Dissertation Proposals in Educational Administration at OISE

After successfully completing your comprehensive exam the next program benchmark is writing your dissertation proposal and receiving feedback on it through a formal proposal hearing.

About the proposal:

The purpose of the proposal is to describe as succinctly as possible the research problem, its significance and grounding in the relevant literature, and your approach to shedding new light on it. 

Proposals should be no more than 7500 words, not including references and appendices.  You will work closely with your dissertation chair and committee to develop the proposal draft for the hearing. 

A typical proposal includes the following sections:

An introduction that articulates the significance of the research problem

A clear statement of research questions

A succinct review of the debates in the literature relevant for your study

(What conversation is your work joining?  What missing piece will your research add?)

A theoretical and/or conceptual framework that is guiding the data collection and analysis

A concrete methodological discussion, with an explanation of your approach to sampling, to data collection, and to the ethical issues in your research.  You make clear the scope of your study, and attach your data collection instruments (surveys, questionnaires, etc) as appendices

A plan for analysis

A timeline

About the hearing:

The proposal hearing is open to the public and typically lasts about 90 minutes.  In addition to your three-person committee, two other faculty members (“internal externals”) will read your proposal and ask you questions about it during the hearing.

You start the hearing with a 20-minute overview of your research proposal.  Then you field questions, starting with those from the “internal externals” and finishing with questions from your chair.   Sometimes, if there is enough time, other people in attendance may ask questions.  When the questioning is finished you and any other students in attendance will be asked to leave the room while the faculty members discuss your work and come to agreement regarding any changes or recommendations for your proposal.  Program and OISE-level paperwork is filled out and signed.

We consider the process to be formative; every student walks away from the hearing with recommendations for changes and feedback for improvement to the project.  In some rare instances when it becomes clear during the hearing that the student is not fully ready to take on her/his independent research project, the student’s chair can decide that another hearing is necessary.  

The SGS Office of English Language and Writing Support provides workshops during the year that students working on their proposals may find useful. Please visit their website