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CHAPTER

3

Presenting Methodology and Research Approach

OVERVIEW
Chapter 3 of the dissertation presents the research design and the specific procedures used in conducting your study. A research design includes various interrelated elements that reflect its sequential nature. This chapter is intended to show the reader that you have an understanding of the methodological implications of the choices you made and, in particular, that you have thought carefully about the links between your study’s purpose and research questions and the research approach and research methods that you have selected.
Note that in the proposal’s chapter 3, you project what you will do based on what you know about the particular methods used in qualitative research, in general, and in your tradition or genre, in particular; hence, it is written in future tense. In the dissertation’s chapter 3, you report on what you have already done.
You write after the fact; hence, you write in past tense. As such, many of the sections of chapter 3 can be written only after you have actually conducted your study (i.e., collected, analyzed, and synthesized your data).
To write this chapter, you need to conduct literature reviews on the methodological issues involved in qualitative research design.

You need to show the reader that you
(a) have knowledge of the current issues and discourse, and (b) can relate your study to those issues and discourse. In this regard, you need to explain how you have gone about designing and conducting your study while making sure that you draw supporting evidence from the literature for the decisions and choices that you have made.
This chapter, which is usually one of the dissertation’s lengthiest, is essentially a discussion, in which you explain the course and