618 The Professional Counselor | Volume 10, Issue 4 productivity and keep both parties accountable throughout the dissertation process (Hilliard, 2013). Clear expectations provide a structure for the dissertation process and help candidates efficiently move through this phase of their doctoral journey (Flynn et al., 2012; Hilliard, 2013). In establishing these expectations, department and program faculty share the roles of the dissertation chairperson as coach and supporter of the doctoral student. Faculty and students have named other essential parts of successfully advancing through the process, including the degree of involvement, having systems of support, mentoring, and fitting within the departmental culture (Dollarhide et al., 2013). Despite naming these essential parts for success, little is known about how these factors impact successful navigation of the dissertation process. Purpose of the Study Previous research with current and former doctoral students has found that students see a number of criteria as vital to their success in the doctoral process. These criteria include professionalism, clear expectations, and consistent feedback from their advisor, as well as a collaborative approach to the dissertation and mentoring processes (Neale-McFall & Ward, 2015; Purgason et al., 2016; Sinady et al., 2009). Although these studies provide a detailed picture from the students’ perspective, limited research exists regarding the topic of successful dissertation advising from the perspective of faculty advisors. Faculty advisors play an integral role in the success of doctoral students as they progress through the dissertation process (Dollarhide et al., 2013; Limberg et al., 2013). To address this gap in knowledge, this research explored the following question: From a faculty member’s perspective, what strategies help students navigate the dissertation process, and how successful are those strategies? A qualitative design was selected to elicit an in-depth analysis of the experiences of faculty members supporting students in the dissertation process, affording the research team the opportunity to value all responses regardless of the frequency or number of responses (Lincoln & Guba, 2013). Methods This study was a part of a larger qualitative research study that was led by the fifth author. That larger study utilized a basic qualitative research design, with the primary goal of collecting and analyzing qualitative data, and employed the constant comparative method to collect, code, and categorize the data (Corbin & Strauss, 2015; Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). The data was collected using indepth qualitative semi-structured interviews (see Appendix) with 15 faculty members in CES doctoral programs. Data collection continued until saturation was achieved and no new ideas were presented. Saturation was determined when the same themes were repeated by multiple participants. Participants responded to interview questions regarding issues pertinent to doctoral CES programs, specifically the components of high-quality programs, strategies to recruit and retain underrepresented students, strategies for working with administrators, and strategies for successful dissertation advising. In this study, a research team comprised of the first four authors analyzed and coded interview data pertinent to the research question: From a faculty member’s perspective, what strategies help students navigate the dissertation process, and how successful are those strategies? The goal of employing this research question was to identify successful strategies utilized by faculty to support doctoral students in completing the dissertation process and to understand the effectiveness of these strategies. Participants Participants in this study were full-time core faculty members in CES doctoral programs accredited by the Council for the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP). The participants worked in CACREP-accredited CES programs that had doctoral-level students. All participants had experience serving as a dissertation chairperson. Maximum variation sampling—that is, deliberately selecting a wide range of extremes from the population—was used to select participants
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