Make expectations clear for everyone involved
Deadlines, Timelines, Processes, and Products
 Deadlines
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Set them together and discus what will happen if you don’t meet them
What is your responsibility and what are other peoples’
responsibilities?
Be aware of departmental, college, graduate school, IRB deadlines, etc.
 Timelines
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Set them together, keeping in mind your research design and your life
Academic and personal issues: Job search timeline?
 Processes
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How often will you communicate, write, meet, and produce
 Products
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There is a big difference between a scholar and a productive scholar
Discussion
 What are your
strengths and
weaknesses as a
researcher?
 How does your
support network
help you enhance
your strengths and
compensate for
your weaknesses?
The Dissertation
The Qualitative Dissertation
An Introduction to the Dissertation
 The “traditional” dissertation often looks like this
 Chapter One: Introduction
 Chapter Two: Literature Review
 Chapter Three: Methods/methodology
 Chapter Four: Findings/results
 Chapter Five: Discussion and Conclusions
 Your dissertation
 Five-chapter model may work and it may not work
 Often longer than other dissertations
 Look at norms in your department, college, and beyond
 Often challenges some of the norms, with respect to topic,
content, and style
How to get from A to B
 The way it appears:
 My suggestion:
Chapter 1
↓
Chapter 2
↓
Chapter 3
↓
Chapter 4
↓
Chapter 5
Chapter 2
↓
Chapter 3
↓
Chapter 1
↓
Chapter 4
↓
Chapter 5
Choosing a topic: What interests you?
 Social Phenomena
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Understanding of social phenomenon can be informed by a
wide and uncritical variety of sources (experience, talk
radio, novels, movies, opinions, newspaper articles, etc.)
 Research Phenomena
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Implies various methodological traditions and
theoretical/conceptual orientations
Implies an appropriate research design
Implies systematic collection and analysis of data
Implies that the research is in an established line of inquiry
 The word “research” means “to look again”
 The word “review” means “to see again”
The critical question…
 What is the most
important
question or issue
facing your field
that needs to be
addressed?
Discussion
 What are the
most important
issues facing your
field today?
 What are your
research interests
and projects?
Writing as you read the literature: What comes first?
 Title

3-5 possible titles
 Research questions
 Purpose statement

You must be able to complete this sentence: The purpose of this
research is ______________.
 Abstract
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This will help you think about the big picture
 Table of Contents
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This will help you think about what belongs in the study…and
what doesn’t
 This is a good time to get feedback
Chapter Two: Literature Review
 Read widely, but critically and with purpose
 Be systematic, follow lines of inquiry and extend them
 Keep careful notes of methods and findings
 This will help you make decisions later about research design
 Identify and study methodological and topical exemplars
 Be a productive reader
 Choose and explore conceptual organizers
 Determine the role of theory in the study
 Conceptual frameworks
 Theoretical frameworks
 Consider how your study will constitute a novel and meaningful
contribution to the literature
 The dual purpose of the literature review is to (a) learn lessons
from what others have found studying the topic and to (b) articulate
a coherent perspective on the topic
Using a Literature Review to Develop Research Questions:
How to Identify a “Gap”
THEORY: Sociological Alienation
Research Questions
should come from here
LITERATURE: Teacher Professional
Community
LITERATURE: School Reform
Purpose of Literature Review? Conceptual or Theoretical
Framework
Chapter Three: Methodology and Methods
 Design
 Data Collection
 Data Analysis
 Other Issues to Consider
 How to establish rigor?
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Limitations
Bias
Positionality, with regard to subjects
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Reliability, Validity, Trustworthiness, etc.
