Dear [student],
You have asked for advice. My project queue is rather overflowing but I recall what is was like to be a grad student so here are a few thoughts.
Do what you've gotta do to get the grade you want for each class you take -- however -- if needed -- push the boundaries and ask for exceptions in order to do something actually motivating for you and useful for society.
Schools and programs tend to herd young researchers into either qualitative or quantitative research.
Most of which leads to "so what?!" blah results that are neither actually motivating nor useful for society.
Instead, seek the third option: "action research" -- create a product that someone would actually pay you for (if you were to choose to sell it).
Seriously, look into "what is action research and how is it different from qualitative and quantitative research?"
Many college instructors and advisors simply want to get through their semester and do so by
herding students into following the syllabus and doing research that checks the boxes and is easy to grade (but doesn't actually accomplish much if anything). Your time is valuable! Learn what they have to teach but always strive to do so in ways that create value instead of just being an academic exercise.
Ask yourself, "Who cares about [insert your thesis or dissertation topic here]?" If the answer is you and about a hundred like-minded others in your field -- that means your research might end up helping [or perhaps only "being amusing"] to about 100 people.
Instead ask yourself: How could my research be motivating and useful to thousands of parents of Deaf children -- along with other caregivers, teachers, service providers, extended family, and others who might somehow use [insert your topic here] to improve their ability to communicate with Deaf children? Consider: "How could the product resulting from my research facilitate the technical literacy, English
literacy, and bilingual communication skills of Deaf children and/or adults?"
Ask yourself, is this research grant worthy? Does your concept or idea potentially matter enough that people on a grant committee would decide that they should put your research into the short stack of those that will be funded? If it isn't -- maybe you should think how it could be. Your college has a grant office -- make an appointment. Then do all the work, get a professor to add their name on to the grant application (thus getting half of the credit for your work -- ha, ha, -- cough -- oh well), and potentially get a significant amount of money to help pay for the latest gizmos to support or accelerate your research.
Within a few years chances are AI will be able to [insert the equivalent of "do your job better than you" here]. Even now, we see [insert specific examples of AI doing people's jobs better than them].
How can your research contribute to "the near future?" How might [your
research focus] mesh with emerging technology? Currently I can sign to my Pixel phone and it can understand me as well or better than many of the graduates from a four-year ASL degree program. Could [the product of your proposed area of inquiry] fill or help fill a gap that currently exists and will likely exist for the near future? Can your [product] remove steps or friction within some current process that a large number of people frequently engage in?
Could the app or process you build to test or report your research ideas eventually be further improved or expanded into an app or process that can motivate and support the literacy development young Deaf children? Build or structure your research tools in such a way that upon completion of your research you can convert your short-term "school" tools into enduring "work and/or life tools" that can be shared with and benefit others.
The day is upon me and I need to move on.
I wish you well in your endeavors.
Warm regards,
Bill
____________________
William G. Vicars, EdD
Professor Emeritus
Sacramento State University
Notes:
William G. Vicars, Ed.D., (a.k.a. "Dr. Bill" of ASL University) is a former
full-time, tenured, full-professor, and researcher at Sacramento State
University where he served as coordinator of the American Sign Language and Deaf
Studies bachelor degree program. He is Deaf. He holds an earned doctorate in
Deaf Studies / Deaf Education from Lamar University in Texas, and has over 30
years of experience instructing and providing workshops in a wide variety of
settings including internationally (Singapore, Guyana, etc.) in-person and
online. He is the director of Lifeprint.com -- one of the world's most popular
web destinations for learning about sign language and Deaf people. Through his
YouTube channel at https://YouTube.com/@sign-language he shares ASL instruction
with over 400,000 subscribers. He is married to Deaf culture researcher and
pundit Bee Vicars, MFA.
Notes: