All 8 entries tagged Upgrade

Rambling load of updates!

Research Design

The components of the research design were decided a few weeks ago and the components are now unlikely to change. The research design is based on a critical realist approach to a convergent paralleled variety of mixed methods, which includes the use of a questionnaire and grounded theory methods based on the Strauss and Corbin version. I did go through a phase of feeling overwhelmed a few weeks ago as I had decided to change the grounded theory method component, which spurred a huge quantity of questions and thoughts about compatibility and research design validity all at once. I think reflecting back I had become so convinced that Charmaz’s Constructivist Grounded Theory would work, till the philosophical stance changed from relativism to critical realism, that the need to change the grounded theory method was impactful on my confidence of the research design and my overall ability to understand it all. But with patience, time, careful thinking and further reading my confidence in the validity and feasibility of the research design is growing.

This is not to say however that I know everything about the research design components and I do not actually know that the research design will take off. However, at the moment I am meticulously and comprehensively studying each of the research design components and threading them together to make a complete, compatible research design that is relevant to the research context and phenomena of interest. This is being achieved through constructing arguments for the need of the research design within the specific context and relevance for the phenomena of interest, and also through building critiques of existing research designs and relevant design components within Educational research, particularly relevant to the phenomena of interest. This is a current, ongoing task with argumentation and critiques continuously being constructed and amended in various ways through reading relevant literature and thinking about this literature.

Upgrade Paper

Coming along nicely though I shall be dealing with a few questions at the next meeting with the supervisor, including questions regarding the methodological section: is it best to focus on describing the process of the research design? E.g., describe critical realism in a way that is relevant to explaining the process of mixed methods then explain the process of mixed methods and so on. Or is it best to focus on argumentation of the research design? Or a mixture of both?

First draft should be completed soon. The sections have been figured out, so now it’s a case of completing the sections and then begin the process of editing. This is an ongoing process.

Trial study

Decided to let an aspect of the trial period run on for a while longer than previously planned, just to find out what would happen further with the trial and I am pleased that I made this choice because I now have more than enough data to build a practical understanding of the qualitative analytical research methods relating to grounded theory. Additionally, I wonder if there is merit in using the data from trial period in the actual research study, given that grounded theory has an “all is data” perspective. It would be interesting if I could use this data, because that would give me a start on theorising from the codes and categories generated from the data, as described by grounded theory.

Questionnaire is yet to be trialled, but this will happen in the future. This shouldn’t take too long, as all that is required is to trial the design, think about possible statistical analysis methods, then trial the analysis methods, and then think about the way in which quantitative and qualitative data can be analysed to complement or converge with each other. Oh, not too much to do then!

Summary

So that’s about it, but enough to get on with! In summary, the immediate tasks are: continue to thread the research design together through argumentation, critique of existing research, and experimenting with the design theoretically and practically; continue with the upgrade paper, and continue with the trial study through trialling the grounded theory methods, and the questionnaire.

Alex Darracott : 10 Jul 2016 20:25 |  Tags: Design Reflection Trial Upgrade |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Update on recent Ph.D. activities

Initial stage of the first research trial a success!

The first part of the trial study, a social learning activity, has just been completed and thankfully there is enough data generated to achieve the aims and objectives of this first part. The objective of this part of the trial was simple: get data! There is enough data now to help with testing a grounded theory method being developed to analyse that particular type of data, and after having a quick read through the data there is enough there to make me think about other possibilities and challenges that the particular type of task shall bring when implemented in the full study. Also, the data will help me with further developments to that particular task.

Realising these possibilities and challenges are all a part of this stage of not only the trail study but the Ph.D. research in general, and I am pleased that I have been able to identify these possibilities and challenges as I can demonstrate in the upgrade paper that I have been really thinking about the research and the implications of the research design.

I shall be focussing on developing the grounded theory method and thinking more about the design of the task itself in the near future.

Next stage of trial study

The next stage in the trial study is to complete the development of the questionnaire and then launch that in a trial study. I have redeveloped it from the previous trial study and I have the belief that it is more effective now and is closer to the objectives of the research. I am also continuing to search for literature that attempts to explore the phenomenon of interest using the questionnaire method in the same or similar way, but have not found such literature so far. I have found literature that assists with justifying the development of the questionnaire, and that is just as important as I shall more than likely be asked in the Upgrade presentation questions referring to the questionnaire’s genesis.

The Upgrade Paper

The findings of the trial study shall be reported in the Upgrade paper, which shall be about four thousand words in length and it shall be a challenge in itself to try to get everything into that word count, hence a reason I started writing it earlier this year even though it’s due in September. The idea though is not to slot everything into four thousand words as that would be impossible, but the objective is to try to explain the key ideas and key directions of the research. A part of the Upgrade paper shall be used to explain the context and findings of the trial study and this includes assessing the reliability, workability, feasibility, soundness, design, and implementation of developing methodologies and data collection and data analysis methods.

The Upgrade paper shall also report on the soundness and depth of the Philosophical orientation of the research and its connection to the research problem, and the way in which the research questions shall be answered. Additionally my ability to argue certain points and evaluation other Philosophical and methodological positions within the upgrade paper shall also be assessed. I have completed the second (or third, or fourth, I’ve lost count!) draft of the earlier sections (Introduction, problem background and rationale, and the literature review) and have begun first drafts of the later chapters (particularly the methodology chapter and the writing of the trial study)

Beyond the upgrade paper

Beyond the upgrade paper, due in September, and the upgrade process presentation and assessment, due to be done around October or November time, is carrying out the full study, and start writing the first draft of the thesis. I have lots of notes for the earlier background, literature review and methodology chapters (though ideas are constantly being generated so note making is continuous) but haven’t put it all into a draft format yet.

A reason for this is because I had to be sure that I have chosen the right research design first, because the research design can influence the way in which a thesis and therefore each chapter is written. The thesis is you could say the product or is highly influenced by the research design: a thesis is written and presented differently with a mixed methods methodology than for example just a qualitative methodology. This is reflected all the way through the thesis and with the literature review in particular I have to be careful with the way I write that chapter as I shall be analysing and writing about both existing quantitative and qualitative literature, and both are obviously very different types of literature that entail different ways of thinking about their findings and their general context. That is going to be an interesting chapter to write and something that I shall have to consider more in the future.

Phew! Lots to do then!

Yes, absolutely, but what I am happy with is that I have my assumptions about reality (based on critical realism, but developing arguments of critical realism: more on this soon), I have my methodology selected (mixed methods) and the methods of data collection (questionnaire, grounded theory, and possibly others if time and opportunity allows) and analysis (descriptive and inferential statistics, and categorical, open and possible axial coding) although with the quantitative analysis these methods need to be contemplated upon and considered more carefully to develop a possible framework of quantitative analysis, but bearing in mind that I won’t really know for sure what specific analytical techniques shall be needed till I obtain the actual data. Categorical, open and axial coding are analytical methods used with Grounded Theory, though there is an element of uncertainty with axial coding because there is debate as to whether or not this should always be used, so shall need to explore that further and find out if I really need to use it in the context of my research.

What I am focussed on at the moment is getting this trial study completed as well as the upgrade paper whilst also locating and analysing more literature (but this is an ongoing task anyway as part of a researcher), so that is enough to get on with for the time being otherwise if I try to do everything I’ll just feel completely and utterly overwhelmed!

All a bit scary, but also quite exciting!

Alex Darracott : 09 May 2016 18:30 |  Tags: Upgrade |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Rambling Update On Progress!

The Trial Study Up And Running!

After gaining permissions from my supervisor and the admin of an online discussion forum, the discussion forum aspect of the trial study has begun! The aim of this aspect of the trial study is to determine the most suitable discussion activities for the main study and this is being determined through quantity of replies and extent to which the participants are taking part in the activities. The trial study has already indicated the topics that are worthy of pursuing further with the main study and also the topics that are not quite as popular and therefore not worth pursuing further, but even then this aspect is making an important contribution to the trial study.

What is most important is that I already have enough qualitative data for analysis and therefore to experiment with the developing Grounded Theory method. The qualitative data shall be used to experiment with this Grounded Theory method in order to assist with further developing the method ideas and to propose a Grounded Theory approach that is appropriate for the type of qualitative data being analysed. It shall no doubt be proven that you can read as many textbooks and papers on Grounded Theory as you desire, but you cannot actually beat being hands on with a method and really putting it through its paces with real, workable data. That is not to say that textbook reading is not important: this needs to be done in order to understand Grounded Theory at the Philosophical level, its place in the wider context of research methods, to understand its history and reasons of use, understand the processes and activities, and to understand its many critiques and debate points, but actually using it is just as important to your learning of Grounded Theory and any other research method.

The discussion trial is going well, and is due to carry on for a little while though since I already have the required data for the trial study I am likely to shut the trial down soon enough after finding out the results of interventions that I have made to spice up the activities that are lacking in use. Needless to say that I am pleased that it appears that the discussion trial’s aims and objectives so far is on track to being achieved.

In the meantime, I shall be working towards redeveloping the questionnaire and organise for a trial run for the questionnaire to take place.

The Upgrade Paper

Because the trial period has begun and all permissions granted I have been able to work on the Upgrade Paper through discussing the trial and its initial findings. I’ve also been rereading and reediting the paper particularly better describing the problem area and introducing the key authors and key literature referring to the phenomena of interest. I have also been introducing my own ideas and reasons why the phenomenon of interest needs to be investigated in a different way and in ways not presented in existing literature. Obviously I will be going into this further in the thesis, but for the upgrade paper I am trying to introduce my ideas and offer argumentation and reasons behind those ideas, based on existing literature.

Quite pleased with the paper so far. It is not allowed to go too far past four thousand words and that is going to be a challenge! Might sound like a lot of words to play with, but when you have a lot of ideas that you want to get across it is quite a challenge to explain everything in four thousand words. The core idea is to present key ideas, key authors, key basis of building the ideas, and the main aspects of the methodology, ethical issues, trial discussions, and anticipated findings and problems. Bit of a challenge trying to get all that into four thousand words (heck this post has just past six hundred words of waffle!) but it shall be done!

Critical Realism? Or not?

As some of you know, I did originally select critical realism as the philosophical basis of my mixed methods research, but I’m not a hundred percent sure now. The other philosophical perspectives are not suitable, therefore this does mean that I do like critical realism’s ontological and epistemological perspective of reality. Where there are problems now with the use of critical realism is its definition and focus on the relationship between structure and agent. From what I can currently understand (obviously need to do more reading, and learning is continuous) critical realism at the application level focusses on the relationship between a power structure (institution, policy, etc) and the agent (humans). From what I can understand at the moment there does not appear to be any literature that moves critical realism away from this idea of exploring the relationship between structure and agent, and focus on the specific aspects of my research because it is not being developed to explore such a relationship or to measure the impact that a structure has on an agent.

There appears to be however a main contributor of critical realism that does insist on the importance of moving away from power relations between structure and agent and focus more on aspects more appropriate for my research. But this I shall have to read further into.

What does all this mean? Well, given that the other philosophical perspectives of mixed methods are not really that suitable, if I cannot apply critical realism as defined by the main contributors I shall have to create a derivative of critical realism that better explores reality and learning context in the way that the research intends. I shall talk more about this in another blog post.

Making progress!

Which is the main thing, though I have to say that I didn’t expect to be challenged by critical realism in quite the way that I anticipated, but that really is the beauty of research and the Ph.D. in general: you are challenged to question your views of reality and find out if the way you think you view reality is really the way that you view reality. It’s all interesting and I shall be reading more into critical realism soon, as well as continuing with developing the questionnaire and continue to write the upgrade paper!

Till next time: keep it real(ism),or if not just keep it (critical) real(ism)!

Alex Darracott : 25 Apr 2016 20:20 |  Tags: Criticalrealism Groundedtheory Trial Upgrade |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Thoughts on the Upgrade Paper

This has been a main focus of the past couple of weeks and it’s coming together! It’s due in September but have decided to start it early and I am really pleased that I have started this early as it has provided me with the opportunities to think to a more substantial level about certain aspects of the research.

