My MAIED dissertation experience, 2012 The thesis analyzed the education policies of South Africa's opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, to understand their views on the role of the state and market in education provision. Both secondary sources like party documents and media reports, as well as interviews with national and local party members, were used. The document discusses lessons learned from the dissertation process, including being flexible in focus and methods, knowing when to stop researching and start writing, focusing on findings, maintaining perspective on the small scale of the research, and enjoying the experience.

1. My MAIED dissertation experience, 2012
 Thesis title: Deconstructing the education policy position of the Democratic
Alliance (DA) Opposition party in the Eastern Cape Province: Contested
understandings of social citizenship and redressing inequalities in post-apartheid
South Africa
 In parallel with an internship at Institute of Social and Economic Research, Rhodes
University
 Focus:
My thesis involved a critical analysis of the education policies of South Africa’s official
opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA) and an attempt to locate these
proposals, and their underlying values, within the broader international literature
regarding the role of the state and the market in the provision for its citizenry. I also
wanted to explore their policy process.
 Methods :
-Secondary sources (party press statements, media articles and policy documents)
-Interview data with 4 national level party members, generated for the SANPAD
project in 2011, 3 interviews with provincial leaders of the Eastern Cape and 1 with a
national level spokesperson, PLUS my own 11 interviews with 12 local members in
Makana District Municipality
-Field Diary

2. What I learned….
 Be flexible and open to changing focus, methods, findings, structure until the
very end
Cartoon from phdcomics.com

3.  Know when to stop reading and start writing
(and when to stop writing and start editing)
Cartoon from: http://gre-alice.blogspot.com.au/2012_04_01_archive.html

4.  Focus on your findings-that’s what is most important
Cartoon from: www.endlessorigami.com

5.  Maintain perspective –this is a small-scale research project
Cartoon from: http://cac.ophony.org/2010/08/20/dissertations-academia-and-public-
speaking/

6. Enjoy the experience 
 you may never have the opportunity to do it again

7. …..or (more likely) you may spend the rest of your working life
doing something similar…)