DM896 Dissertation Preparation August 8 – 12, 2016 Instructor:
Dr. Tasha Chapman, Director of Educational Studies, Adjunct Professor of Education Direct work phone: (01) 314.392.4218
Skype: tashadchap
E-mail: [email protected]
Cell phone: (01) 636.579.9240; please call for help anytime—I’ll answer if available. Schedule
• Class meets: Monday, 1 – 5 p.m.; Tuesday – Thursday, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.; Friday, 9 – 11:30 a.m.
• Tuesday – Thursday Lunch Breaks: 12:30 – 2 p.m.
• Thursday morning will be used for individual appointments with Tasha while the rest of the group works on literature database searches at the library.
• You do not need to bring the textbooks with you to class. Do bring any questions that you have concerning the readings. Tasha and the library have copies if needed.
• Our meeting space will be in Founders Hall, probably a conference room. Course Description
This course should be taken after completing at least 16 credit hours of the degree. This course is a 2-credit, pass/fail workshop that provides an overview of a qualitative dissertation development process, with an emphasis on gaining skill and practice in doctoral-level research and writing. Topics include identifying a researchable problem of interest, designing research questions, selecting and surveying appropriate literature, choosing research methods, practicing research skills, and writing interview protocol questions. The DMin requires a qualitative dissertation. Most DMin students complete “general qualitative research” based on interview data for their
dissertations.
Program Specification
The course is required of all students prior to the submission of the dissertation proposal for candidacy. Students must complete the 4 required courses before taking DM896.
Course Objectives
• Identify and discuss qualitative dissertation components. • Identify, discuss, and evaluate qualitative research methods. • Practice writing components of a dissertation proposal.
• Create and evaluate problem statements, research questions, and interview guides. • Discuss selection and critical evaluation of literature to be used in dissertation.
• Complete a draft of a “dissertation core” by the last course day (see samples on Sakai). Required Careful Reading
Read all the assignments before beginning to read texts.
Merriam, Sharan B. Qualitative Research: A Guide to Design and Implementation. San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 2009, 3rded. (320pp.) or 4thed. (2015), with Elizabeth Tisdell.
Required Fast Reading
Skim items not relevant to dissertations. Read assignments first.
Booth, Wayne, Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams. The Craft of Research, 3rded. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008.
Zinsser, William. On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction, 30thAnniversary Ed. New York: Harper Resource, 2006, or later edition.
Required Skimming Read assignments first.
Strunk, William, Jr., E. B. White, and Roger Angell. Elements of Style, 4th ed. Needham Heights, MA: Allen and Bacon, 2008, or any edition published in the last 10 years.
Dissertation abstracts from databases (Assignment #3a–b).
Sample dissertations and proposals from DMin Resources in the DMin Sakai site on the web. To Read During the Course
DMin Dissertation Notebook, available online on Sakai. Note: an updated hardcopy will be provided during the course.
Other Suggested Resources
Various things posted in “DM896 Dissertation Resources” folder in the “CTS DMin Resources” Sakai site, under the “Resources” tool from the left column.
Adler, Mortimer. How to Read a Book. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1972. (421 pp.)
Creswell, John W. Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches. 3rd Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc., 2012. (472 pp.)
Krueger, Richard A., and Casey, Mary Anne. Focus Groups: A Practical Guide for Applied Research, 5th Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc., 2014. (280 pp.) Seidman, Irving. Interviewing as Qualitative Research: A Guide for Researchers in Education
and the Social Sciences, 4th Edition. Teachers College Press, 2012. (178 pp.)
Swinton, John, and Mowat, Harriet. Practical Theology and Qualitative Research. London: SCM Press, 2006. (278pp.)
Zerubavel, Eviatar. The Clockwork Muse: A Practical Guide to Writing Theses, Dissertations, and Books. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999.
Pre-Course Assignments
I. Learn to use bibliographic software with Microsoft Word. We highly recommend you use
EndNote or Zotero Standalone (the free, open source software) with Microsoft Word
(required) to create your dissertation citations and bibliography. Tutorials for either can be found online at their websites. We recommend you learn how to enter literature sources manually into the bibliography library, how to search online databases and save
bibliographic data directly into the software, and how to “cite while you write” to create the footnote citations and bibliography from the software.