First Challenge: the approach to writing the paper

The first challenge is to understand the way in which it should be written, and different people will have different ideas but for me I am going to approach it from the perspective of an integrated narrative. What does it mean to write from an integrative narrative? Each chapter or section of an Upgrade Paper should not come across as a separate, somewhat disjointed follow up from the previous section or chapter, but must be connected in a story like narrative within which ideas and arguments flow seamlessly and are built up from a chapter or section to the next chapter or section. In order to achieve this, within each chapter or section consider the previous references and contextualise them within the current themes of discussion along with the other references relevant to that particular chapter or section. This creates the integration; the narrative story like style occurs through the appropriate use of language that connects previous ideas within a current context in a way that builds on those ideas and builds up the arguments.

As an example, in the literature review chapter of the Upgrade Paper I shall be referencing a few of the key authors in relation to various key terms and constructs that are a part of the research. Within each section of this chapter I shall be referencing those from the previous sections, along with extra references, and contextualising or make relevant their discussions to the current concept of discussion. Moving forward to the research design / paradigm chapter of the Upgrade Paper I shall use some of the references within the literature review chapter and contextualise their discussions relevant to the research design for example in terms of the way in which their discussions provide a basis for that design. This would be providing that integration of references, contextualisation of those references, and the creating of that story of the way that the design and aspects of the design came about. Some might not agree with this general approach but in my opinion there is worth and meaningfulness in using the same reference throughout different sections of a report as long as what they are saying is relevant towards the context of the discussions and contribute towards laying the foundation of whatever argument is being presented.

Second challenge: Mixed Methods at the Philosophical level

The other challenge for my own specific project could also provide itself as an opportunity. During the literature review chapter I wrote about the different ontological and epistemological perspectives as part of describing a particular construct of the research. When I thought a bit more about its relevance to the methodology of Mixed Methods, I became to realise that perhaps what I was thinking about Mixed Methods at the Philosophical level is not quite what I had previously thought. Some might have ran away from this or ignored this but I went with it, and it has led me to a point where I now realise that Mixed Methods at a Philosophical level is not quite what I previously thought it would be: but more about this in the next blog post!

In all, treat the Upgrade Paper as an opportunity to really explore your thoughts as they are currently. Identify opportunities and think carefully as you write out your thoughts, and embrace the challenges and the thinking that might oppose what you had previously thought. There is nothing wrong with that: it is what learning and research are all about and to ignore these opportunities to think more carefully about your research is to ignore it at risk of the validity, reliability, completeness of methodology, and feasibility of the research.

Alex Darracott : 21 Feb 2016 17:05 |  Tags: Upgrade |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Conflicting Issues In Literature: Design And Methodology

Another issue that new researchers and Ph.D. candidates shall have to deal with is the conflicting terminology within literature. Terminology is conflicting because writers use different terms interchangeably to mean the same thing but the meanings behind the terms differ significantly. In the case of this blog post, the terms “design” and “methodology” have been and continue to be used in literature to mean the blueprint of a research project but they are terms that carry different meanings and I shall use this blog post to present my own definitions (and add to the already confused mess of terminological definitions), which are probably likely to change in the future!

A research design is the blueprint of a research project: a logically designed or constructed document that defines the layout of the research project, illustrating through narrative and diagrams (usually the case for the thesis) the methods used to collect and analyse the data in a way that provides answers for a hypothesis or research questions. A research design illustrates the relationship between the defined research problem, the defined research question, the methodologies and methods, the underlying Philosophical assumptions of these methodologies and methods, and the way in which data shall be collected and used to answer the research questions. Research design should be considered and developed following the identification of a research problem and the construction of the research questions. The different research designs within Educational Research include Experiment based, Observation based, Longitudinal based, Case Study, Ethnography, Grounded Theory, and Phenomenology, among others, all of which define that previously mentioned relationship and characteristics of that relationship in different ways.

Methodology is part of a research design that provides a framework for the data collection and data analysis. A methodology defines the methods that are to be used, the approach or model used to implement the methods, the timing of implementing these methods, the importance of these methods, and therefore the way in which assigned questions shall be addressed and the data that is to be expected. The key difference between methodology and design therefore is that methodology does not explain the overall research problem or research questions, but is associated with a particular research question or questions to address a particular aspect of the research problem. A design does illustrate the overall research problem and questions and the relationship between the research problem, the research questions, the methodology, methods, and expected data in answering aspects of the problems and the questions. A research methodology can be quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods.

