Creating qualitative research assignments that encourage doctoral student publications: Faculty collaboration for student elaboration

Doctoral education provides students with a variety of opportunities to develop expertise in their areas of interest. Many students enter PhD programs with the intention of pursuing a career in academia. One of the hot topics among doctoral programs is how demystify scholarly writing and thus better prepare graduates for careers in academia (Bender, & Windsor, 2010; Nolan & Rocco, 2009). Indeed, while a PhD or its equivalent was once the gold standard to obtain an academic post, increasingly faculty search committees are also asking for a record of scholarship through presentations and publications (Jalongo, Boyer & Ebbeck, 2014). There are clear advantages to providing opportunities for students to build knowledge in an area that can be elaborated on through the dissertation stage. This interactive workshop will explore the benefits of engaging in a qualitative research process from IRB through publication before completing a dissertation. We will review what we learned from the implementation of the qualitative two-course sequence and discuss recommendations for adding a third course specifically designed to address scholarly writing, including writing literature reviews, book reviews, and tailoring each chapter for potential publication or presentation intended to demystify the process using a “learning by doing,” scaffolding approach. Bender, K., & Windsor, L. C. (2010). The four Ps of publishing: Demystifying publishing in peer-reviewed journals for social work doctoral students. Journal of Teaching in Social Work, 30(May 2015), 147–158. http://doi.org/10.1080/08841231003697999 Jalongo, M. R., Boyer, W., & Ebbeck, M. (2014). Writing for Scholarly Publication as “Tacit Knowledge”: A Qualitative Focus Group Study of Doctoral Students in Education. Early Childhood Education Journal, 42(4), 241–250. http://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-013-0624-3 Nolan, R., & Rocco, T. (2009). Teaching Graduate Students in the Social Sciences Writing for Publication. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 20(2), 267–273