II. Five Informal Reading Worksheets. Due the first day of class, to discuss and to use in furthering dissertation design work. Worksheets # 4 and #5 are the most important for preparing for the course. No worksheets are turned in. These are informal notes of your ideas-in-process, so feel free to use bullet points and numbered lists, as it suits you. E-mail Tasha % pre-course work completed for 40% of the course grade. Feel free to e-mail questions and draft work that you want feedback on.
Worksheet #1: Skim Elements of Style, keeping a reminder list for yourself of the key corrections/improvements to your writing that you hope to implement in your dissertation. Note any questions it raises that you wish to discuss in class.
Worksheet #2: While reading On Writing Well, keep a motivating list of key informative ideas that you glean from the book. Be prepared to share them in class. Note any questions it raises that you wish to discuss in class.
Worksheet #3: While reading The Craft of Research, contemplate possible research topics for your dissertation. Keep a list of topic ideas and relevant research questions as you read. Your required field of study for the DMin is “ministry practice with theological reflections on it.”
Skim the pages of recent Covenant DMin dissertation titles below. Note that a good potential topic:
a) interests you deeply, for the sake of God’s Kingdom, b) highly motivates you to learn more about it,
c) raises many honest questions that you desire to find answers to, d) is not something you already have a solution for or are ready to write a
book about,
e) motivates you to listen to how others experience and understand the topic, f) involves ministry concerns that perplex and challenge your thinking, and g) involves ministry problems you currently deal with or have recently faced. After finishing The Craft, evaluate your ideas and add notes to them as you continue to process possible topics while reading Merriam’s book. If a topic idea simply needs trying out and testing, then it will not be useful for dissertation research since qualitative research is not experimental research but is about gaining a very deep understanding of an issue from how others experience it. Worksheet #4: While reading the Merriam book, consider the parallels that ministry has
to education and to her educational examples, remembering that both
education and ministry seek to help people learn and change. Note that you will likely pursue “general” qualitative research based on interview data for your dissertation, not “case study” (so you can skip Chap. 3 on it).
a) While reading Merriam, keep a list of questions or concerns you have about qualitative research, noting page numbers for easy reference to issues for class discussion.
b) In response to Merriam, note 3–5 reasons that help motivate you to do qualitative research.
c) After reading Chapter 4, “Designing your Study…,” choose your best research topic idea from Worksheet #3 above and use it to draft answers to the worksheet on page 65, “Problem Statement Worksheet.” Try to identify and briefly list your “theoretical framework” or unique orientation to the research on this topic following pages 66-71.
d) List several narrow areas of literature that interest you and that could provide the literature foundation for your topic. List 10–15 key terms, concepts, and/or theories relevant to your literature research for this topic. These will be good starting terms for database searches for relevant literature.
e) Jot a list of the type of participant criteria you would use for “purposefully sampling” people to interview in order to gain the richest data relevant to your “research questions.”
Worksheet #5: Exploring your topics ideas and approaches to your research. Keep helpful notes as you go.
a) Spend 1–2 hours exploring abstracts of dissertations done in areas of your topic. (See additional helps below.)
Use your library card ID # to access databases from the library web page at http://www.covenantseminary.edu/library/. Explore the database “Research in Ministry.” For the search, enter each topic of interest in the Subjects or Key Words box, limit year to 2005–current. Enter “qualitative” in the Key Words box to limit the search to the dissertation method type.
Note that libraries are starting to link full PDFs of dissertations to their catalogue citations, so you may be able to see the whole dissertation.
Covenant is doing this. To see recent Covenant dissertations, search CTS library catalogue using “Thesis (D. Min.) Covenant” (include the “ “).
Explore the database “WorldCat Dissertations & Theses” for a broader search. Use the same limiting search categories. Note that some theses are available in full digitally.
b) To gain an idea of the tone, structure and purpose of the five chapters of a standard qualitative dissertation; read the pages below (from the Dissertation Notebook) for the description of each of the five chapters.
