37 5 Identifying Your Dissertation Topic and Your Research Questions The opportunity to take a topic of importance to me and concentrate on it for extended periods of time—persisting with an idea and seeing how it develops over time—a pure luxury—and I loved it. I enjoyed doing the review of the literature. I imagined myself a great detective, tracking down leads one after another. Or it was a chain reaction: one article’s bibliography would lead to another great source. The best was when I hit the “mother lode,” research directly related to what I wanted to do. Before writing your dissertation, you need to know what you want to research, what you want to learn. A dissertation is expected to “break new ground” for a discipline, and in the process of breaking new ground, you, as the researcher, become proficient at conducting research. Although a common belief about research is that we do research to confirm or prove our assumptions, this is inaccurate. Rather, research is a process of searching repeatedly, re-searching for new insights and a more comprehensive, cohesive, “elegant” theory. There are probably few, if any “truths”—immutable, never-changing facts. Each research project intends to advance our knowledge, getting closer to “truth.” All studies are limited by time, if nothing else. Findings from research allow us to make potentially more accurate predictions. But predictions and hypotheses are not guarantees. (See, for example, Search and re-search, edited by Brause and Mayher, 1991, for a detailed explanation of these phenomena.) While each research project contributes to our growing knowledge, there are qualitative differences in research studies. Not all are equally useful: some are poorly conceived and conducted, while others are carefully conceptualized, operationalized, and analyzed. You will need to decide if your study will be “quick and dirty,” fulfilling the letter of the requirement, without advancing knowledge, or a serious attempt, at least, to contribute to our academic world. For some, this decision is not easy. Some doctoral students just want to get done. Others hold that if they are spending their time, they want the result to be potentially useful, not merely an academic exercise which will collect dust on a library shelf or use up space in a database when it is finished. Clearly the more time you devote to planning and doing your study, the more likely it will make a contribution to your Identifying your dissertation topic 38 discipline. Similarly, the less time you devote to thinking about your study, the less likely it will have any impact beyond perhaps qualifying you to receive your degree. There is another element to consider in this equation: the faculty at your institution. Since, ultimately, some faculty members will need to sign their names as “supporters” of your dissertation, you might find that faculty will not work with you on a topic of little significance. Others may place their emphasis on the doctoral student learning to conduct independent research. Your decision about the tack you will take in doing your dissertation cannot be made in isolation. You need to know about the generally accepted practice in your department and make your decision with this knowledge. For most, the identification of “what to study” evolves slowly as they become immersed in a variety of concepts, theories, philosophies, and research in the required coursework. Some students enter a program with a clear idea of what they want to do for their dissertation. There are at least two schools of thought about when to identify your research focus: • The earlier in your coursework you decide on an area of study the better. You focus all of your attention on the issue, connecting all assignments and readings to your research focus. • The later in the process you decide the better. With this extended knowledge, you are in a position to see where there are gaps and conflicts in your discipline, and you may design a study which will lead to expanding your discipline’s knowledge. Clearly there are benefits and limitations to each perspective. A middle ground is probably most productive, wherein you gradually focus, while maintaining interest in a wide range of potential research areas. Ultimately, the time will arrive when you are “ready.” There are many essential ingredients which contribute to your readiness to start writing your dissertation. Some academic and personal characteristics of doctoral students who are “ready” include: • a sense of wonder, interest, and/or excitement about a specific topic or question; • extensive familiarity with “the literature” and the current state of knowledge in the field or discipline of your doctoral program 1 ; • encouragement and support for you and your ideas within your program community; • time to work on the project; • a desire to contribute to a discipline or field; and • a determination to complete the doctoral program and go on with your life beyond graduate school. Identifying your dissertation topic 39 You might want to assess your own readiness for getting started using the grid presented below. Place a check ( ) next to those items which describe you at this time. Place a minus (-) next to those items which are missing at this time. Now that you’ve noted your current status on these six characteristics, you need to consider and respond to that evaluation. If at least three items are checked, you’re probably ready. If less than three are checked, you’ll need to consciously work on establishing your readiness before proceeding. In the ideal world, if all items had checks next to them, you would progress very rapidly. In the real world, we try to have as many of these issues covered as we can. Clearly you cannot do this project alone. It takes a large number of people working with you to accomplish this! Ironically, doctoral students frequently sabotage their own progress, allowing others to control their