Learners on the Doctoral Journey: Understanding and Managing Fear
by Lori Schroeder | December 17, 2009
While engaged in learning, individuals experience a wide range of emotions: joy, delight, interest, wonder, disappointment, frustration and fear. While all emotions need to be managed, fear may be the most significant barrier to adults realizing their full learning potential. In a series of blog posts, Lori shares information—and asks you to offer insights and strategies—to understanding and successfully managing fear that may occur throughout the doctoral journey. Acknowledging that fear exists is key to making peace with it. Her goal is to provide a medium for us to share our perspectives on learner fear and liberate ourselves in doing so.
This blog topic may be of interest to all learners who occasionally experience self-doubt and fear about their ability to achieve the doctoral degree.
By the end of this series of blog posts on learner fear, you will be able to:
• Identify at least one non-productive fear that you may be experiencing
• Know the impact of fear on your learning
• Understand the sources of learner fear
• Develop strategies for better managing fear so that goal achievement is more efficient and certain.
Last month we examined the impact of fear on learners. In this month’s post, we will examine sources of learner fear. In January, we will explore strategies to mitigate learner fear.
SOURCES OF LEARNER FEAR
Why do learners feel fear? So far, my research has revealed many sources of learner fear. This list is a work in progress. Some of these fears identified below, such as fear of success, will be more fully examined in subsequent blogs.
Academic Concerns that May Foster Fear:
• Course content (“The research methods class is intimidating! That’s why I waited until the last course in my program to take it!”)
• Poor or ineffective course design (Ambiguity in syllabus, assignments, mentor feedback may evoke a fear response.)
• Evaluation (“The stakes are high, and I need to be in good academic standing!”)
• Teacher-learner relationships (Tuitt, 2005)
• Lack of faculty-learner engagement
• Diversity avoidance syndrome
• Poor facilitation or communication skills
Psychological Concerns that May Foster Fear:
• Failure (Enough said.)
• The unknown (“What’s next in my journey? What will I encounter that could be difficult or that I perceive as impossible”)
• The past being the present. Some learners experience fear that is founded in traumatic early learning experiences (U.S. playwright Eugene O’Neill posited in “Long’s Day Journey into Night” that the past is the present. I got a “D” in my undergraduate statistics class, what makes me think I won’t struggle in my doctorate-level research methods class?)
• Looking stupid (Last thing we want to look like!)
• Being judged (What if our mentor questions our ability to write, critically think, or craft a sound research question and proposal?)
• Inability to learn (What if we just don’t think we’ll ever understand research methods?)
• Embarrassment or shame (How do we explain to colleagues, friends and family that we’re still working on the degree or had to rewrite a Comprehensive Exam question?)
• Success (What does it mean to hold an Ed.D. or a Ph.D.?) Note: We’ll explore fear of success in 2010.
• Being found out (Often called “The Impostor Syndrome.” Described as that sinking feeling that eventually we will be found out and that we’ll be discovered as frauds. Includes self-talk, such as “What if I’m found out? It’s only a matter of time before they find out they made a mistake in letting me into Capella University. I don’t really belong in a doctoral program.”) (See Brookfield, 1995, in References section.)
• Change (What are the implications of earning your doctorate?)
Financial Concerns that May Foster Fear:
• Non-reimbursement of tuition (“What if my GPA falls too low or if I’m in poor academic standing. Will my company stop tuition reimbursement?”)
• Job loss
• Financial hardship or formidable debt (A reality that may come with this educational journey—in many cases, it’s pretty tough to avoid.)
Social, Familial, and Collegial Concerns that May Foster Fear:
• Lack of family support (Family support is crucial to success. It stands to reason why this matter would be of concern.)
• Friends may stop contacting you. (Social activities and invitations may decline. Friends may thing that you’re always too busy, so they could stop asking you to socialize.)
• Colleagues may no longer demonstrate interest and support in your doctoral work (and may even come to lose patience and understanding if you are stressed, tired, or distracted some days).
• Time bankruptcy (A doctoral program demands considerable time for reading, thinking, writing, researching, proofreading and editing. What if our lives are just too full, and we can’t manage all of our demands?)
• Cultural suicide (The doctoral journey brings about many intellectual, emotional, professional and spiritual changes. It is a fear that may be aroused if the learner is seen by individuals in his or her life (e.g., friends, family, colleagues) to be “re-inventing” himself/herself, in this case, to become a Doctor. The learner, who once was “one of us,” may now be viewed as someone who has betrayed them or who has left them behind or is too big for his or her britches. (Stephen Brookfield has written extensively on this issue. For one of his sources, see Brookfield, 1992, in References.)
Do any of these sources of fear resonate with you?
