A Sample Qualitative Dissertation Proposal Prepared by Alejandro Morales NOTE: This proposal is included in the ancillary materials of Research Design with permission of the blogger.com Size: KB Oct 08, · Developing a theoretical framework for your dissertation is one of the key elements of a qualitative research project. Through writing your literature review, you are likely to have identified either a problem that need ‘fixing’ or a gap that your research may begin to Author: Kirsty Hemsworth A qualitative dissertation is a research study that bases its results on findings correlated through methodology such as interviews, focus groups and participant observation. Dissecting case studies can also be utilized in qualitative dissertations
Dissertation Results & Findings Chapter (Qualitative) - Grad Coach
Developing a theoretical framework for your dissertation is one of the key elements of a qualitative writing a qualitative dissertation project. The theoretical framework is your toolbox. In the toolbox are your handy tools: a set of theories, concepts, ideas and hypotheses that you will use to build a solution to the research problem or gap you have identified. The methodology is the instruction manual: the procedure and steps you have taken, using your chosen tools, to tackle the research problem.
First, select your tools. You are likely to need a variety of tools in qualitative research — different theories, models or concepts — to help you tackle writing a qualitative dissertation parts of your research question.
When deciding what tools would be best for the job of answering your research questions or problem, explore what existing research in your area has used. You will need to justify why your chosen tools are best for the job of answering your research questions, at what stage they are most relevant, and how they relate to each other, writing a qualitative dissertation. Some theories or models will neatly fit together and appear in the toolboxes of other researchers. If this is the case, make sure you justify and account for why it is useful to you, and look for ways that it can be used in partnership with the other tools you are using.
This video from the Skills Centre includes an overview and example of how you might create a theoretical framework for your dissertation:. One way to check this is to look for consistency between your objectives, the literature in your framework, and your overall ethos for the research. This means ensuring that the literature you have used not only contributes to answering your research objectives, but that you also use theories and models writing a qualitative dissertation are true to your writing a qualitative dissertation as a researcher.
Reflecting on your values and your overall ambition for the project can be a helpful step in making these decisions, as it can help you to fully connect your methodology and methods to your research aims. Should I writing a qualitative dissertation on my position as a researcher? If you feel your position as a researcher has influenced your choice of methods or procedure in any way, the methodology is a good place to reflect on this. Positionality acknowledges that no researcher is entirely objective: we are all, to some extent, writing a qualitative dissertation, influenced by prior learning, experiences, knowledge, and personal biases.
It's also important to reflect on your positionality if you belong to the same community as your participants where this is the grounds for their involvement in the research ie. you are a mature student interviewing other mature learners about their experences in higher education.
The main difference between an extended literature review and a dissertation where writing a qualitative dissertation data is collected, is in the presentation of the methodology, results and discussion sections. You will have much more freedom to decide which sections of the dissertation should be combined, and whether new chapters or sections should be added. Here is an overview of writing a qualitative dissertation common structure for an extended literature review:.
You will need to write a short, overview literature review to introduce the main theories, concepts and key research areas that you will explore in your dissertation. This set of texts — which may be theoretical, research-based, practice-based or policies — form your theoretical framework. In other words, by bringing these texts together in the literature review, you are creating a lens that you can then apply to more focused examples or scenarios in your discussion chapters.
As you will not be collecting primary data, your methodology will be quite writing a qualitative dissertation from a typical dissertation. You will need to set out the process and procedure you used to find and narrow down your literature.
This is also known as a search strategy. A search strategy explains how you have narrowed down your literature to identify key studies and areas of focus. This often takes the form of a search strategy table, included as an appendix at the end of the dissertation. If included, this section takes the place of the traditional 'methodology' section.
If you choose to include a search strategy table, you should also give an overview of your reading process in the main body of the dissertation. Think of this as a chronology of the practical steps you took and your writing a qualitative dissertation for doing so at each stage, such as:. The discussion section of an extended literature review is the most flexible in terms of structure. In this section you will apply the theoretical framework you formed in the literature review — a combination of theories, models and ideas that explain your approach to the topic — to a series of different examples and scenarios.
Think about an order for these discussion sections or chapters writing a qualitative dissertation helps to tell the story of your research. One common approach is to structure these sections by common themes or concepts that help to draw your sources together. You might also opt for a chronological structure if your dissertation aims to show change or development over time.
Another option is to deliberately show where there is a lack of chronology or narrative across your case studies, by ordering them in a fragmentary order! You will be able to reflect upon the structure of these chapters elsewhere in the dissertation, explaining and defending your decision in the methodology and conclusion. Depending on your research aims, and whether you are working with a case-study type approach where each section of the dissertation considers a different example or concept through the lens established in your literature reviewyou might opt for one of the following structures:.
