Navigating the Bumps & Flats of the Dissertation Journey

1. Navigating the Bumps & Flats of the Dissertation Journey Elaine Ward, Ed.D. Anne Marie Witchger Hansen, Ed.D., OTR/L Dwight E. Giles, Jr. Ph.D. Graduate Student Network Sponsored Workshop International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement (IARSLCE) Indianapolis, Indiana, October 30, 2010 Ward, Hansen, Giles, GSN 2010

2. Overview of Session • Your questions • The dissertation journey – student perspective • The dissertation journey – faculty perspective • Working groups – discuss specifics of your dissertation journeys Ward, Hansen, Giles, GSN 2010

3. Elaine’s Dissertation Journey • Choice of topic • Change if it is not right, you’ll know when it is • Committee • Work with them beyond the dissertation. Let them need you. • Balancing work, family, research • Find connections and overlap • Don’t feel the need to chart a new course – it’s okay to follow someone else’s map • Prioritize the completion of your dissertation over other things – especially work Ward, GSN 2010

4. A Tension “Scholarship is a choice of how to live as well as a choice of a career.” C. Wright Mills, The Sociological Imagination, 1959. “Don’t confuse your dissertation with your life’s work.” Carl E. Young Ph.D. (Circa 1978, Penn State University) Giles, GSN 2010

5. Some Advice • Give as much thought to choosing your committee members as you do your topic. • Look at your literature review for outside committee member(s). Giles, GSN 2010

6. Your Chair Is Key Roles: Coach Mentor Content Expert Methodologist Facilitator Compatible Style Giles, GSN 2010

7. Service-Learning Research Agendas • 1991 • Impact on Students Learning. • Impact on Educational Institutions. • Impact on Community Participants • Need theory • 1997 • Student Learning • Community Impact • Community Participation in Research • Testing concepts • Historical Research • Faculty and Institutional Impacts • Effect on Practice

8. 1998 Agenda-Top 10 Questions • We Know • Student Learning Outcomes • Community Satisfaction • We Don’t Know • Faculty Involvement • Community Impacts • Learning Processes • Institutional Change • Long term effects Giles, Dwight E., Jr., and Janet Eyler, A Service-Learning Research Agenda for the Next Five Years (1998) in Rhoads, R. and Jeffrey Howard, Eds. Service-Learning Pedagogy and Research. (New Directions Series in Teaching and Learning). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

9. Does Service-Learning Transform: • Students? • Faculty? • Higher Education Institutions? • Communities? • The World?

10. Reciprocity for Research and Practice • “…we should ask if this research has affected practice in any substantive way.”p. 119. • “Those who have been conducting service-learning research have also contributed to the practice-research-gap in this field. …most service-learning research has tended to focus more on outcomes than on the methods needed to achieve these outcomes.” p.120. • “…research, combined with practice, ‘adds value to each and transforms both’ (Honnet & Poulsen, 1989).” p 122. • Timothy Stanton (MJCSL, 2000. Special Research Issue)

11. What is Rigorous Quality Research? • ≠ Quantitative • Breaks New Ground • Carefully Stated Question • Linked to Theory • Exquisite Design & Explicit Methodology • Makes contribution to methodology • Informs Practice • Calls for replication/ extension • Feasible under the circumstances • Addresses “So What? ” question Giles, GSN 2010

12. MJCSL Review Criteria • Competitive Articles • Each year we receive about 70 articles and accept about 10-12. An article is more competitive if it: • is well written • breaks new ground • is relevant to a higher education faculty and administrator audience • falls within the purview of the Journal • is relevant to a readership that crosses many academic disciplines/professions • goes beyond mere description to analysis, application, recommendations, and/or lessons learned • reflects rigorous methods and analysis in the case of research studies • does not rely primarily on student course evaluation results • conforms with APA guidelines Giles, GSN 2010

13. Working Session Giles, GSN 2010