The Qualitative Dissertation: A Guide for Students and Faculty

""""A must for faculty and students interested in understanding the multifarious nature of qualitative research."" Marilyn Llewellyn, Associate Professor Carlow College, Pittsburgh, PA ""Piantanida and Garman have artfully portrayed the inquiry process, demystifying qualitative research and making it accessible to classroom teachers who wish to understand their practice and/or their professional lives through a qualitative lens." "Kathleen M. Ceroni, English Teacher Southmoreland Senior High School, Alverton, PA """"An invaluable text that can be referenced again and again. Helps allay the isolation and anxiety that many practitioners experience in their roles as doctoral students." "Lynn A. Richards, Elementary Classroom Teacher Mars Area Schools, Mars, PA """The Qualitative Dissertation" offers a unique look into the process of writing a qualitative dissertation and shows how cycles of deliberation, essential to qualitative studies, affect the outcome. Moving through,the cycles in research is like moving from one whirlpool to another in a fast-moving stream. This book offers both students and faculty a nonlinear pathway through the tough spots and pressure points to a finished product. The authors bring an interpretive perspective to qualitative research in education, exploring modes of inquiry that are particularly well suited to practice-based dissertation research. As co-facilitators of a qualitative dissertation study group, they have worked with more than fifty educational practitioners using a variety of research methods described in this book.Through vignettes, anecdotes, exemplars, and "think pieces," this book includes: Safeguards against common pitfalls students face Conceptualization through defense of the dissertation A Personal Research Profile Criteria for judging the merits of interpretive research