Constructing Your Qualitative Research Thesis

Also see the YouTube video

There are many comprehensive resources regarding how to construct a thesis, on YouTube and the websites of higher education institutions. This article is not that. Rather, it is meant to be a cheat sheet, outlining key concepts to consider for each chapter, but not delving deeply into the substance of those concepts. As such, I hope it is a helpful guide for designing, conducting, and reporting on your study.

TIP:?Consult this cheat sheet regularly, to ensure you are building
in the basic requirements, right from the start and as you go along.        

While my experience is with qualitative research, I believe much of this article is also relevant to quantitate research. But I will leave that for others to decide.

The Chapters

Typical theses contain five chapters, in this order:

1. Introduction
2. Literature Review
3. Methodology
4. Results or Findings
5. Discussion and Conclusions

This is not carved in stone. My literature review and results were each two chapters. Discussion and conclusions are often separate chapters. And I have seen a couple of theses that reversed the order of the literature review and methodology chapters.

TIP:?Modify this structure to best represent your research.        

Whichever structure you use, make sure to explain and rationalize your choices. This can be done at the end of the introductory chapter.

Introduction

In the Introduction, you will orient readers to your work and what they can expect as the report unfolds. In doing so, you foreshadow subsequent chapters.

Start by identifying your topic and establishing the context. Context may be physical, such as geographical locations, specific sites, and/or time periods. Context is also theoretical, including the theories and/or key concepts from the literature that are relevant to your topic. Establishing the physical and theoretical context sets boundaries regarding what is and is not included in your study, delineating its scope and scale and signaling the body of literature you will be reviewing in the literature review chapter.

TIP:?To capture readers’ attention and interest, look for a 'spark',
either in the literature or your interpretation of the literature,
and frame how you introduce the topic and context accordingly.        

Provide conceptual definitions for the terms and ideas that are relevant to the entire thesis and that readers need to understand from the start. Other definitions can wait until they become relevant.

The problem or gap in the literature and the study’s purpose, research question, methodology, and methods flow one from the other and usually in that order, as follows. Identify a problem or gap that presents an opportunity for study and position the purpose of your research to address it. This will be substantiated in the literature review chapter. The research question reflects the purpose and dictates the methodology and specific methods. All of this will be detailed in your methodology chapter. Importantly, the problem or gap, purpose, research question, methodology, and methods must align for your study to be cohesive and coherent.

Example:?If I identify a lack of classroom-based empirical research
on moral education (the problem/gap), I can conduct such a study (my
purpose). My research question might be:?How do classroom teachers
impart moral messages and lessons to their students? A?how-type
question is qualitative in nature. Therefore, I might choose case
study or ethnographic methodologies, utilizing interviews and
observations (the methods).
        

Particularly for qualitative research, it is often helpful for readers to know your motivation and interest in pursuing this topic, and the personal perspectives, assumptions, and biases you hold. These can influence how you collect and interpret data. Offer readers what you think is relevant.

Finally, some introductory chapters end with a roadmap, of sorts, which previews each of the chapters that will follow. This is particularly helpful if you have more than five chapters and/or have changed the typical ordering. It is an opportunity for you to explain why you chose a particular structure for your thesis.

Literature Review

In this chapter, convince readers that the problem or gap in the literature, which you identified in the introduction, exists and is important and worthy of study. To do so, provide an?analytic?summary of relevant theoretical, conceptual, philosophical, and/or empirical work. You will need to determine an organizing framework. It might be, for example, geographical, chronological, thematic, or according to the nature of the work itself (i.e. theoretical, conceptual, empirical). This is often referred to as the theoretical or conceptual framework.

TIP:?Determining a framework reflects your analysis, interpretation,
and understandings of the body of scholarship on your topic. Don’t
miss this opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge and insight.        

If you decide to exclude scholarly work from this review, ensure that the decision is consistent with the contextual boundaries you established in the introduction or provide a rationale here, to avoid biasing your study.

EXAMPLE:?In this review, I have not included studies conducted in
neurodiverse classrooms. The complicated classroom dynamics among
these students and between the teacher and students make it difficult
to interpret the results as relevant to the present study.        

Once you have fully represented the literature, restate the problem or gap that you identified in the introduction and justify, in a more comprehensive way, the purpose of your study and how it will address this problem or gap. Declare all your research questions, including any sub-questions.

You might find these articles helpful:?9 Steps for Creating a Research Essay or Literature Review Paper?and?Where Do Research Questions Come From?

Methodology

You introduced your methodological approach and methods in the introduction. In this chapter, detail all aspects of your study. Your descriptions should enable others to repeat the study or adopt and adapt it to suit different contexts and needs.?

Depending on your design, you might include how you sourced participants, accessed the research field, collected data, analyzed that data, and ensured your study was conducted in ethical ways and in accordance with your institution’s ethical guidelines. Protocols, such as those used for interviews and observations, and correspondence regarding recruitment and approvals will be included in appendices, but should be?explained?here.