Skim some recent Covenant dissertations. (See note above about how to find them in full PDF from the library’s website catalogue.) Look at the first page and then the organization of each chapter by headings.
For 2 dissertations near your topic of interest, read the “purpose statements” and “research questions” found at the beginning of Chapter 5 and then the “Recommendations for Further Research” section at the end of Chapter 5. Consider these ideas as possibilities for your own research.
Other Course Assignments
• Daily Assignments. Expect to use early evenings to complete daily assignments and to
pursue literature research in the library or online in the databases. Daily assignments total 10% of the course work/grade.
• Class Participation. Active participation in class constitutes 10% of the grade.
• First Draft of your Dissertation Proposal. Compose a 15–25 page first draft of a
dissertation proposal based on the information and outline in the Dissertation Handbook and posted samples. This constitutes 40% of the course work/grade.
• Due via e-mail to Tasha before Nov. 7, 2016. Dissertation Consultation
Participants should come to this class with 1–2 well formulated research topics based on
Worksheets #3, #4, and #5. Each participant will meet individually with a dissertation coach during the week to discuss the feasibility, potential structure, methods, and literature for a potential topic.
Other Faculty Consultations
If you are fairly confident of the topic and direction of your dissertation, you may want to schedule appointments with other faculty that have expertise in your area of interest. You will want to e-mail them a few weeks in advance of this course and request a meeting time during the lunch break or before or after class meeting times later in the week, if possible. At these meetings you may ask for feedback on your topic ideas and for literature sources.
It is not appropriate for you request a faculty “advisor/reader” at this time. You can read about the faculty, their classes, publications, and interests on the web by selecting individual names from the faculty directory page: http://www.covenantseminary.edu/academics/faculty/
DMin896 Pre-Course Web Assignments Helps
To access databases from the library website at http://www.covenantseminary.edu/library/: • Use your Covenant library card ID # followed by “CS”
• On the library home page, under “Journal Articles/Databases,” click on “dissertations.” • Click on “Research in Ministry (RIM)” database.
• No ID needed for access. Click on “Enter RIM.”
• Fill in the “subject” box with a general topic of interest for your dissertation. If that gains you too few hits, then move your topic terms to the “Key Words” box.
• Enter the limiting “publication year” from 2005 to 2016.
• Enter “qualitative” in the “Key Words” box to limit the search to dissertation methods that will be most similar to ours.
• Click “display search results.” For example, entering “small group” as a “subject,” with “qualitative” in the Key Words box, results in 3 records. Entering “qualitative, small group” in the Key Words box results in 23 hits.
• Click on “full” to see the abstract and details and other relevant “subject” terms that the database is using for that item. Looking at titles and abstracts should help you understand the types of research and results that you will be designing, and further your own ideas about your topic. One usually can’t get the dissertation text for free but some are available digitally at the school library web catalogues.
To find dissertation resources in Sakai, go to the Covenant home page at
http://www.covenantseminary.edu/ and click on “Sakai” at the bottom of the page OR go directly to Sakai via https://sakai.covenantseminary.edu/.
• Use your Covenant e-mail address and password to log in. The password is not the same as your library card ID#. In Sakai, choose the “CTS_DMin_Resources” tab at the top.
• Then choose “Resources” from the tool list on the left side to see the folder with all the documents, articles, and samples I have posted for you for the course and for your dissertation work.
To Find Covenant Seminary DMin dissertations in the library web catalogue, search for “Thesis (D. Min.) Covenant.” Note that most done in the past five years are available in full PDF from the library catalogue web pages. This general search results in about 428 hits. Then you can use the “Modify Search” button to limit by date and subject. In order to access full
PDF versions, look for the listings that have “[electronic resource]” in the title or include a
button labeled “Connect to Freely available online” after you click on the initial title of the dissertation. Most dissertation have two listings, one for electronic version and one for bound copy in the stacks.
