Advising Best Practice commitment connecting the dots Dissertation Doctoral Advising doctoral model expectations flexibility Journey learner success letting go Marathon mentors NACADA persistence prepare Publication reflection Research
You’ve read what we have to say, but now it’s your turn. What questions do you have?
This is definitely the time of year when individuals conscientiously formulate new strategies for their upcoming new year! Many of us spend these next few days thinking about the past year – what went well, what didn’t go as smoothly? What could you (would you) have changed? This is a time of reflection, which is so vital to the process of becoming a scholar! READ MORE
RENEWAL AND SELF-CARE AT HOLIDAY TIMES
‘Tis the season to be jolly’ – and yes, sometimes the jolly turns into a pure folly. With all the demands and stresses that holidays bring, there may be a sense of overwhelm, fragmentation and a loss of joy… READ MORE
Its almost race day. You’ve trained as best as you can.
Now is the time to rest. To vision your race. To review and replay the race route. And most importantly, to vision the finish line, seeing yourself cross the line. READ MORE
The end of the quarter is sneaking its way toward you. In the dissertation phase this demarcation may take on a different energy, such as: do you focus your efforts to add the finishing touches to your work in order to send it to your mentor? Or do you spread your efforts out over the break so you can submit when the new quarter begins? READ MORE
There is a saying (I have no idea of the author – sorry) that if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, surely it’s a duck. My favorite radio personality, Mr. Obvious, would agree – it’s got to be a duck! After all, there could not possibly be another creature that fits into these specific categories, right? Super – so we have a duck. Now what?
This lesson can be (and is) applied probably everyday in each of our lives. We live largely by what we know to be true within the context of our world and world views. We know huge amounts of information about the world around us, however, how frequently do we truly challenge any of those things we KNOW that we know? During the course of obtaining advanced degrees, individuals often expand their world views to include other possibilities and explanations for what may have before been obvious to them. A critical element of doctoral studies includes questioning what it is that you KNOW, and challenging ideas, theories, and constructs to determine if, indeed, it really is just a duck.
As with most holidays, Thanksgiving proved no exception and I found myself reflecting on the habits and rituals that have become synonymous with the holiday itself. This past Thanksgiving, my mind wandered to why turkey? When did green-bean casserole with strange crispy crisps become part of the Thanksgiving spread? Is something that comes out of the can and keep its form really ever a good idea, let alone nutritious?
What does this have to do with a doctoral program, you might ask? In short, it got me thinking about the origins of importance literature plays in this journey. The short of it, literature is everything to a PhD program, but why? How did we evolve from the James Morris Whiton dissertation (first dissertation in the United States) of six pages to the some 2 million+ dissertations, some representing a work 100x over that length? What importance does literature play in our research in an era when a single Google search returns thousands upon thousands of hits on any single word?
