Completing Your Qualitative Dissertation: A Road Map from Beginning to End

Addressing one of the key challenges facing doctoral students, Completing Your Qualitative Dissertation by Linda Dale Bloomberg and Marie Volpe fills a gap in qualitative literature by offering comprehensive guidance and practical tools for navigating each step in the qualitative dissertation journey, including the planning, research, and writing phases. Blending the conceptual, theoretical, and practical, the book becomes a dissertation in action--a logical and cohesive explanation and illustration of content and process. The Third Edition maintains key features that distinguish its unique approach and has been thoroughly updated and expanded throughout to reflect and address recent developments in the field.

About the Author :
Linda Dale Bloomberg is former adjunct faculty and dissertation advisor in adult learning and leadership at Teachers College, Columbia University. As senior researcher for the South African Human Sciences Research Council and National Institute for Personnel Research, Dr. Bloomberg's work focused on change management, diversity initiatives, and enhanced workplace learning. She currently develops curriculum for qualitative research in graduate programs, serves as dissertation chair and subject matter expert, and also serves as consultant to various research, higher education, and nonprofit advisory boards. She is founder of Bloomberg Associates and ILIAD (Institute for Learning Innovations and Adult Development), and a cofounder of Columbia University's Global Learning and Leadership Institute. She has authored and edited numerous publications in the fields of organizational evaluation, qualitative research, leadership development, adult learning, and distance education. Dr. Bloomberg is a contributor to the recently published Sage Encyclopedia of Educational Research, Measurement, and Evaluation (2018), and is currently working on Executive Coaching: Supporting Adult Development and Implications for Learning and Leadership. Dr. Bloomberg holds master's degrees in counseling psychology, organizational psychology, and education. In 2006, she received her doctorate in adult education and organizational learning from Columbia University. Marie Volpe is adjunct faculty in adult learning and leadership at Teachers College, Columbia University, where she teaches dissertation seminars and serves as advisor to doctoral candidates. She conducts workshops for teachers in Mongolia and lectures on qualitative research methods at Suzhou University, China. After a career spanning thirty-five years with Exxon Corporation, where she held the position of manager of education and development, Dr. Volpe embarked on a second career in higher education, in which she has practiced for the past twenty years. She has contributed to publications in the areas of staff development and informal learning in the workplace. She received her master's in organizational psychology and doctorate in adult education from Columbia University.

Review :
I have used previous editions of Completing Your Qualitative Dissertation and, while they have been excellent, I find the third edition to be the best resource for students that I've seen. The chapters are practical and applied, using a real life example throughout. There are even sections in each chapter that address frequent errors that students make. The third edition also provides a detailed description of various qualitative genres, making it easier for students to locate their own work within the book. This book will be required reading for each of my doctoral students, long before they start thinking about their dissertations. --Kate de Medeiros This third edition is a valuable guide for doctoral students. Theoretical and often abstract elements of the dissertation process are translated into clear and practical steps that students can take and instructors can share on the road toward successful completion of the dissertation. --Amira Proweller I applaud the author for taking on the challenge of describing the conceptual/theoretical model. This piece of information alone will meaningfully improve doctoral students' ability to progress forward with writing their dissertations. The conceptual/ theoretical model is one of the most misunderstood aspects of the dissertation, and yet the most important aspect of the dissertation because it anchors the study. But the single most impressive aspect of Completing Your Qualitative Dissertation is that the authors make sense of writing a qualitative dissertation in a way that will likely enhance the active and inactive students' ability to complete their dissertation.--Antonio C. Cuyler Students interested and/or committed in engaging in qualitative research would find Completing Your Qualitative Dissertation to be extremely informative and easy to read. The organization and presentation of the content are both visually appealing and the content is presented in a very student friendly manner. The organization of the chapters including the chapter objectives, chapter summaries and checklists are also helpful for faculty in terms on developing syllabi and pacing of course materials. The charts and diagrams are also very helpful and beneficial. Students need resources and tools to help with the thinking, collecting and analysis of rich qualitative data--of which can be found in almost every chapter of this text. This book does not lecture students but provides helpful tools to the assist in the collection of rich qualitative data. In addition, in many instances the students are actually able to see the tools and suggestions provided in the text in "action." When reading this text, the students are not left with figuring out next steps and how, this book provides a very clear road map. --Kriss Y. Kemp-Graham Completing Your Qualitative Dissertation is well written and clear. There is an enjoyable mix of scholarly and informal tone that should engage students well. Figures and tables are useful and are appropriate and well placed or referenced within the manuscript. I especially like the use of related examples and included resources. I also like that the authors enumerate common student errors or mistakes in each chapter. --Nathan R. Templeton In this third edition, I appreciated even more the intention the authors give to demystifying both the process of doctoral research and the rationale for the dissertation as a culminating product. It is heartening to have experienced researchers and teachers provide such clarifying and encouraging support to novices, particularly those whose progress through the complicated journey of becoming a qualitative researcher has become stymied and who are thereby feeling demoralized or despairing of ever completing their research work. The challenges of providing good research advisement stood out for me in reading this revision, so even though Completing Your Qualitative Dissertation is primarily designed for a graduate student audience, I have already recommended the third edition to my faculty colleagues within counselor education who are looking for a way to better transition excellent clinicians into excellent qualitative researchers for the counseling profession. --Karen Mackie