What methodology should I choose for my doctoral dissertation?
Where most doctoral students start on this question is in precisely the wrong place! Some will say that they are a numbers person and, therefore, will be selecting a quantitative approach. Others will identify themselves as “not numbers people” and will lean toward qualitative. Still, some say, “I want the best of both worlds” and lean toward a mixed methods approach.
Rather than beginning with your personal preference, you should know that your doctoral program, your chair, and your committee most likely already have a preference of which avenue you choose: quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods. Nearly every university has a dissertation repository of some kind, where you can examine doctoral studies of past graduates. Your first step in choosing your methodology is to see what the norms are!
First, download the last twenty-five or thirty dissertations from your program.
Second, download the last ten or twenty dissertations from your chair.
Third, if you have a committee already established, find the last five dissertations associated with each of the other two or so committee members.
Finally, with all these dissertations in hand, make a table that tracks the (1) purpose statement, (2) methodology, and (3) research questions of each. Ask yourself: “Are there any patterns regarding the selected methodologies for doctoral dissertations in my program?”
What is a methodology anyways?
Simply put, a research methodology is a term used by a researcher to mean the form and steps through which data collection and data analysis will occur in a study. Usually, a methodology will specify whether a study is quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods; the specific type of quantitative or qualitative study one is undertaking; and the precise steps to get the data and to analyze it.