Splitting the literature review across different chapters:. This structure allows you to pull apart the traditional literature review, introducing it little by little with each of your themed chapters. This approach works well for dissertations that attempt to show change or difference over time, as the relevant literature for that section or period can be introduced gradually to the reader.
Whichever structure you opt for, remember to explain and justify your approach. Here are some example sentence starters:. In qualitative studies, your results are often presented alongside the discussion, as it is difficult to include this data in a meaningful way without explanation and interpretation.
In the dsicussion section, aim to structure your work thematically, moving through the key concepts or ideas that have emerged from your qualitative data. Use extracts from your data collection - interviews, focus groups, writing a qualitative dissertation, observations - to illustrate where these themes are most prominent, and refer back to the sources from your literature review to help draw conclusions.
Here's an example of how your data could writing a qualitative dissertation presented in paragraph format in this section:, writing a qualitative dissertation. In analysing the interview data, two themes emerged which will be discussed in this section. These themes were: the complexity and challenges of working with families and the professional satisfaction and challenges of program planning for children in preschool or childcare.
Introduction to the key themes identified from the interviews. For each of these graduates, their work with children was clearly the area of their professional lives that was bringing the most satisfaction, writing a qualitative dissertation, although there were some challenges identified. In the interviews, writing a qualitative dissertation, the data reveal that they were all seeking ways to improve their pedagogy and achieving success in different ways….
Summary of theme A identified from the data. Angela suggested that in her second year of teaching she had changed in that she was programming in a "more child oriented" way. She discussed this change:. One of the things I've changed is this idea of herding children through the Kinder day: they go from indoor play to snack time to the mat and so on. How I do it now is that I have a lot of different things happening at once, writing a qualitative dissertation.
I'll have a small group on the mat and there might be some children sitting down and having a snack and there's still some children in home corner playing. Specific example from your interviews to support this theme, embedded as a direct quotation. These comments seem to provide evidence that Angela is growing professionally for two reasons. First, the ability to identify changes in her program suggests to me that she has deeper pedagogical knowledge gained through critical reflection on her practice, and second, there is congruence between her expressed beliefs and the practice she describes… This is supported by… Source A; Source B.
Refer back to texts from the literature review that support your conclusions. Example from 'Reporting and discussing your findings ', Monash University, writing a qualitative dissertation. It looks like you're using Internet Explorer 11 or older, writing a qualitative dissertation.
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Search this Guide Search. Dissertations and research projects Online study guides for every stage of your research project, from planning to writing up.
Also includes advice on writing a remote dissertation while social distancing measures are in place. Developing a theoretical framework What is a theoretical framework? Why do I need a theoretical framework? Developing a theoretical framework shows that you have thought critically about the different ways to approach your topic, and that you have made a well-reasoned and evidenced decision about which approach will work best, writing a qualitative dissertation.
Theoretical frameworks are also necessary for solving complex problems or issues from the literature, showing that you have the skills to think creatively and improvise to answer your research questions. They also allow researchers to establish new theories and approaches, that future research may go on to develop. How do I create a theoretical framework for my dissertation?
How do I choose the 'right' approach? One of your core beliefs could be that these contemporary translations by non-experts show expertise and complex knowledge of languages that have not been recognized fully by the literature.
It is therefore important that your theoretical framework and the literature you choose reflects this value. Reflecting on your position Should I reflect on my position as a researcher? How am I positioned in relation to this knowledge? Am I being influenced by prior learning or knowledge from outside of this course? Do I share any attributes with my participants?
Are we part of a s hared community? Am I invested in the outcomes on a personal level? Who is this research for and who will feel the benefits? For in-depth information on qualitative research, see: Flick, U.
The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Data Collection. London, : SAGE Publications Ltd. Extended literature reviews One option for qualitative projects is to write an extended literature review.
This type of project does not require you to collect any new data. Instead, writing a qualitative dissertation, you should focus on synthesising a broad range of literature to offer a new perspective on a research problem or question. Explain the value and relevance of your research in this context.
Outline what do you hope to contribute with your dissertation. Clarify a specific area of focus. Introduce your research aims or problem and objectives. Literature review You will need to write a short, writing a qualitative dissertation, overview literature review to introduce the main theories, concepts and key research areas that you will explore in your dissertation.
How to write in a qualitative way: Writing qualitative research
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Section 1: Introduction. The first step is to craft a brief introduction to the chapter. This intro is vital as it provides some context for your findings. In your introduction, you should begin by reiterating your problem statement and research questions and highlight the purpose of your research Oct 08, · Developing a theoretical framework for your dissertation is one of the key elements of a qualitative research project. Through writing your literature review, you are likely to have identified either a problem that need ‘fixing’ or a gap that your research may begin to Author: Kirsty Hemsworth A qualitative dissertation is a research study that bases its results on findings correlated through methodology such as interviews, focus groups and participant observation. Dissecting case studies can also be utilized in qualitative dissertations
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