Can you identify at least one non-productive fear that you may be experiencing?
References:
Brookfield, S. (1995). Becoming a critically reflective teacher. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Brookfield, S. D. (1992). On impostorship, cultural suicide, lost innocence and other tales: How freshman adults experience critical thinking. In D.S. Fidler (Ed.). Perspectives on the freshman year experience. Columbia, SC: National Resource Center for the Freshman Year Experience, University of South Carolina.
Tuitt, F. (2005). I hear you, do you hear me? Teaching in racially diverse classrooms. Weekend Seminar, Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, Center for Teaching and Learning, St. Cloud, MN.
For additional reading on inclusive teaching, see Howell, A., & Tuitt, F. (Eds.). (2003). Race and higher education: Rethinking pedagogy in diverse college classrooms. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Educational Review.
2 Responses to "Learners on the Doctoral Journey: Understanding and Managing Fear"
Muriel Jones says:
I have enjoyed reading this blog about managing and understanding fear as it relates to the doctoral journey. The fear that resonates the loudest with me is the loss of friends and learning how to deal with the changes in my life that have occurred as a result of working on my doctoral degree. A few of my former colleagues, whom I considered friends, have stopped contacting me since I have begun my doctoral journey. The majority of them are teachers and they do not support the fact that I am pursuing my doctoral degree. I think they expected me to continue as a classroom teacher and not have the desire to want to make difference on a national or global level. They have not supported me and I have decided to find a new support system of friends. I do have to admit that at first, it was frustrating and it hurt because my friends no longer stood beside me and supported my dreams and goals. However, during the past year-I have found new friends (some here at Capella) that are now my support system and I know that with their support I will have Dr. in front of my name!
I have also experienced “cultural suicide” because my former colleagues do not like or accept the fact that I am re-inventing myself. They think I have betrayed them and that I am too big for my britches. I have learned to remove negative individuals from my life. I have been enrolled at Capella for a year and I have encountered some major bumps along the way (i.e.-job loss). However, my journey at Capella and my positive outlook about my future has allowed me to excel in my coursework. I have turned my doctoral journey into a major motivator in my life and I know that as long as I continue this journey-I will be prepared to handle any situation. The journey has changed affected me spiritually, professionally, and emotionally and I am truly excited about how my Capella experience has changed my life!
Thanks for the blog!!
Muriel Q. Jones (EdS/PhD learner-School of Education)
lschroeder3 says:
Dear Muriel Q. Jones,
Thank you for sharing your experiences and insights with us. Please know your experience is not isolated. Sadly, “cultural suicide” exists.
I also appreciate your sharing how you have discovered strategies to help you move through these unexpected and hurtful events. Unfortunately, loss of one’s community of friends, colleagues, or family can happen when one decides to learn, develop, or “reinvent” oneself. I am glad you have the resilience and determination to continue your doctoral journey and have been able to establish new, essential support systems. These factors will serve you well as you move to degree completion and when you identify future professional and personal goals.
Through the Capella inter-library loan system, I’ve just ordered the full document of Stephen Brookfield’s 1994 article, “Tales from the dark side: a phenomenography of adult critical reflection,” published in the International Journal of Lifelong Education, Vol. 13, No. 3, Pp. 203-216. I’ll read it and post a blog about its contents. I might be able to create a PDF and post it to a website.
In the meantime, here is the abstract to the 1994 Brookfield article noted above:
“Encouraging adults to undertake critical reflection is one of the most frequently espoused aims of graduate programmes of adult education. A considerable body of adult educational literature has been produced in this area, most of it focusing on conceptual analysis or on debate reflecting the strains between progressive, humanistic and liberal intepretations of these processes and radical, critical, socialist intepretations. Missing from the debate surrounding critical reflection as an adult capacity has been attention to the way adults feel their way through critically reflective episodes – to understanding the visceral, emotive dimensions of this process. This paper uses Marton’s concept of phenomenography – the exploration and portrayal of how learners experience and interpret learning – to outline a phenomenography of critical reflection as it pertains to one group of adults who happen to be adult educators. Five themes emerge from journals, conversations and autobiographies:
impostorship (the sense that participating in critical thought is an act of bad faith), cultural suicide (the recognition that challenging conventional assumptions risks cutting people off from the cultures that have defined and sustained them up to that point in their lives), lost innocence (the move from dualistic certainty toward dialectical and multiplistic modes of reasoning), roadrunning (the incrementally fluctuating flirtation with new modes of thought and being) and community (the importance of a sustaining support group to those in critical process). The paper elaborates these themes and describes how developmental activities for adult educators in critical process can be grounded in participation in critical conversations within learning communities.”
Best wishes,
Lori