Subjects: Emic versus etic, Participant, non-participant, advocacy,
emancipatory, constructivist
Stance: critical, confirmatory, exploratory
Research Design: The Blueprint
 “Qualitative” and “Quantitative” are not research designs
 What is the research design? (Examples from qualitative research)
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Case Study (for studying a specific person, group, time, place)
Phenomenology (for studying a phenomenon)
Ethnography (for studying culture)
Narrative (for narrating the story of people’s lived experience)
Action Research (for working from within to improve practice)
Grounded Theory (for developing theory where none exists)
There are many others, and many combinations of the above
 Site selection
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Typical or exceptional?
 Participant/Sample selection
Typical or exceptional?
 Appropriate unit/length of time?
 Be specific to your study: Who? What? When? Where? Why?
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Answer the Key Research Design Questions and Choose
the Most Appropriate Design
 Who are the key people and groups related to your research
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questions?
What are you studying and what type of data do you need
to collect to explore your research questions?
Where can you observe to learn more about your research
questions?
When should the research begin, end and be shared with
participants and other stakeholders?
Why is this work important? For whom is it important?
How should the work be conducted and how should the
research be presented?
Source: Gay, L.R. & Airasian, P. (2003). Educational research: Competencies for analysis and application (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill.
Data Collection
 Gaining Access to Sites or Data
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Gatekeepers matter—as do many other characteristics and issues
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Purposive, random, network (“snowball”), opportunistic
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Open-ended, semi-structured, structured
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Protocols, Field Notes, Memos
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Transcription, Anonymity
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A note on Appendices
 Participant Selection and Sampling
 Interviews
 Observations
 Documents
 Questionnaires/Surveys
 Data Management
 Informed Consent, Confidentiality, Security of Data
 Should you include sample interview questions?
 A note about “magic numbers…”
 Be specific to your study
Data Analysis
 Role of Theory and/or Literature in Analysis

Most common mistake I see in early dissertation drafts!
 What is the unit of analysis?
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Microanalysis
 Inductive and Iterative Process
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Constant Comparative Method
Triangulation
 Coding
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Open, axial, etc.
Purpose is to Identify Patterns and Themes, right? Nope! It’s to dig more deeply
into the data and help us understand it in a more nuanced or novel way
 To CAQDAS or not to CAQDAS?
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NVivo, ATLASti, Qualrus, Ethnograph, etc.
 When can I stop?
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Answering your research questions, theoretical saturation, etc.
Limitations
How do your design, your data
collection techniques, your
conceptual orientation, and your data
analysis procedures limit your
potential findings?
Reliability, Validity, Trustworthiness, etc.
 Reliability
Inter-coder reliability
Validity
 External
 Internal
Trustworthiness
Triangulation
Member check
Bottom line: Design
dictates the way you
establish the quality of
your study
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Discussion
 What are the major ideas
in your study?
 Can you easily explain it
someone outside of your
field?
 Do you know the
appropriate
methods/methodologies
for studying the issue?
 What are some alternative
ways you might conduct a
study on the topic?
Chapter One: Introduction
 Grab the reader’s attention
 Be direct and succinct
 State the purpose, significance, and potential
contribution of the research
 Give an overview of your study

Touch briefly on all key components
 Establish Operational Definitions of Key
Terms
Chapter Four: Findings
 Use first person perspective and pseudonyms
 But carefully consider your place in the study
 Be honest, creative, and data-rich
 Vary the presentation structure
 Organization of Chapter Four should flow directly from your
conceptual framework, but is driven more by what you found
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Do not simply present data, go deeper
Is your presentation reorganizing things in a logical, interesting,
appropriate, and insightful manner?
 Be detailed, but pursue depth, not breadth
 Stay Focused!
 Be faithful to Chapters Two and Three
 Do NOT introduce “new” literature here!
 Strive for balance of presentation
 Avoid the temptation to pursue tangential interests…
 …but don’t limit possibilities
Chapter Five: Discussion, Conclusions, Implications
 Answer your research questions!
 Connect what you presented in Chapter Four to what
you presented in Chapter Two to produce “new”
insights in Chapter Five
This is the place for brilliant diagrams and the like
 Help make the complexity accessible
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 This is not a place to air your dirty laundry
 Recommendations? To whom? Why?