Recent Covenant Theological Seminary DMin Dissertation Titles/Authors 2015
1. The fatherhood of God: how ministry leaders describe the implications of the doctrine of adoption on the social domain of the personhood / by Drew T. Lints
2. A qualitative study examining how founding pastors in Presbyterian churches negotiate leadership challenges subsequent to transition from church plant to organized congregation / by Thomas C. Gibbs, Sr.
3. A study of how effective leadership teams can be developed in congregations / by Thomas Peter Fleming
4. Christian married men, sexual integrity, and the sea services / by Cristiano DeSousa 5. Sermons that go to work: how preachers apply sermons to the workplace / by Robert
J. Toornstra 2014
1. Bridging the theory/practice divide in theological education / by Charles William Davidson
2. Hearing to tell: listening for gospel inroads in the stories of non-Christians / b y Jason Michael Abbott
3. Considering the "word and communion" balance in Reformed Evangelical Presbyterian churches / by Phillip Sandifer
4. How congregants experience pastors leading change in established congregations / by Michael K. Leary
5. Denominational programs for multicultural church planting: blessings or hindrances? / by Guillermo Roberto MacKenzie
6. How pastors disciple towards rapid multiplication to further the church planting movement / by Ion Cheptene
7. How bivocational pastors understand the theology of work / by Gary D. Erickson 8. Making room: freedom in non-essentials in the multiracial church / by Michael
Anthony Campbell
9. The role of the pastor in the process of developing ordained leadership / by James Daele Funyak
10. "How did they get there?": exploring how career worship directors became equipped for long-term vocational worship ministry in Reformed churches / by Stephen
A.Whitner 2013
1. Overcoming cultural and systemic barriers: exploring how minority pastors overcome leadership challenges in majority culture congregations / by Edward S. Koh
2. Orchestrating change / by Mark Hutton
3. Self-care in ministers in the Presbyterian Church in Ireland: a critical incident study/ by David Allen.
4. Effective bicultural team leadership practices in the Korean American churches / by James Jungbae Kim
5. Systematic theology and the spiritual formation of laypersons / by Yancey C. Arrington 6. Pastoring the church around the corner: how pastors of small churches evaluate their
7. How pastors develop spiritual shepherds for the local church / by David Harding 8. The nervous preacher: how anxious preachers can learn to successfully cope with
public speaking anxiety / by Matt Herndon
9. From the edge to the heart of the congregation: reaching young men in the Presbyterian Church in Ireland / by Robert Kane
10. Prepare, deliver, shepherd: using evaluation to understand the impact of ethos in preaching / by William H. Wade, Jr.
11. Pastors thriving in marriage and ministry: pursuing health in marriage while leading through church conflict / by Steven L. Jones
12. Does she matter?: emotional intimacy in marriage in light of gender distinction / by Samuel A. Andreades.
13. When duty calls: ISTJ pastors as effective ministry leaders / by Tim J. Reed 14. How bivocational church planters have operated in an Irish context / by David J.
Montgomery
15. The impact of online audiences on preaching ministries in local churches / by John David Ellis
16. How business leaders partner with other Christians for inter-cultural, inter-
denominational, and transformational development in urban missions / by Julian C. Russell
17. The dance between vulnerability and trust in pulpit leadership / by Clay Smith
18. Understanding the challenges facing urban congregations of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland who are seeking to develop effective mission in their local community / by John Coulter
19. Cultivating a Christocentric worldview among the congregation through preaching / by Stephen Leonard
20. Christ-centered motivations / by Olan Stubbs
21. Field sermons: a study in extemporaneous preaching effected without the regular tools of preparation and delivery / by Robert Nicholas Burns, Jr.