academic advancement. Our lives become increasingly complex and integrated into others’ lives as we take on additional responsibilities. This factor alone makes it difficult for an adult to isolate herself or himself for any extended period of time. Getting done with the dissertation usually takes obsessive dedication, with the dissertation becoming the most important activity in a person’s life for a finite time. This observation suggests that the sooner you start, and the more rapidly you progress, the more likely Identifying your dissertation topic 40 you are to graduate. There are advantages to moving quickly: the research you have read in your coursework remains current, the faculty interested in your research questions are ready to work with you; your questions continue to intrigue you and your responsibilities to others are manageable. Knowing what is likely to be expected at each stage of the process of dissertation writing will enable you to take charge of this activity in your life. Creating a Setting for Working on Your Dissertation While there are multiple ways to work on a dissertation, there are three typical ways to get started, as represented graphically in Figure 5.1: • working independently; • working collaboratively with other students in your program; and • working in consultation with faculty in your program. Your working environment could take many forms. Let’s consider the advantages and disadvantages of some. Working Independently You are totally in control when you are working independently. You set the time, you set the pace, you set the focus, you critique your work, you decide when it’s ready for external review. If you are a self-starter, this might be a good model. If you get easily discouraged and then stop working, this will not be a good setting for you. If you have more confidence in your own views than in anyone else’s, you will not be sidetracked by potentially differing perspectives. If you are good at reflecting on your work, finding where your text is unclear, and where additional resources are needed, for example, then working independently may be a good setting for you. Being familiar with your own working style, you will be in an excellent position to decide if this setting will be productive for you. Figure 5.1 Creating your working environment: one set of options Identifying your dissertation topic 41 Collaborating with Student-colleagues Collaboration can take several forms. You could restrict your group to include only student-colleagues who are in your program, for example, or you could create a more expansive group, drawing on doctoral students across many programs at your university or including colleagues from your workplace. You could also restrict your group to one or two other people. Or you could have a relatively large group of seven or eight. Your comfort level, your experiences working in groups, and your familiarity with other students in the program will all contribute to the form of this collaborative group. The size of the group and the frequency of the meetings may vary over time as group members progress or get diverted to other projects. When you collaborate with others, you determine mutually agreeable times and places to work. You start and stop in collaboration with others. You progress at a rate comfortable for those in your group. Your advancement will be monitored by your group, and facilitated or restricted by them. In a collaborative group, your knowledge is enriched by sharing with your collaborators. When the experiences and expertise of all the members in the group contribute to the progress of each participant, a collaborative setting is useful. Each member in such a setting must know or learn to be a productive collaborator, helping others while reciprocally obtaining the assistance needed. At times, group members have been known to cater totally to others’ views, reluctant to take a stand, perhaps unsure of their own grounding. These individuals may be more interested in harmony than in learning or exposing their own thinking to others’ analyses. Or they may have little confidence in their own thinking, deferring to others’ ideas almost automatically. If you choose to work in a collaborative group, monitor and evaluate the effects of your participation on the evolution and completion of your work. Collaborating with Program Professor(s) Knowing that ultimately the dissertation will need to be accepted by the program professor(s), doctoral students frequently identify one or two professors to guide their progress. They depend exclusively on these faculty members to direct them to appropriate readings, to tell them when and what to write or revise, and when and where to do their data collection, for example. In this scenario, a student may be overly influenced by the biases and preferences of the professor regarding differences in opinion in the discipline or field. The student might become something of a clone of the professor, depending on the styles of the professor and the student. A student may also have easier access to many developing ideas in the field, and perhaps, unpublished works as well, when collaborating with a professor who is actively researching in the field of specialization. Clearly the student in this setting knows how at least one professor will respond to the work which . research. Your decision about the tack you will take in doing your dissertation cannot be made in isolation. You need to know about the generally accepted practice in your department and make your. determination to complete the doctoral program and go on with your life beyond graduate school. Identifying your dissertation topic 39 You might want to assess your own readiness for getting. options Identifying your dissertation topic 41 Collaborating with Student-colleagues Collaboration can take several forms. You could restrict your group to include only student-colleagues who are in your program,