ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to recommend strategies for responding productively to the need to shift gears once an investigative process has begun. The chapter discovers that owing to the dual roles as researchers and professors, participants might understandably perceive the research endeavour as a program evaluation exercise. Constraints affecting the research design and method involved aspects of the research setting – the MA program at a small, private institution in the United States. Finally, constraints beyond the control also undermined the sample size and the viability of the study: An unexpected decline in enrolment and a delay in the start date owing to the Institutional Review Board calendar. Circumstances also necessitated the pursuit of a methodological alternative that likely yielded richer data than the original plan would have elicited. Collecting and analyzing survey data from the first participant cohort produced insights into the research design and shed helpful light on the constructs.
