I am making progress on the dissertation – it certainly has been a little while since I have posted an update. In many ways, it has been like an IT project – do or document. I have gone with less posting to this site, but I made significant progress on the dissertation. The drafts (meeting the requirements of the semester) of chapters one through three have been submitted to the university, in addition to the comprehensive exam having been passed and recorded.
Finally, the collection of data has commenced. The interviews have been the most enjoyable part of the dissertation to date. While the exact timeline hasn’t been figured out quite yet, I hope to find the last six or so participants and interview them within the next month. If I am able to meet that goal, that will put primary data collection to be completed by the end of April 2022. Tentatively my advisor and I are discussing then following a two-month period for data analysis writing up the findings and preparing to defend. As the university I teach at will be done the first week of May, and I am not teaching any summer classes, the dissertation will effectively become my full-time job, so the timeline is reasonable and achievable – hopefully, keep making the sort of progress I have been on it!