Find strategies and explore diverse approaches for conducting a good literature review for your dissertation using NVivo.

1. Getting Started and Finishing your Dissertation
Using NVivo
www.queri.com
Kristi Jackson, MEd PhD
kjackson@queri.com
303-832-9502

2.  Large group
 Small group
 One-on-one
 Independent work
Stay a 4th day
at no extra cost
www.Queri.com

3.  Session 1
◦ NVivo and successfully defended dissertations
 Session 2
◦ NVivo and the dissertation literature review
 Session 3
◦ NVivo, ethics and IRBs
 Session 4
◦ NVivo and your dissertation defense

4. 1. Focus and Timing of the Literature Review
2. Process
3. The debate
4. The role of NVivo
◦ Writing and linking
◦ Coding
◦ Subgroups
◦ Queries
◦ Visualizations
5. Your Literature Review Metaphor(s)
6. General tips

5.  Bazeley, P. (2013). Qualitative data analysis: Practical strategies.
London: Sage Publications.
◦ Topics
◦ Theories
(or Approaches)
◦ Methods
Optimism in low performing schools
Mentoring immigrant employees
Stress among Olympic athletes
Ethics among emergency room nurses
The impact of the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell
Critical race theory
Symbolic interactionism
Boundary objects
Conflict theory
Constructionism
Interviews
Constant comparison
Archival research
Field notes
Surveys

6. Before During After
Phenomenology
Grounded Theory
Ethnography
Narrative
Case Study
 Bloomberg, L. D. and Volpe, M. (2008). Completing your qualitative
dissertation: A roadmap from beginning to end. Thousand Oaks:
Sage Publications.

7.  Creswell, J. W. (1994). Research design:
Qualitative and quantitative approaches.
Thousand Oaks: Sage
◦ Identify terms to use in the search
◦ Locate the literature
◦ Read and check the relevance of the literature
◦ Organize the literature
◦ Write a literature review

8.  Boote, D. N., & Beile, P. (2005). Scholars before
researchers: On the centrality of the dissertation
literature review in research preparation. Educational
Researcher, 34(6), 3-15.
◦ Limited amount of research and understanding on the role
of the Literature Review process on research
◦ A Lit Review should
 Situate the study (including historically)
 Justify decisions around the scope of the study
 Critically examine the claims in the literature
 Are they warranted?
◦ Emphasis on
 Thorough (exhaustive)
 Comprehensive

10.  Maxwell, J. A. (2006). Literature reviews of, and
for, Educational Research: A Commentary on
Boote and Beile’s “Scholars before Researchers.”
Educational Researcher 35(9), 28-31
◦ Thorough (exhaustive)
◦ Comprehensive
 Survey a select group of studies
 Provide detail about relevance
 Describe the contribution of this lit to your study
 Indicate how your study will move beyond them

12. There exists, at the elementary
level, a lack of research that
describes conditions
contributing to academic
optimism. This research helps
to fill that void by identifying,
describing, and categorizing
the norms, behaviors,
strategies, and other pertinent
characteristics that exist in a
low-SES school that has
established and is maintaining
an academically optimistic
environment.
Primary themes include:
expectations/goals,
alignment, collaboration,
communication, and needs . . .
Track researcher ideas through the
use of memos and links.
Most of the studies on
optimism seem to be focused
on low SES schools, and I
wonder how many occur in
high SES schools. Could there
be an unwarranted
assumption that optimism in
low SES is more rare, more
powerful, or more necessary
for success than in high SES?
If so, is this presumption just
about low SES schools, or is it
a larger assumption about low
SES and success?
memo/journal article
Van Hof, J. (2012). Establishment and maintenance of
academic optimism in Michigan elementary schools

13. There exists, at the elementary
level, a lack of research that
describes conditions
contributing to academic
optimism. This research helps
to fill that void by identifying,
describing, and categorizing
the norms, behaviors,
strategies, and other pertinent
characteristics that exist in a
low-SES school that has
established and is maintaining
an academically optimistic
environment.
Primary themes include:
expectations/goals,
alignment, collaboration,
communication, and a needs
Low SES
Assign multiple codes to a single
portion of text/audio/video/image.
Communication
Expectations

14. Cross-reference the relationships
among codes to investigate
constellations or patterns.
Communication
“Primary themes include:
expectations/goals, alignment,
collaboration, communication.”
Low SES Expectations

15. There exists, at the elementary
level, a lack of research that
describes conditions
contributing to academic
optimism. This research helps
to fill that void by identifying,
describing, and categorizing
the norms, behaviors,
strategies, and other pertinent
characteristics that exist in a
low-SES school that has
established and is maintaining
an academically optimistic
environment.
Primary themes include:
expectations/goals,
alignment, collaboration,
communication, and a needs
Low SES
Communication
Expectations
Import quantitative or demographic
data as a means of comparing
subpopulations in the data.
Published: 2012
State: Michigan

17. Colorado Florida Michigan Texas
Low SES 22 31 18 36
Communication 22 45 74 93
Expectations 11 40 22 65
Van Hof, J. (2012): 1 Reference
Primary themes include:
expectations/goals, alignment,
collaboration, communication, and needs…

19. Project Map

20. Concept Map

21.  Bruce, C. S. (2001). Interpreting the scope of their literature reviews:
Significant differences in research students concerns. New Library World,
102(4), 158–166.
◦ metaphors for the literature review process
Listing
Searching
Surveying
Thorough/Exhaustive
Comprehensive
Comparative
Learning
Facilitating
Reporting
Relevant
Construction
Generative
More systematicMore foundational

22.  Based on your conversations, fill out this
table:
Adjectives Tools/Activities
Foundation
System

23. Metaphors
Foundation System
Memos and Links Core ideas Creative ideas
Coding Distillation Connection
Queries Absence/Presence Relevance
Visualizations Logic model Constellations

24.  Emphasize relevance over volume
 Integrate rather than isolate the literature from the
other chapters
 Look for things you can use
◦ Questions, settings, people, scenarios, historical events,
debates, logical connections
 Revise the construction of the literature review at the
end of the analysis
 Appreciate and track the role of material that
DOESN’T make it into the review
◦ Does it deserve a brief mention for providing confirmations,
setting boundaries around the study, identifying camps,
anticipating critiques, or providing juxtapositions?
 Pilot a small example in NVivo before importing
everything

25.  Session 1
◦ NVivo and successfully defended dissertations
 Session 2
◦ NVivo and the dissertation literature review
 Session 3
◦ NVivo, ethics and IRBs
 Session 4
◦ NVivo and your dissertation defense

26.  Large group
 Small group
 One-on-one
 Independent work
Stay a 4th day
at no extra cost
www.Queri.com

27. Getting Started and Finishing your Dissertation
Using NVivo
www.queri.com
Kristi Jackson, MEd PhD
kjackson@queri.com
303-832-9502