I mentioned that Grounded Theory can be an overall design but it can also be a methodology within a design and, in the case of my research, a method within a methodology. Constructivist Grounded Theory was originally going to be a methodology within an explanatory research design, but this was dropped because Constructivist Grounded Theory as a methodology works exclusively with qualitative data. There was no way I could use quantitative data with the Constructivist Grounded Theory methodology therefore switched the methodology to Mixed Methods, and repurposed Constructivist Grounded Theory as a method within a Mixed Methods methodology. As I began to elaborate on my methodology in the Upgrade Paper I did come across a stumbling block: the literature and its conflicting approach to defining methodology and design, and authors were referring to Mixed Methods as both a design and a methodology.

What did I do to overcome this barrier? I thought carefully about the different types of Mixed Method methodologies and their suitability for the context of my research. The type of Mixed Methods that has been selected as suitable is convergent parallel and this has been referred to in the literature as a convergent parallel design although some authors have called it a convergent parallel model, but that’s just going beyond the point of driving a person insane.

I think therefore considering that the methodology defines the way that research questions are addressed, and that the design acts as the blueprint or illustration of the way in which the research shall proceed, it’s safe to say that the methodology is definitely Mixed Methods whilst the design of the research can be defined as a Convergent Parallel design.

This post is attempting to highlight the difficulty that some researchers might come across when dealing with terminology use in the research literature, and that it is so easy to be thrown off course initially as you try to develop a more substantial understanding of these terminologies. Developing that substantial understanding and a detailed, careful consideration of the terms “design” and “methodology” is the only way you are going to be able to properly define them.

Till next time: don’t accept a definition in the first resource you come across! Question and explore!

Alex Darracott : 10 Feb 2016 18:01 |  Tags: Design Dissertation Methodology Thesis Upgrade |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Research design, Research Conference, Conference Paper and Upgrade Paper!

Research Design: getting there!

When exploring learning processes there is a need to develop activities for the participants of the research so that the data can be generated for analysis. These activities need to be appropriate for the participants, relevant to their interests and have the design that encourages participation and therefore generate lots of data. The design of these activities therefore must be grounded in existing empirical literature. Thinking about and designing these activities have begun this past week, starting with a rough outline and what I want to achieve with them. I have thought about the topics, now what I need to do is explore these topics further so that I can create interesting scenarios within which learning processes can be assessed in ways that have not really happened before. These activities therefore are in their early stages of development and they need to be experimented with and amended as necessarily. What exactly shall be measured and assessed shall be partly presented in a conference paper at the next Post Graduate Warwick University conference, along with the Upgrade Paper and Upgrade Presentation, and also a full elaboration, justification, and critique of existing relevant assessment processes in the Thesis and future research papers.

This has led to an interesting observation in that there appears to be quite an interesting approach taken to designing a Ph.D. project in the sense that there appears to be some sort of ordering to the decisions that are made, and that each decision that is made influences the next decision or in some way guides the next step in the design making process of a Ph.D. research design. I have indicated something like this in previous blog posts where I discussed the relationship between Ontology, Epistemology and Methodology but my ideas of this are developing and I think I will come back to this in a future blog post.

Research Conference and Upgrade Paper

Had an email the other day saying that planning and organising of this year’s Post Graduate conference at Warwick University shall begin soon, which means that I shall be starting to write the conference paper from the day that planning begins. Well, I say write but it’s more like planning the outline and structure of the paper first before actually writing it. As I have mentioned before, the conference paper shall be in part based on ideas that were presented in the second ARM assignment and relevant ideas were appreciated by the supervisor therefore these shall be more fully explored in the conference paper. The conference paper and the presentation at the conference shall relate at this time more or less exclusively to the questionnaire, and there are plans to transform it into a research paper but this is something that I shall have to investigate further soon.

