Completing Your Qualitative Dissertation: A Road Map From Beginning to End / Edition 2

by Linda Dale Bloomberg, Marie F. Volpe

Overview

Graduate students often struggle with turning qualitative research projects into a master's thesis or doctoral dissertation because the research itself is inherently messy. Completing Your Qualitative Dissertation: A Roadmap From Beginning to End, Second Edition helps address that challenge. Linda Dale Bloomberg and Marie Volpe have distilled decades of experience of dissertation advisement and successful doctoral defenses into this highly practical reference for graduate students. They focus on finding and articulating a clear research problem, purpose, and questions; laying out a research design that will lead to gathering the right kind of data and support the right kind of analysis; and writing up and defending the study. To help, they provide working tools, an integrative summary discussion at the end of each chapter, comprehensive checkists, and an annotated bibliography in each chapter.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781452202709
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	04/26/2012
Edition description:	Second Edition
Pages:	344
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 9.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Dr. Linda Dale Bloomberg is adjunct faculty at Teachers College Columbia University where she serves as dissertation advisor. She received her Doctorate in adult education from Columbia University. She has Master’s degrees in Counseling Psychology and Organizational Psychology from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, and in Jewish Education from the Siegal College of Judaic Studies, Cleveland. Over the past twenty years she has practiced as a psychologist, career counselor, and educational and business consultant, and has held research and teaching positions at various institutes in the United States as well as abroad. She is the author of numerous publications in the fields of counseling psychology, organizational evaluation, qualitative research, leadership development, adult education, Jewish education, and distance education.

Marie Volpe is adjunct assistant professor of adult and organizational learning at Teachers College Columbia University, where she teaches dissertation seminars and serves as advisor to doctoral candidates. She received her doctorate in adult education and master’s in organizational psychology from Columbia University and has done postdoctoral work at Harvard University. She conducts workshops for teachers in Mongolia and lectures on qualitative research methods at Suzho University, China. After a career spanning 35 years with Exxon Corporation, where she held the position of manager of education and development, Dr. Volpe embarked on a second career in higher education, where she has practiced for the past 20 years.

Table of Contents

List of Tables List of Figures List of Appendices Foreword Preface Acknowledgments About the Authors Part I. Taking Charge of Yourself and Your Work Chapter 1. A Complete Dissertation: The Big Picture Chapter 2. Gearing Up: There is Method in the Madness Chapter 3. Choosing a Qualitative Research Approach Chapter 4. A First Step: Developing Your Proposal Part II. Content and Process: A Chapter-By-Chapter Road Map Chapter 5. Introduction to Your Study Chapter 6. Developing and Presenting Your Literature Review Chapter 7. Presenting Methodology and Research Approach Chapter 8. Analyzing Data and Reporting Findings Chapter 9. Analyzing and Interpreting Findings Chapter 10. Drawing Trustworthy Conclusions and Presenting Actionable Recommendations Part III. Nearing Completion Chapter 11. Some Final Technical Considerations Chapter 12. Defense Preparation Afterword Appendices References Author Index Subject Index

Editorial Reviews

”I would definitely recommend the Bloomberg and Volpe text to students preparing a thesis or a dissertation because it provides such clear, practical guidelines and examples. It is the best guide I have read.”

Sharon Piety-Nowell

“This book should be included in every qualitative methods course. It is unique in its approach. Students need samples together with explanations, which this book accomplishes well. The book does not oversimplify either. It complements whatever texts may be used with it because it serves a unique purpose that the others do not.”

Denise F. Blum

I applaud the author for taking on the challenge of describing the conceptual/theoretical model. This piece of information alone will meaningfully improve doctoral students’ ability to progress forward with writing their dissertations. The conceptual/ theoretical model is one of the most misunderstood aspects of the dissertation, and yet the most important aspect of the dissertation because it anchors the study. But the single most impressive aspect of Completing Your Qualitative Dissertation is that the authors make sense of writing a qualitative dissertation in a way that will likely enhance the active and inactive students’ ability to complete their dissertation.

Antonio C. Cuyler

I have used previous editions of Completing Your Qualitative Dissertation and, while they have been excellent, I find the third edition to be the best resource for students that I’ve seen. The chapters are practical and applied, using a real life example throughout. There are even sections in each chapter that address frequent errors that students make. The third edition also provides a detailed description of various qualitative genres, making it easier for students to locate their own work within the book. This book will be required reading for each of my doctoral students, long before they start thinking about their dissertations.

Kate de Medeiros

Completing Your Qualitative Dissertation is well written and clear. There is an enjoyable mix of scholarly and informal tone that should engage students well. Figures and tables are useful and are appropriate and well placed or referenced within the manuscript. I especially like the use of related examples and included resources. I also like that the authors enumerate common student errors or mistakes in each chapter.

Nathan R. Templeton

Students interested and/or committed in engaging in qualitative research would find Completing Your Qualitative Dissertation to be extremely informative and easy to read. The organization and presentation of the content are both visually appealing and the content is presented in a very student friendly manner. The organization of the chapters including the chapter objectives, chapter summaries and checklists are also helpful for faculty in terms on developing syllabi and pacing of course materials. The charts and diagrams are also very helpful and beneficial. Students need resources and tools to help with the thinking, collecting and analysis of rich qualitative data—of which can be found in almost every chapter of this text.

This book does not lecture students but provides helpful tools to the assist in the collection of rich qualitative data. In addition, in many instances the students are actually able to see the tools and suggestions provided in the text in “action.” When reading this text, the students are not left with figuring out next steps and how, this book provides a very clear road map.

Kriss Y. Kemp-Graham

In this third edition, I appreciated even more the intention the authors give to demystifying both the process of doctoral research and the rationale for the dissertation as a culminating product. It is heartening to have experienced researchers and teachers provide such clarifying and encouraging support to novices, particularly those whose progress through the complicated journey of becoming a qualitative researcher has become stymied and who are thereby feeling demoralized or despairing of ever completing their research work. The challenges of providing good research advisement stood out for me in reading this revision, so even though Completing Your Qualitative Dissertation is primarily designed for a graduate student audience, I have already recommended the third edition to my faculty colleagues within counselor education who are looking for a way to better transition excellent clinicians into excellent qualitative researchers for the counseling profession.

Karen Mackie

This third edition is a valuable guide for doctoral students. Theoretical and often abstract elements of the dissertation process are translated into clear and practical steps that students can take and instructors can share on the road toward successful completion of the dissertation.

Amira Proweller