A large amount of PhD and EdS students write dissertations that contribute to knowledge regarding education, and provide new insights on how to improve educational practices. The studies of graduates encourage the reforms and help make the educational process and policies more effective.
Why is Choosing the Topic for Your Dissertation so Important?
This work might turn out to be the crowning achievement of your education and the achievement by which your colleagues will judge you in the future. This topic determines your first major contribution for which you will be known in the academic community. The process of choosing the right topic can be overwhelming, but there are some pieces of advice that can help you out.
How Does One Choose a Relevant Educational Leadership Dissertation Topic?
Here are some tips for you that will provide more insight on the matter:
- Choose your topic with considerable care. Although choosing a topic might not look like a hard decision, you are locking yourself into one big project that will require a couple years to compose and then another year to make presentable.
- Realize the consequences of your dissertation. Whether you want it or not, this study is going to influence your career for many years to come. You should put considerable effort into it in order to make it publishable.
- Get some guidance from your advisor. You can turn to someonewho definitely has a larger overview of the field, and can help you out by suggesting a couple of topics for your dissertation so that it fits into your particular timeframe. You are lucky if you have a person with enough academic knowledge who can guide you along the way. Some professors might not want to get involved, because either they do not want to take the responsibility that usually goes with giving such advice, or they are just reluctant to donate their time.
- Define your approach. You may either choose a topic from the list that your advisor offers you, or take the risk and do everything by yourself. Let us be honest, there is a big chance that you might fail if proper cautions are not implemented. There is also a third alternative, in which you can come up with a specific topic yourself and present it to your advisor for approval.
- Use all the possible help. It is safer to use your mentor’s advice than to apply your own sink-or-swim approach.