A lack of existing research is interesting in itself -

To begin with You could ask yourself a few questions eg:

Are College teachers different to school teachers? how, why?

Do any differences affect attitudes to /assumptions about their need for CPD? How?

if yes, do these differences suggest any academic areas that it would be useful for you to look at/understand?

if no, what might else might be the reason(s) for the lack of research into college teacher CPD? eg: assumption they do not need it..?? expectation that they are well qualified? financial issues? availability of appropriate trainers?

Where do these questions leave you in terms of what you would like to explore?

Good luck

Hi Jacob,

Being that so, I would narrow the topic first and then use a methodology which best suits your research. For doing so, first you have to make sure there is not much literature on the field. You can do this by carrying out a Systematic Literature Review. Formulate good research questions and use well-known databases such as WoS, Scopus, Springer, Science Direct, ERIC... Do use PRISMA or SALSA for consistency.

Once narrowed and assured there is a scarcity of literature, the suggested approach would be that of an exploratory or descriptive given the scarcity.

Finding the relevant and state-of-the-art among a huge number of scientific works are very demanding task. it is the thing that might be a bit hard to struggle with. some ways may help such as; first, going to a search engine and clicking "open the knowledge map". second, click SJR and find the research area or click scopus.com. Good luck@@

Getting research material can be quite a challenge for most academics. Being specific about what you are looking for is often part of the answer. When you use a search engine like researchgate.net keep using different questions based on your topic and drill down until you get the information that you want. Good luck

Martin Wedell Riswanto Riswanto J. P. Tacoronte Mathilda Dzumbunu Thank you very much for taking the time to respond to my question. It is very encouraging to such good responses.

Here is what I have done so far.

I have narrowed down my topic and have looked for materials online using online platforms that I have access to. I discovered that while there were many articles on continuing professional development for school teachers, there were practically none on college teachers. Further, most of the articles on school teachers focused on K-10 levels only.

Teaching English at the college level does present several challenges for teachers, especially for those who are teaching in India where the classes are large (80-200 students per class) and having fixed furniture (which limits movement in the classroom for teachers).

English teachers here are expected to teach Literature (British, Indian, American), aspects of the English Language, Technical composition (writing charge sheets, show cause notices etc.) across faculties (Humanities, Social Sciences, Sciences, Performative Arts, Commerce and Management).

Yet, in spite of the complexities of the topics and levels that they are expected to teach, they are recruited without the need for undergoing any form of teacher training programme. School teachers in India are required to complete two different teacher training programmes at present - a diploma in Elementary Education and a Bachelor's in Education. These have been seen to help prepare teachers for classroom teaching in schools.

In the west, from what I can gather from the literatures, teachers in general needed to have some sort of certification to be able to teach in schools and colleges. And the certification is usually backed by research work or training. In India, college teachers are required to clear a test that qualifies them to teach without any training at all.

I am not sure I have come across any literature that talks about CPD for college teachers in the west. And there are just a handful on CPD in higher education in India.

I have tried going interdisciplinary. But then this presents a new problem. Teaching Maths or Physics or Political Science is not the same as teaching English as mentioned above.

My search continues. And I am grateful to you for helping me get there.

All the best to each one of you!

Khublei (God bless in my Khasi language)

Jacob

Hi Jacob,

Have you written yourself a good PICOT question to assist your search? It is worth spending the time perfecting your PICOT to find the relevant articles.

Hi Susan,

Thank you for reaching out.

To answer your question, yes I have done that. Using PICOT I have been able to find some relevant theses and articles. But I am afraid the number of pieces of literature I have so far may not be enough. The Lit review Chapter is going to look really slim. Sigh!

Can you turn this reality into an advantage for your research.

The lack of previous study of CPD for College teachers surely has the potential to make your research all the more interesting...

When you say you are 'working on' CPD, what are you actually focussing on, and why? eg: are you interested in

• What CPD is provided?
• Who provides CPD?
• College Teachers' beliefs about their own need for CPD?
• Societal expectations of college teachers and any implications for the type/quantity/focus of CPD?
• other aspects of CPD?

Can the answers to such Qs help steer your literature review?

Excellent points Sir (Martin). I will take these into consideration and incorporate them into my lit review. In any case I had decided to broaden my search along similar lines. But you have done it better.

Thank you very much.

I encountered that problem myself at the start of my career! As Martin Wedell already pointed out, a LACK of previous research indicates a very promising field for original research! The research you have already done can be incorporated to prove that this specific area has not yet been addressed well (if at all). Then you can pursue several different specific questions depending on what "question" you think has the most relevance and impact on improving our current body of knowledge and practice. Good Luck!

Thank you, Sir. Steven Cooke

I appreciate your taking the time to respond to my query. I have taken the suggestions given by all the experts who have responded earlier and have approached the lit review using a framework that addresses key aspects of the thesis. I am delighted to be able to incorporate your advice into my approach as I bring all the strands of my research together. Thanks again!

Hopefully you are well on the way with your thesis by the time you read this. Again, I would echo what Martin Wedell says - I would really emphasise that there is a very big knowledge gap in this area and this is why your work is so important. Hopefully you can make the reviewers/assessors of your thesis realise this critical point and they give you credit for it.