Ask Doctoral Advising

A colleague of mine recently passed along a book titled “The Formation of Scholars: Rethinking Doctoral Education for the Twenty-First Century.”  I have only just started reading it, but as I flipped to the Contents page, the chapter on “Creating and Sustaining Intellectual Community” stood out and cried, read me first. 

No surprise, the chapter provides a wonder pretext to the importance and characteristics of intellectual communities, but what really captured my attention were the cited activities that foster intellectual communities.  Specifically,

(1) Engaging students fully in the life of the department.
(2) Collaborative work on curriculum.
(3) Sharing research across boundaries.
(4) Opening classroom doors.
(5) Allowing risk and failure.
(6) Setting aside time for reflection
(7) Creating physical spaces for intellectual community.
(8) Social events.

Now, I’ll grant you, the virtual environment does present certain challenges to these activities, but the conclusion is sound that “these kinds of connections and networks are essential to scholarly success…Students who have such opportunities are well positioned to make the transition to new professional settings” (p. 137).  Institutionally, how do we score on providing such activities?  I’d argue, they are largely absent.  By the absence of such activities, do we compromise the success and preparedness of our future scholars?

Connections and networks are essential to scholarly success.  The formation of the scholar requires the scholar to collaborate and allow oneself to take chances, to risk and fail, to share research beyond the written curriculum of a doctoral experience.  While I ask myself, how am I assisting in the development of the knowledge rich academic, scholar-practitioner, perhaps more important is, how am I equipping the scholar-practitioner to be contribute to the larger society as a risk-taker, as a reflective intellect, as an open researcher? 

I challenge you, the reader, to consider, while you sharpen your skills academically, what role do you play in the formation of scholars?  How are you actively participating and fostering an intellectual community?  Do you participate in any external intellectual communities?  Are you immersed in other intellectual communities and cultures or are you content with simply completing the written curriculum of the doctorate? 

Reference

Walker, G. E., Golde, C. M., Jones, L., Conklin Bueschel, A., & Hutchings, P. (2008). The formation of scholars: Rethinking doctoral education for the twenty-first century. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.