When it comes to research, topic selection deserves your thought and intention. Before you can write a paper, book, or article, you need to do research. In order to get the most from your research time, you must get research ready. Research readiness refers to being prepared to initiate, conduct, and carry out meaningful research. This means you must had logistical capacity and intellectual clarity. It is important for a researcher to make sure to be purposeful and to make sure one’s research plans and goals are both feasible and aligned with broader goal.
By nature, I am a qualitative researcher who looks at my research through an endarkened feminist lens. This means I care feel a responsibility to those I research. It is important for me to do research that benefits those who are the participants in my research. Additionally, I prefer an endarkened narrative inquiry research methodology. This means I find data in the stories and lived experiences of my research participants. For me it is truly all about respecting the stories and lived experiences of those I work with to get my research data the same way quantitative researchers respect numbers.
Before an educator gets to the actual research work, the educator must know what they want to study and why. When the topic aligns with the one’s personal mission, values, and scholarly interests, the researcher is off to a good start. The next thing a researcher must consider is the methodology that will be used to conduct the research. This includes determining if the research will be qualitative or quantitative as well as the data collection strategies that will be employed.. Considerations of the researcher’s positionality is also important. In this article, we will discuss aligning research interests with one’s personal mission, topic selection, tracking ideas and narrowing themes, and the role of iterative drafting.
Aligning Research Interests with Personal Mission
Mission driven scholarship ensures that the research is more than intellectually rigorous. It ensures that that the research is socially meaningful, personally motivating, and will have long-term impact. When research is aligned with one’s personal mission, it becomes a vehicle for justice, community empowerment, and legacy. It is important for research to be done for a purpose that the researcher cares about. When the researcher cares about the purpose of the research, they often are able to produce a better research project.
When conducting research start by identifying your personal values, lived experience, and legacy goals. These things are part of your positionality and will influence what you research, how you conduct research, as well as how you analyze the data. In order to identify your personal values think about the following things:
- What issues or injustices consistently move you to act or reflect?
- How do you define equity and how do you want equity to show up in your work?
- What communities do you feel called to serve, uplift, or represent?
- When you hear the phrase “ethical research,” what comes to mind?
- What principles guide your decision making at work and in your scholarship?
In order to think about how lived experiences inform your perspective on research, ask the following questions:
- What personal experiences shape how you see the world?
- How do your intersectional identities (race, gender, class, ability, etc.) inform the types of questions you ask?
- What systems have you navigated that you would like to study or improve?
- Have you overcome challenges that give you insights that others may not have?
- What cultural, familial or geographic contexts influence your voice as a scholar?
Personal mission can shape topic direction. For example, my children attended school in an affluent, predominantly white school district. My dissertation research allowed me to talk with parents and learn how they helped their children thrive rather than merely survive on their educational journeys. When the dissertation was complete, I shared it with my study participants. It was always my mission to do more than create knowledge. I wanted to create a resource parents could use to help their children on their educational journeys. My personal interest shapes my research topic.
Now that I have completed the doctoral process, I only do research that is of personal interest to me. As a result, I am always excited about my research. My research always matters to me. Additionally, I always feel an obligation to do work that will benefit my research participants.
Guiding Research Topic Selection
There are several principles one must consider when selecting a research topic. These include:
- Purpose and impact
- Scope and feasibility
- Fit and alignment
- Integration and future use
Purpose and impact deal with the why for your topic. For purpose, think about what is the problem you research will address? What kind of change or awareness would you like to be inspired by your research? Are you able to articulate who will benefit from your research? What personal or professional experiences make the research topic important to you? Will equity, justice or community well-being be advanced by your research?
Consideration of scope and feasibility for a research topic involves evaluating whether the topic is reasonable within the time constraints available. It may be necessary to scale your topic up or down depending on the project requirements. One purpose for research is the creation of knowledge. At the same time, you must determine if there is sufficient literature to support a literature review or the framework you want to employee. Also think about word requirements for the journal, research paper or dissertation you are conducting the research to complete. It is also important to take into account whether you have access to the tools or data needed to complete the research project.
Consideration of fit and alignment require one to examine if the chosen topic aligns with your identity, discipline, and long-term goals. Consider for example, if the topic is connected with your academic field or specialization? Does the research topic reflect your personal mission, values, and lived experiences? Think about whether the topic will keep you intellectually motivated throughout the research process. Examine whether the research topic will allow you to bring yourself into the research and if so, how.
When thinking about research, think about integration of the research and its future use. When you are doing research that has a future use, it is important. When one knows the research one is doing is important to the future, it gives the work a sense of urgency. Knowing the research is important may help the researcher to continue pushing forward even when the work is challenging.
When you begin a research project, use these four principles to guide your work. Write down potential responses to these principles at the start of the research. Update the responses as you do the research. No matter what the research topic, these principles are important and must be at front of mind during the research process.
Tools for Tracking Ideas and Narrowing Themes
There are a variety of tools researchers can use to keep track of ideas and narrow themes. There is no one size fits all. No one tool works for every researcher. The following is a list of tools used by researchers.
Journals and Idea Logs
Some researchers like journals and idea logs. These are used to capture evolving questions, reflections and connections. These journals and logs can be physical notebooks, digital documents, or apps like Evernote and Notion. The benefit of journals and logs is that they enable researchers to notice patters and refine their focus over time.
Mind Mapping Software
Mind mapping software such as Xmind, MindMeister, and Miro. These programs allow researchers to visualize relationships between concepts, theories, and keywords. A benefit of mind mapping software is that it encourages thematic clustering and reveals gaps or overlaps in the way the researcher is thinking.
Annotated Bibliographies
Programs like Zotero, EndNote or Google Docs with structured templates are good for creating annotated bibliographies. Annotated bibliographies track sources with summaries, critiques, and thematic tags. A benefit of these programs is that they clarify which sources support which aspects of a research theme.
Concept Mapping or Thematic Coding
Tools like Nvivo, ATLAS.ti, or manual color-coded spreadsheets help with concept mapping and thematic coding. These program help researchers organize qualitative data or literature into emerging themes. They benefit researchers by supporting the narrowing of broad topics into focused, researchable questions.
Research Question Matrices
Research question matrices are tables that align potential questions with methods, populations, and outcomes. The purpose of these matrices is to compare and refine possible directions for research. A benefit of these matrices is to help researchers evaluate feasibility, relevance, and alignment with goals.
These programs will help the researcher keep their research and topic aligned. Once you determine what method you will use for tracking your ideas and narrowing themes, it may be a good time to start a weekly reflective practice to keep track of how your ideas are evolving. These journal entries are helpful for figuring things out as you write the journal entries. Those journal entries are also helpful when a researcher looks back at the entries after a few weeks to see how things have changed and evolved.
Conclusion
It is important for researchers to choose research topics with intention. Researchers should learn to trust their voices. It is important for a researcher to trust her voice because it will help her as she goes through the iterative drafting process. We encourage researchers to revisit this article throughout their research journeys.
Further Reading
The Best Educators Strive to Create Equity-Centered Classrooms
Unlock Your Doctoral Success: Coaching & Resources That Work
Unleash the Fire Within: Maya Angelou’s Lifegiving Wisdom for Educators
About the Author
Dr. Janeane Davis is Founder and Principal Consultant at Janeane Davis and Associates: Educational Consultants. Most of her writing begins at a well-lit desk where strategy meets storytelling and systems take shape around real lives. Her consulting work centers families, scholars, and institutions committed to equity—and she writes to bring clarity to complex questions, especially those often left unasked.
Desk light on. Pages open. Always listening.
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