EXAMPLE: Throughout the study, I remained focused on the research
questions and did not seek, record, or transcribe content that was
irrelevant to them… The participant maintained the right to exclude
me from observing situations or participating in activities; to
decline answering interview questions; and to withdraw completely from
the study.        

Acknowledge the limitations of your study’s design and explain how, despite these limitations, you ensured the study was rigorous and trustworthy. Areas where it may have fallen short are informative for others and can provide opportunities for further research.

EXAMPLE:?Case study methodology is highly interpretive and cannot
readily be verified by others. Thus, in Chapter One I shared my
biases, assumptions, perspectives, worldviews, and theoretical
orientations, as they define the lenses, filters, and decisions
informing every aspect of this research…??The presence of an outsider
and the use of research methods may alter that which is under
investigation. However, my prolonged engagement in the research field
likely minimized this effect.        

Relatedly, you made countless decisions regarding the methodology and methods, sometimes on-the-fly while in the field, and you may have faced challenges that necessitated modifications to your design. Let readers know how and why you made particular decisions and the outcomes of those decisions.?

TIP:?Tap into the body of literature on research theory, to support
your study’s design and to justify the choices and decisions you make.        

Results or Findings

Converting raw data to results is an analytic process. In qualitative research, inductive or deductive reasoning is usually used. With inductive reasoning, the themes emerge from the data. With deductive reasoning, they are predetermined, often from the literature. The type of reasoning depends on the research questions, the methodology, and the body of literature in which your study is situated. For example, a body of literature that is well theorize will enable deductive reasoning. A relatively new area of study might require inductive reasoning.

The framework used to present your results can be quite different from the framework used in the literature review, particularly for inductive reasoning. Similar to the literature review, this framework reveals how you make sense of the results.

To add interest for readers and illustrate the text, consider including actual dialogue and visuals, such as charts, graphs, diagrams, photographs, and drawings. Some of this will require participant agreement.

TIP:?Try to balance quotes and visuals across the main sections of the
framework, so you have the same amount in each. Not having this
balance may undermine your framework.        

Finally, do not ignore unexpected or deviating data and results that may seem like outliers or artefacts of the research process. They can represent important insights or be of interest for other researchers.

EXAMPLE:?On one occasion, the participant teacher shouted at the
students. This was uncharacteristic of her and contrary to how she
understands student discipline and professional conduct. While this
observation is not considered part of her teaching profile, I include
it here to demonstrate that even an ethically and morally enlightened
teacher can have lapses in behaviour and judgment.        

You might find my article on?Analysis of Empirical Qualitative Data?helpful in developing the content for this chapter.

Discussion and Conclusions

The key to this final chapter is?interpretation. Interpret your results to determine key insights and their implications, significance, and contributions to the scholarship on your topic. As researcher, it is your responsibility to provide this secondary level of analysis.

To do so, return to your research question and the problem or gap in the literature, which you identified in the introduction and literature review chapters and on which you based the study. How do your results address the question, solve the problem, or close the gap? Or do they make a different contribution? You may also revisit the limitations identified in the methodology chapter, and any unexpected or deviating results, from the results chapter. How did they impact the contributions of this study?

TIP:?Think of this as the “So what? Who cares?” chapter. You presented
all your work. Now address why that work should be important or even
of interest to others.        

Finally, as you are now an expert in this field, recommend additional studies and/or identify where gaps still exist in the literature. Other researchers often look for research ideas from existing studies. You may have done so yourself.

EXAMPLE:?It remains unclear what students understand about their
teachers’ ethical or unethical conduct and behaviours; what they
recognize as efforts to provide them with a moral education; and what
they learn about morality while at school. Studies that explore
student learning and add student voice would provide valuable insights
to complement the many recommendations for teaching practice,
including those made in the present study.        

The Abstract

The abstract is a summary of your thesis that is situated at the beginning of the paper. It is often used by those who are searching for resources, to determine if a particular resource is relevant. Because it is a summary, abstracts are written after the thesis is well drafted.

TIP:?Sample 1-3 key ideas from each of your chapters.        

Begin by outlining the topic and broadly establishing the context. Present the main themes, ideas, discussions, and/or arguments in the literature, to frame the problem or gap you identified. State your purpose and research question, as it addresses this problem or gap. Note the methodological or theoretical approach to the research and, depending on your study, offer something about participants, the research context, and/or your data collection methods. This part of the summary covers the introduction, literature review, and methodology chapters. It will likely be 1 or 2 paragraphs long.

In another 1 or 2 paragraphs, delineate the main themes or ideas from your results or findings chapter and identify the study’s main insights and contribution, from the discussion and conclusions chapter.

Abstracts for theses are typically longer than those for journal articles.

A Final Word

Other scholars will have additional or different guidelines and tips for constructing a thesis. I would love to hear of those, both for my personal growth and to advance the conversation. Please add any in the comments.

As you write and polish your thesis, you might find my article on?5 Pitfalls to Avoid in Academic Writing?helpful.

HAPPY WRITING!