22. Engaging the lost in highly secular suburban settings / by Steven M. Reese 2012
1. An unconscious hermeneutic: the laity experience of inerrancy when reading difficult scriptural texts / by Stephen O. Meidahl
2. The impact of Han-Ryu on pastoral ministry in Korean American churches / by Ezra Soong Kim
3. Building community in a family-integrated, commuter church / by Steven Walker 4. An exploration of the factors which encourage ministers of the Presbyterian Church in
Ireland to take sabbaticals / by Stephen David Hill Williamson
5. Cross-cultural theological education in East Africa: perceptions of the learning experience / by James E. Book
6. Navy chaplains: cooperation and conflict in a pluralistic setting / by John Allen Carter 7. The spiritual formation, mentoring, and peer learning of emerging pastoral leaders /
by Stephen C. Baldwin
8. Making a move: exploring factors that contribute to a successful pastoral transition/ by Michael Kennison
9. African American church planters in the Presbyterian Church in America / b y Michael Higgins
2011
1. Preaching the Word in and out of season: sustaining the lifelong preacher / by Daniel B.Ying
2. Effective leadership of pastoral staff teams / by Eric R. Molicki
3. "What happened?" and "What now?": exploring how Reformed pastors minister to the parents of a post apostate emerging adults / by Joost Nixon.
4. Christ-centered preaching in hip hop culture / by Thurman L. Williams 5. Collaborative leadership / by David Krueger
6. Musical instruments and musicians in the worship of the Canadian Reformed churches / by Theodore E. Lodder
7. Leading adaptive change in a Korean cultural context / by Joseph Kukhun Lee 8. Prayer and spiritual warfare in the multiple-staff church / by Arthur S. Roemer 9. An East Africa team's response to the challenges of global interdependency working
among the poor / by William C. Yarbrough
10. Successfully working through conflict in marriage / by Santo Garofalo
11. Chinese Christian lay leaders in America: understanding the role of expository preaching / by Woon Cheung Chan
12. Seeking the old paths: towards a recovery of John Calvin's pastoral theology amongst Reformed and Presbyterian pastors today / by Marcus J. Serven
13. From neglect to union: the obstacles and opportunities of interchurch relations between congregations of the OPC and the PCA / by William David Johnson
14. Deep change: how the transformational learning theories of Mezirow and Loder apply to pastoral ministry / by Curtis John Young
2010
1. Physical self-care practices for sustainable pastoral leadership in local church ministry / by Allen R. Taha
2. Learning to lead congregations in the midst of change and challenge / by Hugh M. Barlett
3. The pastor's spouse: exploring the experience of a spouse in the ministry / by Jim Stark
4. Preaching Christ from Old Testament narratives / by Mark C. Livingston 5. The man, the message, and the mission / by Darrin Patrick
6. Bridge over the water: exploring the connections in Wendell Berry's vision of community / by Daniel K. Chinn
7. Getting on the same page: transitioning from the King James version: a case study of a Baptist congregation / by Donald W. Burke
Dissertation Chapter Outline
Consider these as 5 separate papers on a common topic. Main section headings required for each chapter are in bold.
Chapter One: Introduction (~10–15 pages)
The purpose of this chapter is to provide background and apologetic for what you’re going to research and why it is important. Your goal is to convincing the reader that your problem is a reality and your purpose is worthy and significant for this research. The primary voice is published literature. Your voice is secondary in this chapter; no use of first person allowed.
1. Introduction — Grab the reader’s attention with the problem and introduce the general topic/issues via a brief background that is relevant to your focus.
2. Problem and Purpose Statements — Give a focused rationale/apologetic for your
research, citing key literature for all the facts given. Use about 12 foundational sources for your study, demonstrating that while the literature addresses your problem in some ways, it does not settle the questions you are asking and does not address the concerns and issues in the way your study will. Lead up to a concise paragraph or two with your focus. End this section with the logical conclusion of the Purpose Sentence — “Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore . . .” (somebody doing something
somewhere/sometime).
3. Research Questions — “The following questions guided the research:” In a numbered list, give your 3–4 RQs. They must connect in concept and terminology to the purpose
sentence. RQs list the limited depth and focused analysis of the qualitative data (usually the interviews). RQs do not directly concern the literature review.
4. Significance of the Study — What impact on ministry will the fruit of this study offer? These are your expectations of what Chapter 5 might focus on. Be specific about ways your research findings could make positive differences for the church.
