Scholars Before Researchers: On the Centrality of the Dissertation Literature Review in Research Preparation

Impact Factor:2.779 | Ranking:6/219 in Education & Educational ResearchSource:2012 Journal Citation Reports® (Thomson Reuters, 2013)
David N. Boote and

Curriculum Studies in the College of Education, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL 32816-1250; dboote{at}mail.ucf.edu. His research interests include education research studies, teacher educators, mathematics and physics problem solving, and moral education. Penny Beile

The University of Central Florida, P.O. Box 162666, Orlando, FL 32816-2666; pbeile{at}mail.ucf.edu. Her areas of specialization are the production and use of scholarly information in education and the information literacy abilities of education students. She is completing the development and validation of the Information Literacy Assessment Scale for Education (ILAS-ED) A thorough, sophisticated literature review is the foundation and inspiration for substantial, useful research. The complex nature of education research demands such thorough, sophisticated reviews. Although doctoral education is a key means for improving education research, the literature has given short shrift to the dissertation literature review. This article suggests criteria to evaluate the quality of dissertation literature reviews and reports a study that examined dissertations at three universities. Acquiring the skills and knowledge required to be education scholars, able to analyze and synthesize the research in a field of specialization, should be the focal, integrative activity of predissertation doctoral education. Such scholarship is a prerequisite for increased methodological sophistication and for improving the usefulness of education research.

Received December 10, 2003. Revision received April 28, 2005. Revision received January 4, 2005. Accepted May 6, 2005.

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