8310 MD2 Dis 2

4

Respond to one of your colleagues’ posts in 125 words by clarifying or expanding your understanding of the conceptual and theoretical frameworks. Use as an example from an article on your topic of interest that uses a theoretical or conceptual framework.

Colleague Response

Angelia Slavings 

Conceptual and Theoretical Framework: Grant and Osnaloo

Grant and Osanloo (2014) compared writing a dissertation to build a house. They laid out several reasons and examples for this analogy. Their first reason explains why the theoretical framework is essential to a dissertation, just as a foundation is essential to building a house. The theoretical framework will support and structure the research; it will guide questions, the problem statements, the purpose and relevance of the study, and provide a basis for the literature review. Without a framework, the structure of the study may be unclear to the committee members guiding the student in completing the dissertation. The conceptualization of the conceptual framework is how the researcher views the theories they build their questions, reflection, and literature review. The conceptual framework is how the house looks from the outside; much like the analogy of the elevation drawing, there are many different ways a house looks, but the foundation must be strong and grounded in theory. The conceptual framework is how the researcher will apply the theories and apply them to their unique lens of the world.

 

Supporting Research Articles

So far, research for Walden has contained many classes that required annotated bibliographies. Until this class, I had not considered a theoretical and conceptual framework for the research papers written in researching for the bibliography for the major assessment one for this class. I have found some great articles that will serve as a springboard for continued theory research into my tentative research problem: African American males score lower in literacy-based assessments than any other group of children in a small middle school setting.

Kelly et al. (2021) conducted a qualitative review of how researchers approach and decide on culturally relevant literacy instruction in the prekindergarten through fifth-grade classrooms. Their goal was to understand how researchers conceptualize culturally relevant literature. Their work was grounded in social perspectives. Authors that kept coming up in their research were Banks, Gay, and Ladson-Billings. This is important information to note. As I begin researching theories, I must read the literature already grounded in theory. To then base my theoretical and conceptual framework for the problem research.

An article by Scherer (2022) used a theoretical framework to explore where minority children can place themselves in stories as they become emergent readers. The theoretical foundation resides in the sociology of childhood and literacy theory focusing on works from Louise Rosenblatt.

Both of these articles helped me understand how theory builds the conceptual framework of research. This is an aspect of research I had not connected to throughout my courses. Understanding this “blueprint” of frameworks is extremely helpful in conducting my research.

References

Kelly, L. B., Wakefield, W., Caires-Hurley, J., Kganetso, L. W., Moses, L., & Baca, E. (2021). What Is Culturally Informed Literacy Instruction? A Review of Research in P-5

       Contexts. Journal of Literacy Research, 53(1), 75–99.

Scherer, L. (2022). ‘Where would you be in the picture?’: Using reader-response with children in primary school. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 22(2), 182–206.

        https://doi.org/10.1177/1468798420913991