5. Definition of Terms — List key terms that you need the readers to interpret with the limited way you describe them. Definitions offered in the literature can strengthen
trustworthiness for your list, so consider providing citations, even when you morph several descriptions from the literature together to meet your need.
Chapter Two: Literature Review (40–65 pages; permission required to go over 65 pages.)
This chapter is an analysis of the research already published concerning your specific topic focus. It provides a foundation for the qualitative research, which is much more narrowly focused by RQs and interview data analysis. You are presenting the voices of other authors who have approached this problem and research area. Your literature analysis (not book report but research) has them “speaking” to each other on the themes that you find in the literature that are foundationally relevant to your purpose sentence and RQs. You can express concerns and subtle critique by comparing authors. Save your ideas of affirmation and challenge for chapter 5. Your voice is secondary in this chapter. No first person. Use primary sources only; do not quote someone quoting another source.
1. Begin the chapter by restating the purpose of the study and why this literature is reviewed. State the 3–4 areas of literature that you will analyze so the reader will know where you are going. Use the same words for your areas that you use for the main headers in the chapter.
The purpose of this study was to explore how . . . (someone does something somewhere). In order to understand what . . . (someone experienced or does), three areas of literature were reviewed: . . . The first area describes . . .
2. The main headings of Chapter 2 are usually your 3–4 key areas of literature, including a required biblical or theological section. Sub-headers should reflect your analysis
categories and themes from the literature.
3. End each main header area with a summary paragraph that connects to the next header area. End the chapter with a summary of the most significant findings from your analysis. Chapter Three: Methodology (~10 pages)
1. Begin the chapter by restating the purpose of the study, why you are using this method and your research questions:
The purpose of this study was to explore how . . . The assumption of this study was that . . . (the someone does and knows something significant). Therefore, a qualitative study was proposed in order to comprehend the point of view of . . . (the someones) from their experiences.
2. Design of the Study — what research methods you will use and why.
The research design of this study will follow a qualitative approach. Sharan B. Merriam in her popular text, Qualitative Research and Case Study Applications in Education, defines a qualitative method as, “. . . ”
3. Participant Sample Selection — Describe the specific criteria for those you hope to interview and the reasoning why each criterion suits the research focus and need. 4. Data Collection —This section includes the Interview Protocol and instruments/tools
used to gain data and the specifics on what you are going to do during the qualitative research work. This chapter does not refer to the literature review work.
5. Data Analysis —Describe how you will employ the “constant comparative” method and give the details of the process. State what you are doing and why it is rigorous and helpful to your research. Cite Merriam several times.
6.Researcher Position — In qualitative study, the researcher serves as the primary instrument for data collection and analysis. This means all observations and analyses in the study are filtered through the researchers’ perspectives and values. Researchers must be sensitive to understand how biases or subjectivity shape the research process. Therefore, it is important to employ critical self-reflection in order to identify and disclose potential sources of bias, assumptions, worldview, theoretical orientation, and
other connections to your work that may impact the research (Merriam, 2009, p.229). 7. Study Limitations — Reference the detailed outline adapted from Merriam in this
Notebook section on Chapter 3. Continue to use third person.
Due to limited resources and time, the research . . . The interview or focus group analysis is not necessarily universally applicable to all times and situations . . . Chapter Four: Data Report and Analysis (~30–50 pages)
As before, begin the chapter by restating the purpose of the study and what you will be reporting in the chapter:
This study was designed to explore how pastors have learned the politics of ministry practice. Three research questions were framed to guide the study. The research questions were: . . . In this chapter, the participants of the study will be introduced and their insights concerning the study questions will be presented.
Usually, your RQs provide the main section headings, in order, for Chapter 4. Your analysis will probably lead you to write up the findings by grouping responses together by themes and patterns, in order to lend credibility to the data and your analysis of it. For example,
The first study question asks what issues frame the politics of ministry practice. Three responses were shared by the study participants. . . . The first response, Xtheme name, was expressed by seven of the ten participants. Smith expressed this perspective when he said, . . . (just the relevant part of the direct quote). Jones agreed with Smith, stating . . . However, two participants disagreed with this viewpoint. Johnson’s comment illustrates this disagreement: “. . .”
