In the past week, I’ve met with my chair-to-be and the project manager for one of the surveys on which I will be piggybacking my (first?) survey instrument. Things are still looking good but I need to get working on my survey instrument. I need to create the instrument, send it off to some experts for feedback (content validity), formulate my plan to pilot the instrument, clear that with IRB, and execute that plan so I can revise the instrument as necessary. All in the next month or two.
Like many faculty in my department, my chair wants me to have a solid draft of each of my first three chapters (introduction, literature review, and methodology) before I can defend my proposal. I have some thoughts on how to approach my first chapter since some of what I found in conducting my initial review of the literature will instead end up in chapter one. I have a draft of chapter two but I need to add more material and work on the structure and organization. I already knew that I need to add material related to my theoretical lens (socio technical systems) although I may end having to move that to chapter one. But the other day I realized that I also need to add material related to youth use of technology since the qualitative work that has been done in the past few years forms much of the foundation for what I’m doing, especially my survey instrument. The third chapter should work itself out easily since survey non-response is well-studied and I have some good paths to follow.
And I have to work on much of this as I finish up my last three classes and take my qualifying exam next month. It’s going to be a busy semester…