Background to the study:
describe the recent history of problem under study. A summary of results from the prior empirical research on the topic is needed. identify how to focus the research. This involves the difference between what is known in a field of research and what is not yet understood. This process involves reading the literature and becoming deeply familiar with how a specific topic has been studied, how the research is trending, and what approaches have been used to study it in order to identify what still needs to be understood.
First, the learner identifies the need for the study, which the dissertation study will address. Strategies learners can use to identify what still needs to be understood include:
• Using results from prior studies.
• Using recommendations for further study.
• Using professional or locally based problems documented in the literature.
• Using broader societal areas of research in current empirical articles.
• Synthesis of problems and approaches to formulate a unique need or problem that still requires additional study.
What needs to be understood through research can be established though various ways (such as those above). What needs to be understood does NOT have to explicitly be stated as a research “gap”, but rather synthesized and justified from the research literature. What needs to be understood must be clearly stated and justified for the reader. This approach should be viewed as an “opportunity” to provide new information about a topic or area based on an in-depth synthesis to identify what still needs to be understood. For alignment purposes, this same wording must be used whenever there is a reference to what needs to be understood throughout the document.
Next, the learner builds an argument or justification for the current study by presenting a series of logical arguments, each supported with citations from the literature. A local research need is appropriate for a study. However, the learner needs to situate what needs to be understood by discussing how the research is applicable to/beyond the local setting and may be contributory to professional or broader societal needs. The identification of what needs to be understood, developed from the literature, will be the basis for creating the Problem Statement (in Chapter 2). lopesup