Your voice should be nowhere in this chapter. No first person. You are simply a reporter, collating into themes and identifying what the participants in your interviews and focus groups thought. “Just the Facts.” Save your personal analysis until Chapter Five.
1. Introductions to Participants and Context. Briefly describe the context and participants generally, where this information is relevant to the research, keeping them unidentifiable and using pseudonyms.
2. Describe findings, organized first according to RQs and then into sub-headers according to analysis themes and sub-themes (in narrative format with graphs and tables as needed) 3. Address each research question! And end each RQ section with a summary paragraph 4. Summary of Findings. End the chapter with a summary of the findings you think are most
important.
5. Be very aware of how you are presenting the raw data from your participants. The reader needs to understand who participated, what they said, and how it answers the research questions. Direct quotations don’t speak for themselves. Your expert analysis is needed to summarize the findings illustrated in each quotation for the reader.
Chapter Five: Discussion and Recommendations (~20–40 pages)
Treat chapter 5 as the final summary and synthesis of your research, which includes your voice. It is the one chapter people most read when looking at dissertations. It is also where you would go to start to draft what could/should be edited into an article for a journal. We hope you will strongly consider publishing articles from your research findings and recommendations in Covenant’s Presbyterion, in byFaith magazine, or in another relevant journals or magazines.
This chapter has the most writer freedom. This is where you get to say “so what” and tell us what’s important about your findings and what we all need to do about it. Dig into the more compelling details from your findings. You don’t need to write about everything; just about those particular findings that you find most important or interesting. You can be highly specific in your
recommendations based on your findings.
1. For introduction paragraphs, begin the chapter by restating the purpose of the study and what you will be reporting in the chapter. Start with purpose and research questions. 2. Summary of Study and Findings. This section briefly summarizes your summaries of
Chapters 2 and 4.
This study reviewed relevant literature in three areas and analyzed interview data from eight senior pastors. The literature review has shown that . . . .
3. Discussion of Findings (your interview data analysis in light of your literature review and in light of your experiences and expectations on the findings). Now your voice should be heard. Now you can use first person! In this discussion, you should present a
“conversation” between the literature (chapter 2), your research findings (chapter 4) and your own perspective. Here you can give your own opinions and perspectives in agreement with or in contrast with your participants and/or the literature. This summary and
synthesizes of chapters 2 and 4, should speak to what you consider the most important findings. Organize the topics in similar ways as you did in chapters 2 and/or 4, usually by RQ-type headers and themes sub- headers, or by major summary categories for your synthesized findings. Use many sub-headers to keep it organized. You do not need to restate any quotes or direct evidence or sample data if you don’t want to. You are the expert now so discuss what you found.
In the literature, we discovered that the idea of politics is considered taboo in the church. (footnote key references) Jones stated this eloquently when he said, “ . . . ” However, in this study politics have been identified as a daily experience for pastors. . . . It is the conclusion of this author (or my conclusion/conviction) that the political realities of the church ought to be named and that pastors be prepared to face these realities. . . 4. Chapter 5 contains no new research data. You cannot use anything in chapter 5 that is not
previously found, at least in reference and citation, via paraphrase or summary or
quotation, in chapters 2 and 4, except your own ideas. For example, if you want to quote Scripture as you are interacting with summaries of other literature from your literature review, then that Scripture needs to be referenced in chapter 2 with the literature review. Another example is that you cannot cite a direct quotation from an interview if you did not
cite it or reference it in chapter 4. You may use new direct quotations in chapter 5 as long as the concept they convey and the sources have already been written about and cited in chapters 2 or 4.
5. Recommendations for Practice — Leaves a legacy of wisdom for the church.
6. Recommendations for Further Research — Where researchers and students go for ideas. Appendices
You may add appendices if you want to include referenced items from your work that are not substantial to the basic research, such as survey tools, and/or created programs or sermons or lectures or curriculum which resulted from your research work.
Bibliography
