This doctoral seminar examines issues related to research methodology in language and literacy education. It provides an in-depth analysis of the theoretical foundations of research methodology and current issues relevant to conducting research independently and collaboratively. The course provides doctoral students with a strong foundation for assessing others’ research as well as practical models and options for designing, undertaking, interpreting, and writing/representing findings in language and literacy education.
Examples of topics covered in the course:
1. Philosophical assumptions of qualitative research
2. Different methodological approaches to qualitative research (e.g., narrative inquiry, case study, ethnography, phenomenology, grounded theory, arts-based research, mixed method, indigenous methodologies)
3. Ethical issues
4. Developing research questions
5. Conducting literature reviews
6. Data collection in qualitative research (e.g., observations/field notes, interviews; focus group)
7. Researcher’s positionality.
8. Issues in data analysis (e.g., critical discourse analysis, corpus analysis, using data analysis software)
9. Validity and reliability in qualitative research
10. Ethics in qualitative research (e.g., studying marginalized groups, reflexivity)
11. Critical evaluation of research methodology in previous studies (e. g, dissertations, articles, books)
12. Strategies for writing comprehensive exams, dissertation proposal, abstract, dissertation, and articles.
Examples of major assignments
Review of dissertations: Choose two dissertations and conduct an evaluative analysis of the research methodology used.
Peer seminar: Lead a discussion of selected readings for one class.
Final paper: Choose a topic related to research methodology and write a review.