Construction of the conference paper shall occur along with the construction of the Upgrade paper and work has continued on this during the week. Even though it is due in September, it is such an important document that it is best to start planning the paper early along with writing rough drafts of various sections of the paper just to get ideas down of what is going to be explained in which section, and therefore setting down quite early some of the directions of the paper. The word requirement is around four thousand words and there is a fair bit to do in preparation of writing some sections of the paper so an early start is fine. The paper is important because it is part of the Upgrade process, the result of which shall consider the suitability and feasibility of my research and therefore whether or not the research project is worthy of being upgrading from working towards Master of Philosophy to Doctor of Philosophy.

That’s it for this post so ‘till next time: Easter eggs are starting to roll out!

Alex Darracott : 24 Jan 2016 23:09 |  Tags: Conference Design Upgrade |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Discussing the Upgrade Process

The preliminary year (as I call it) of the part time Ph.D. has been completed and in all it has been a success, so it’s now time to move onto the Upgrade Process. The Upgrade Process is a key part of the earlier stages of the part time Ph.D. up to the early part of year three, or a time that is decided before the research data actually commences. The upgrade process is a formal, major, key opportunity to receive constructive feedback on the proposed research questions, methodology, general design and methods of the research; gives practice for the major Viva assessment at the conclusion of the Ph.D. and also is the stage where it is determined whether or not a Ph.D. candidate can transition from Master of Philosophy to Doctor of Philosophy.

It goes without saying therefore that it is going to be an extremely busy time, but thankfully as I have been reading through the Upgrade Process materials I realise that I have been working towards completing this process from the beginning because I have been continuously thinking about my methodology and methods. I have more or less settled on a general ontological perspective, a research methodology and the methods that shall be used to collect and analyse the data, so it is simply (or not so simply) a case of learning about them more extensively and develop convincing arguments as to their suitability over other research methodologies and methods. The materials that shall be completed during this process therefore include:

• A completed first draft of the literature review

• A completed first draft of the methodology chapter

• A completed Upgrade report

• A completed Upgrade presentation

• A completed and approved Ethics form

• Optionally: a conference paper and a published research paper

The culmination of the Upgrade process is the Upgrade presentation where I am expected to present an overview of my proposed methods, methodology, research questions, key issues and concepts (and so on) followed by a serious of questions from the expert assessment panel, which could take a fair amount of time. The result of the presentation, the Upgrade paper and assessment of all other documentation shall lead to either of the following outcomes:

• Expert panel agree to upgrade from Masters of Philosophy to Doctor of Philosophy

• Expert panel request a resubmission of the Upgrade paper so that upgrade can be reconsidered

• Expert panel agree that the project is suitable for Master of Philosophy level

• Expert panel advise that the project will not result in a research degree

According to the University materials, it is common for the expert panel to request a resubmission and some Ph.D. candidates have felt rather deflated at that point because they perceive it as some sort of a failure, but the advice is to treat this as a positive learning experience and practice for the main VIVA examination.

What do I feel about that? Honestly, I don’t know. I’m hoping that I don’t fail! I don’t think I will fail because I know that I will put all my effort into the Upgrade paper to ensure that I do upgrade successfully from Master of Philosophy to Doctor of Philosophy. Does it really matter to me if I do get upgraded? I would love to, and I will do everything that I can to be upgraded. My ideas and directions have not been criticised so far: the feedback has been generally positive and have been told that I am onto something.

I know that I will put as much effort as I can into being upgraded, and I know this because I have genuine passion and enjoyment of writing, the research process, of exploring and developing my own ideas and pushing this as far as I can, as well as having a genuine interest in research methods within Education.  I believe that this shall drive and maintain my motivation and enthusiasm over the next four years. I’m not saying it’s going to be easy; it won’t, and quite frankly, I would be a little disappointed if it were easy. I continuously want to improve and develop myself personally and professionally, and the Ph.D. offers the brilliant opportunity to do just that.

A decade ago I never thought it would be possible for me to have a published research paper, a Master’s Degree, and be working towards a Ph.D. Twenty years ago, I never thought I was capable of doing an undergraduate Degree! Sometimes, you just have to take that leap into the unknown and believe that you have what it takes to achieve and to be that success that you want to be, and have the faith that you have what it takes to achieve and enjoy the journey, and if other people feel inspired and encouraged by the journey that you take then that in part makes it all worth it!

