For the past month, I have been reading the Qualitative Research text up to the literature review chapter and a bit into the theoretical and conceptual frameworks chapter. While the book is wonderful in helping see how the dissertation can be laid out and that I absolutely feel confident that I can do it, I am still reading up on student engagement.

I do not know why I cannot find any theory better than the two I have inserted into my second draft of the Prospectus Outline (Wlodkowski & Ginsberg's 1995 culturally responsive teaching framework and Schlossberg's theory on mattering vs. marginality). The more prominent theories on student engagement such as Kuh, Astin's theory on involvement, Tinto's theory on student retention, Chickering's seven vectors all seem to be more than what my research on student perceptions on writing pedagogy as a student engagement tool need. These well-known theorists are likely be discussed in the student engagement section, just that I can not see how I can use any of their theories to their fullest. If the research turns out that I can extract parts of any theory, then I will. But I prefer to use a theory in full, not in part, to theoretically discuss the writing pedagogy I use in my research, in my computer lab of a classroom for Orientation 101.

Therefore, I may instead incorporate the prominent theorists on student engagement into a conceptual framework. I need to really buckle down and study the chapter in the book to understand how to do a conceptual framework.

I feel I can not go on and do a 25-40 page prospectus until I figure out how to do the conceptual framework on student engagement. And I am waiting for my second draft of the Prospectus Outline to be approved or needs to be revised again. Maybe once I get the feedback, I will have a better sense of how to do the conceptual framework???

Sharing Post-thoughts about my dissertation journey

SEE the Writing -- has multiple meanings.

SEE are the initials of my former married name (Sarah Elizabeth Eiland), and even though the marriage chapter in my life has ended, I still carry "See the writing" perspective lens into what I believe about writing and its effectiveness for my teaching style.

It is during my marriage that I taught Orientation 101 at Gadsden State Community College (2008-2015). Thus, I conducted research with the intent to see what students thought of my writing pedagogy, the writing prompts, as an all-encompassing tool to succeed both in the classroom and in life.

On a side but very important note, I am hearing impaired. Subsequently, I share how writing helps with my reaching out to the students sitting in my classroom.

Autoethnography is the research approach used to explore how writing over time has helped with the development of my pedagogical content knowledge.

Lee S. Shulman's (1986, 1987) pedagogical content knowledge is the theoretical framework for my autoethnographic research. Not only do I refer to PCK, I also touch on several other theories including Dee Fink's (2013) taxonomy of significant learning, Schlossberg's (1989) theory on mattering vs. marginality, Mikhail Bahktin's theory of addressivity, and Jacque Lacan's theory of interconnectedness.

I concluded my autoethnographic research with five findings:

1) individualism within diversity

2) variability

3) persistence

4) competence

5) responsiveness.