ABSTRACT
The dissertation is typically the culminating product at the end of doctoral programs in music education. Regardless of the research topic of the dissertation, there is always an advisor, or co-advisors, for each dissertation. The primary roles of the advisor, and of the dissertation committee, are to assist the student in developing the research proposal and to evaluate the dissertation on behalf of the scholarly community to ensure quality (Boyle & Cheston, 1990). Furthermore, the dissertation advisor has been described as the "guiding light" for the dissertation (Shoemaker, 1970). According to Golde and Gallagher (1999):
the ideal dissertation advisor is supportive, experienced, supplies resources, and socializes the student into the discipline ... In many respects, the student is shaped and changed by the advisor: learning how to identify and think through a problem, how to conduct high-quality research, how to write manuscripts and where to publish them, and so forth, (p. 283)
