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
• Tips on adjusting to life after the dissertation

Make the most of this powerful research method and use it to develop a pathway that suits you and your studies.

Maria Piantanida is an adjunct associate professor in the School of Edu¬cation at the University of Pittsburgh and Carlow University. As a curriculum consultant, she has worked with a variety of programs for health and human services professionals. For her efforts to catalyze research among hospital-based educators, she re¬ceived the 1989 Distinguished Author Award and the 1987 Distinguished Achievement Award from the American Society for Healthcare Education and Training. In 2007 she received the Distinguished Adjunct Faculty Award from Carlow University.

Noreen B. Garman is a professor in the Administrative and Policy Studies Department at the University of Pittsburgh School of Education. Previously she directed the University′s Institute for International Studies in Education and the Social and Comparative Analysis in Education Program. A former high school English teacher and recent Fulbright scholar, Garman has published journal articles and chapters in the fields of clinical supervision, curriculum studies, and qualitative research. From 1994 to 1997, she directed programs for teacher education planning and development in Bosnia and Her¬zegovina. She has served on more than 70 dissertation committees during her career, and in 1994, she received an award from the American Educational Research Association, "For Mentoring Women and Activism in Women′s Issues." In 2007 she received the Provost′s Award for Excellence in Mentoring.