Enjoy the Ph.D. ride!

Alex Darracott : 07 Oct 2015 14:19 |  Tags: Upgrade |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

My current literature review journey

The literature review is an extensive early thesis chapter to write: it’s not simply a list of books and research papers that you have read and it’s most certainly not an annotated bibliography but an extensive, detailed analysis and synthesis of existing literature. The objectives of the literature review are: contextualise your research, provide appropriate theoretical and logical grounding for the research, analyse literature, synthesis and connect literature findings, identify and present gaps in the literature, and give the opportunity to present a developed argumentation for the need of the research: its research questions, the general themes to explore, the methods, and overall methodology along with the assumptions that you are making. The chapter structure and contents will obviously differ from research to research and it has to be up to you in agreement with your supervisor to confirm a structure that is most relevant.

Having already started the Literature Review, it has been found that the process for collecting, analysing, evaluating and storing literature to be used in the thesis is more advanced that what is expected for a typical Master’s Thesis. For a start, at Master’s Degree level you are not expected to document to a significant detail your search methods or the way that you have evaluated literature for relevance to research, but at Ph.D. level you are expected to document this process to a fairly detailed level. Knowing and documenting the whole process of literature search, identification, selection and evaluation is also important for the Upgrade assessment where you need to prove the worth of your research through a several thousand words report and presentation so those of you who are just starting your Ph.D. might be worth keeping that in mind when you begin your literature searching.

The best advice that I can give at this time is start writing notes about what you read very early in the process (if you have not started your Ph.D. but are in the process of applying you should have already started your reading anyway, so keep written notes) and this includes what search terms you use, what sources you have used to gather your literature, your mechanism of evaluating literature for relevance, and your storage procedures. All this takes time to document properly, so make sure you have an effective systematic process in place early so that you’re not spending lots of time later trying to find out and remember everything! Detailing all your search methods, evaluation criteria, and so on, shall inform your Ph.D. supervisor and the assessment committee of where you obtained your literature, and that your ideas and research have not been built on an ad hoc, informal basis. Again this is important for the Upgrade process.

The journey towards a competed literature review is therefore different for each Ph.D. candidate and therefore it depends on the context of the research and the research methodology, as from what I have been reading so far each research methodology influences the design of the literature review so it is quite important to be able to as best as possible decide on your research methodology early so that the literature review can be appropriate for the methodology.

Not only that but there are also various types of literature reviews that can be written, from the less structured narrative synthesis up to the advanced and structured critical interpretive synthesis and all points in between. I’ve been considering critical interpretive synthesis for quite some time but because I’ve decided upon a particular research methodology I don’t believe that a critical interpretive synthesis shall work properly but is something that I shall be needing to investigate further in the next few weeks. However, regardless of the type of literature review I shall be writing I do like the rigorous structure of literature searching and evaluating that is used by critical interpretive synthesis so I have adopted that for my own research.

So, what advice can I give so far during this relatively early journey in the literature review construction process? It must not be considered as a slap dash list of unconnected narration of existing literature: this is a serious piece of writing that shall take months to construct (actually, it should be an ongoing and ever developing document throughout your time on your Ph.D. as a role of a researcher is to keep constantly up to date therefore it should be your role as a Ph.D. candidate to ensure that your literature review is as up to date as possible upon thesis submission) and is the chapter that proves the need and worth of your research. Remember, there is no other person who knows your ideas and research better than yourself, but you need to communicate these ideas and the need for these ideas effectively, and the literature review provides you with this opportunity to do so. If you get the literature review wrong then it’s not going to tally up with the rest of the thesis and it won’t be easy to refer back to it and explain the way that it acts as an input to the rest of the thesis. Get to know the types of literature reviews that you can write early and try to align the type of literature review with the research methodology. Get this right and start thinking about this from the very beginning if not before you actually start your Ph.D.

This is an ongoing process with my own journey and is something that will be seriously considered during the next few weeks, months (er, years) now that the first year introductory research modules have now been completed.

Happy reading and writing!

Alex Darracott : 01 Sep 2015 15:20 |  Tags: Dissertation Litreview Research Thesis Upgrade |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem