Doctoral Research into Higher Education: Making theory work

This short book is around 25 pages or 9,000 words long. It offers a concise overview of the issue of using theory in doctoral research; of putting theory to work. The book gives an overview on the nature of theory as seen from different perspectives. It provides an example of one theoretical strand, social practice theory, and how it might be deployed in research into higher education. The book also offers several examples of theory use in successful doctorates as well as pointing to some useful resources for thinking about theory when doing a doctorate. Like other books in this series, Doctoral Research into Higher Education, it warns of the kinds of mistakes that are sometimes made by doctoral students and others.

Prof. Paul Trowler is Director of Research for the Department of Educational Research at Lancaster University, UK, and for the here@lancaster research centre there, which specialises in research and evaluation in higher education contexts. He has supervised many PhDs to successful completion and teaches on doctoral programmes offered by the Department. His Amazon profile is here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B001HQ35TY


Chapters:
1. The nature of theory
What theory can do
Social reconstructionist theory
What theory is for
2. Making theory work
3. Seven deadly (and not-so-deadly) sins in deploying theory
4. Social practice theory and the study of change in HE
SPT applied
5. Examples of theory use in doctorates
6. References and resources
References
Resources