 Be realistic, actionable, useful and stay grounded in your
analyses
Two writing guides I find helpful
Some Friendly Advice
 Ask questions…ask a LOT of questions
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Seek advice from as many sources as possible…
BUT…ask questions with a purpose (clarification; direction; how to reach specific career and
research goals)
 Identify potential committee members early
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Get to know your instructors as researchers
Doctoral Directive Status?
Advisor ≠ Instructor ≠ Mentor ≠ Dissertation Committee Chair ≠ Dissertation Committee
Member ≠ Best Friend ≠ Person-here-to-solve-all-my-personal-and-professional-problems
 Take the initiative to get involved at many levels
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Dyadic, Classroom, Departmental, College, University, Community, National, International
 Accept the responsibility for your own learning
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A bad metaphor, but a useful idea: You are no longer a passenger on the Train of Research,
you are the conductor
Recognize what you can change and what you can’t
Treat yourself and others with respect
Accept the responsibility to become an expert
Work to improve…work HARD
Writing is HARD work, but it isn’t AWFUL. Don’t be som dramatic and get some
perspctive—we are privileged to do this work and we can all get better and learn new things!
Planning: A Recipe for Failure
PLAN
Planning: A Recipe for Success
Task
Task
Task
Some thoughts on the final product(s)
 It is not “final,” but rather a first or second step
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…and it will be messy
 Size doesn’t matter
 Inductive and iterative means you must revisit Chapter Three (and
probably all the others)
 Don’t go too far astray
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You can wander off the path, but don’t go so far into the forest that you can’t find your way
back
Everything you do should contribute to answering and/or exploring your research questions
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…BUT it should help us understand an important phenomenon better
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Writing for publication
Seek out Win-Win opportunities for all involved
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 Your dissertation may or may not save the world
 What are other possible final products?
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 Unless you are extremely confident in your abilities and have proper
guidance, choose a straightforward methodology
 Consult the experts—peers, model studies, guides
 READ!!!
Some of my expectations and assumptions as a
member of your committee
 The dissertation is YOUR study
 My role is to facilitate your success
 Help me understand what that means for YOU in terms of your professional and
personal goals
 Do you need an advisor? A resource? A mentor? A taskmaster? A methodologist?
A support group? A best friend?
 A general note on taking responsibility
 A more specific note on being aware of and setting deadlines
 Another specific note about meetings and agendas
 The writing process, OR “gimmicks” that make life easier
 Annotated bibliographies, freewriting, outlines, editing, etc.
 If you are stuck, get unstuck! We all experience writer’s block…
 …but we don’t all do something about it—be that person who acts!
 Can we both/all benefit?
 Publications
 Networking for the next step
Some lessons…
Lesson #1: Don’t feel insecure about your
skills or experience—Your perspectives are
both
valuable and important.
Lesson #2: You can, and should, be working
right now. Be
toward publication
proactive, not reactive.
Lesson #3: You should seek out an effective
mentor who is committed to a
relationship of mutual benefit.
Lesson #4: Create and then develop a
powerful multi-purpose and multi-tiered
support network.
Lesson #5: Scholarly writing is a
conversation; engage that
conversation. This means both speaking and
listening.
content,
forms, and processes of
Lesson #6: Study the
excellence in your field. Develop your
skills.
Lesson #7: All the tips and tricks you
learned in school
actually work.
Lesson #8: Suppress the urge to change the
single
world with a
piece of academic
writing…but give us everything you have, every
time. Let people thing “quality” when they
see your name.
Lesson #9: Be creative and innovative…but
informed and
intelligent manner.
in an
Lesson #10: Learn processes that work
honest
for you, but be
--a process is not
working if there is no product.
Lesson #11: Know where you
are going. This means
identifying exemplars, your
strengths and weaknesses, and
resources that can help you get
there.
Thank you very much! Questions?