Abstract:
For the vast majority of the Iranian M.A. students of TEFL, thesis writing is the first individual engagement with research. Despite having some pedagogical merits, such an academic activity generally poses some intellectual and affective challenges to such students. During thesis completion, if students are not effectively scaffolded by supervisors and not supported by universities, they are likely to encounter serious problems that might result in their disengagement, frustration, and withdrawal from doing their theses themselves. This study was an attempt to explore the factors that dissuaded some Iranian M.A. students of TEFL from carrying out their theses themselves. In effect, the study aimed to shed light on the reasons why some Iranian M.A. students of TEFL go to other agents to do their theses in exchange for money. Adopting a purposive sampling procedure, we found 13 M.A. graduates who did not do their theses themselves, but they paid some agents to do so in their stead. Semistructured interviews were used to gather the data. Findings revealed 3 dominant themes including supervisor-related, supervisee-related, and higher education-related factors responsible for the issue under investigation.
Machine summary:
Master’s Thesis Writing: Cinderella of Iranian ELT Education Rouhollah Askari Bigdeli¹, Ali Rahimi², & Ali Kazemi3 ¹Corresponding Author, Yasouj University, raskari90@gmail.
During thesis completion, if students are not effectively scaffolded by supervisors and not supported by universities, they are likely to encounter serious problems that might result in their disengagement, frustration, and withdrawal from doing their theses themselves.
Unlike the coursework in which the focus is to learn the content, and the outcome of the course is usually expected and determined by teachers; however, thesis writing involves empirical engagement with issues, and neither students nor supervisors know what the outcome of the research might be.
Moreover, successful completion of a thesis can increase the chance of a student to further studies in postgraduate programs or prepare him or her for a career (Semeijn, Velden, Heijke, Vleuten, & Boshuizen, 2006).
In the structured approach, students feel more secure because their supervisors prescribe topics, research questions, methods, and the data collection procedures and analysis they need to go through during thesis completion.
Underlining both social-emotional and cognitive domains of thesis supervision, de Kleijn, Mainhard, Meijer, Pilot, and Brekelmans (2014) argued that establishing friendly and working relationships with students as well as providing feedback on their performance should be an integral part of supervision carried out by supervisors during thesis project completion.
During thesis completion, if students are not effectively supported by supervisors and universities, they are likely to face serious problems that might lead to students’ disengagement, disillusionment, demotivation, and withdrawal from doing their theses themselves.