"When you are in a hole, stop digging." The wisdom of Will Rogers, American humorist, seems to be forgotten with respect to scholarly research in the arts, social sciences, business, and education. Why do doctoral candidates and professors produce scholarship that minimally advances knowledge and has no impact on producing educated and productive citizens? Rarely seen outside a closed club of scholars and journals, scholarly research serves only to demonstrate mastery of an art form that is not relevant in the mainstream of higher education. This book proposes reforms starting with the doctoral dissertation. The issue is that the dissertation's over emphasis on obscure research undermines the subsequent scholarship expected of professors in our colleges and universities. This book discusses reforms in doctoral programs to improve the value of and process to complete a doctoral dissertation.
Table of Contents Preface Part 1: The Big Picture of Scholarly Research Chapter 1: Who is Affected by the Misdirection of Academic Scholarship? How are Harvard, Fordham, Southern New Hampshire, and the University of Phoenix doing we might ask? Chapter 2: What are contingent faculty? Do they have anything to do with scholarly research? Chapter 3: What is scholarly research anyway?" Professors do it but what are they doing? Chapter 4: When does Scholarly Research Achieve its Highest Satisfaction? Do I really want to keep on doing this stuff? Chapter 5: Is scholarly research an affliction weakening the academy? Perhaps an as-of-yet unclassified disease? Chapter 6: Why are dissertations the tipping point for scholarly research? Is this really where it all starts? Part 2: Reforming the Doctoral Dissertation Chapter 7: Do you have the smarts to do scholarly research? Are weaklings allowed in this club? Chapter 8: Why is a dissertation the starting point of academic scholarship? Do you need to know a about validity, reliability, and that other stuff? Chapter 9: Why are we fussing about data, information, and knowledge? Is it worth our time and trouble? Chapter 10: Where can you find hints and tips for writing a dissertation? Don't you want to do it right the first time? Chapter 11: Do scholarly researchers have their own language? Where is a translator when we need one? Chapter 12: Does a quantitative or qualitative dissertation make more sense? Do you want to know the answer now or after you attempt it? Chapter 13: How does sampling produce valid findings? Does anybody believe what we just learned? Chapter 14: Why are limitations as important as findings? Do we need to explain that which we didn't learn? Part 3: Candidates Only -- Practical Tips for Writing Dissertations Chapter 15: Why is a dissertation like flying a fighter jet? Is it enough to take off or do want to be sure you can land? Chapter 16: What is the dilemma of the dissertation topic? Why is it so important to resolve it? Chapter 17: How can an Advisor Help Create a Workable Proposal? Do we have any tips or tricks to share with the candidates? Chapter 18: We know corruption is bad but Is it a suitable topic for a doctoral dissertation? How should we decide? Chapter 19: Have you Heard any Good Dissertation Stories Lately? Would you like One to Finish this Journey? Chapter 20: How should you Structure a Dissertation? Is it Important to know where you are going?
