Dissertation Overview

Chapter 1 Introduction

1. Start with a story about why this became important to you. HBCU band programs often have rich history… When I was…

2. Provide some background (2-3 paragraphs) about this topic (possibly using some of the items in the LR). Tradition in band programs sometimes comes from…

3. Need for Study - why does this study need to be done? Why does this data need to be reported? ETC.

4. Purpose and Research Questions

   • The purpose of this study was to...

   • The research questions for this study were...

     • How do HBCU band directors define tradition in band programs?

     • What elements are reflected in tradition across the participants' institutions?

     • etc.

5. You may wish to provide a brief description of your conceptual framework or theoretical framework. 

   • Conceptual - How did you conceive of this study based on the literature review, other researchers' methods, etc.?

     • For example: "The background research for this study suggests that IP is prevelant in P-12 students, P-12 educators, undergraduate students, gradaute students, and all levels of faculty in higher education. Based on previous research, we are looking at how each participant group's experiences are unique, but also how they intersect."

   • Theoretical - What there existing theories, methodological approaches that you're usuing as a frame for your method? 

     • For example: "This study centers on responsive teaching and responsive pedgagogy. Ladsen-Billings (year) originally wrote... Kay (year) expanded this in music education by including....This study takes both of these viewpoints into consideration and they serve as a primary lense through which the qualitative data will be examined." 

6. Assumptions, Limitations, Delimitations. 

   • What are you assuming about the population, the method, etc. (assumption)? 

     • Example. "This study includes an online anonymous survey. I assume that each participant who chooses to complete the survey will do so honestly."

   • What cannot be found in this study, or cannot be fully described based on this study (limitation)? 

     • Example: "This study focuses on graduate student IP and does not measure other population groups' experiences. Further, this study involves twelve interviews and four focus groups. While an attempt was made to capture participant views from a variety of geographic locations, it is not possible to generalize to any single or expanded location."

   • What choices did you make regarding this study including the data collection approach, the participants, etc. (delimitation)? 

     • Example: "I chose to ask only graduate students who were in their final year(s) of their degree, specifically those who are working only on their dissertations."

7. Summary or Conclusion

   • A brief conclucing paragraph here, or you can summarize what you already wrote (I usually say do a conclusion).

Chapter 2 Related Literature

These sites may be useful:

• Perdue Owl Lit Review

• Ten Simple Rules for Writing a Literature Review

Useful Steps

1. Create an outline in Word - This will probably be the headings in your Literature Review (LR). This document is the start of your LR. 

   • OR, just start reading research and writing an original abstract for each article you review. 

   • THEN start organizing them into groups once you've completed a few. 

   • These categories will probably be your headings in the document. 

   • Example Abstract (all made up....):
     "Kuehne et al (2026) examined the lived experiences of a music education faculty member, a music administrator, and a music education doctoral student. They interviewed three participants to find significant detail about their personal experiences with IP. Each person had four interviews and each interview was approximately 90 minutes. Questions pinpointed personal experiences with IP and how it intersected with diagnosed and undiagnosed mental health challenges. Results from this study suggest that while many people in these roles seem 'okay,' often they are working through deep, sometimes personally debilitating internal struggles that are never shown in their professional personas. Each person suggested that they have two different personas. First, they describe the one that has everything under control, who is competent, positive, and how knows and does their jobs well. Second, they describe the persona who is essentially the opposite, where nothing is in control, they are not competent but often feel like they are floundering, they have negative self-views, and they do not know what they are supposed to be doing at their jobs. Kuehne et al suggest, as the research suggests (citations), many who experience IP are highly competent and productive, they simply do not feel like they meet these descriptions. They also suggest that IP can be managed through ....."

   • Do this for each article you review. 

   • Take notes documenting your thoughts as you read and review. KEEP these notes! 

   • Once you start seeing patterns, you can create your categories (headings). 

2. Move article summaries and APA reference for each into outline document.

3. For organzational structure, you could create an Excel/Google Sheet or Word/Google Doc and paste the reference into that document. 

   • Don't worry about the order. You can put them in alphabetical order later. This will be your Reference List (RL)

4. When you're nearing the end, when you keep finding the same sources you've already reviewed and nothing new, go back through the LR and ensure each has an in-text citation and is in your reference list. 

5. Go through the LR and create and introductory paragraph for each section. Then write transitions between each article review.

6. End with a summary of everything -- usually 1-2 pages but could be less (or more).

Chapter 3 Methods

1. Write your purpose statement and research questions (this will be used later in your introduction, but you need them for your method).

2. Write your method which includes a restatement of your purpose and research questions.

3. What research (or texts you've read) support your method? For example, are you doing a qualitative study? What kind of study? What is your approach, what framework, what lense might you use as an overarching structure as you review the data?

4. Participants... The potential participants for this study included...

5. Data Collection Instrument and Distribution

This quantitative descriptive study involved using an online survey that included both quantitative questions and questions that asked for descriptive, qualitative information. Specifically, the first section of the survey asked for the following demographic information (a).... Section two asked respondents to provide their definition of "tradition" in band programs, and to define it in terms of their institution's processes and history. This section also included rating questions... Section three asked... (and so on).

OR

After Internal Review Board approval, the survey was distributed by email directly to the potential participants. They could opt to use their real names, or opt to remain anonymous, in which case, I created pseudonyms for their them, their location, and their institution's name. 

6. Data Analysis Plan and Process

My data analysis focused on providing as rich a description of each program as possible. Quantitative questions included descriptive statistics as well as frequencies. Qualitative-type data was analyzed in two ways. First I took the data from each question and put it verbatim into a document, changing items to pseudonyms where needed. Second, I read through each question's responses several times before starting any coding. 

Third, I went back to my framework (what was the framework? include it here again) and used NVIVO began to highlight areas in each person's data that seemed to stand out as areas fitting in the framework. I also highlighted areas that were similar among the participants. I added a note to those areas to identify as potential codes. I used a reiterative process where I reviewed the data 3 separate times, taking space and time between each review. .... and so on. 

OR

Third, I used NVIVO (or Atlas.ti) to identify codes and themes based respondent's answers to each question. I first did a quick analysis using the software's AI capabilities. This gave me a starting point, though it identified repeated words like "the" as a potential code, so I was judicious in reading through those results. 

Next, I went through each question's text and hand identified codes throughout based on similarities among participants. I also coded areas that I believed were useful and interesting to report. I exported all of my identified codes and text and organized them into overarching themes. Then

Talk about the framework or lens you used for data analysis structure. How did you view it? Talk specifically in great detail about your process.

ETC...

7. Researcher Bias.

I have a unique perspective on this area, so I attempted to set aside my own thoughts about tradition in HBCU band programs. Any time I found myself making a "judgement" about a participant's views or thoughts, I made note that this was not part of my role as the researcher. I kept a separate journal document to write down these thoughts. I came back to this list as I finalized data analysis to ensure my bias was not reflected in the results. I returned to my list as part of my discussion, to determine if any areas in that list might be useful in that part of this study.

Chapter 4 Results/Findings

1. While analyzing results, keep a journal/notepad (whatever) of your thoughts that arise as you're working on this. 

2. Keep note of those times when you think/say "that's strange, that's weird, that's interesting, I wonder why that came out the way it did," and so on.

3. Come back to this list for your discussion.

Chapter 5 Discussion

1. Do your results relate to any of the literature? This is where you point that out.

2. What do you think about these results? This is where you get to say something about the results (go back to that list you made during results process).

3. Implications for music education populations, researchers, teachers, students, others?

4. Conclusions - what conclusions can you make based on the data you found?

5. Future Research - what future research needs to be done in this area?