Full Description
Over and over, studies have concluded that the doctoral experience is a monumental challenge in higher education, particularly for women. This book, Women Scholars: Navigating the Doctoral Journey, provides an enlightening ethnographic look at women and their doctoral developmental experiences. The book's aim is to empower women to be able to contextualize their experience while also offering support and inspiring readers to consider alternative ways to successfully approach the doctoral process. Women anticipating and entering the life of academia will benefit from the voices and experiences shared by the women scholars in this book.
The essay writers in this volume offer an examination of critical incidents in their doctoral experiences and offer strategies they have found helpful in managing those incidents. The book also addresses challenges presented by the transition from doctoral study to post-doc employment. The volume presents 46 essays from 40 women representing a range of ages, ethnicities, academic disciplines, sexual orientations, family circumstances, and family educational histories. Their stories are told in five stages:
Stage 1: Preadmission to Enrollment
Stage 2: First Year of Program
Stage 3: Second Year Through Candidacy
Stage 4: The Dissertation Stage
Stage 5: Completion and Transition to Employment
These are stories of empowerment, of pitfalls and barriers overcome, of successful negotiations of the graduate school process, of the joys and challenges of scholarly pursuits, of positive help-seeking behaviors and strategies, and of life after the dissertation is completed.
Potential applicants for doctoral studies will walk away with a sense that graduate education is possible and that one can be successful. Higher educators in doctoral programs, as well, will acquire a deeper understanding and appreciation for the idiosyncratic challenges facing their female students and, one hopes, develop policies and/or strategies and behaviors that empower and encourage these students' completion of their doctoral studies.
Contents
From the Concrete Walls of Spanish Harlem to the Mosaic Tiles of Academia. Do I Really Want or Need a Doctorate, and How Do I Choose the Right Program for Me?. You Can't Do That!. "Good Moms Don't Go to Doctoral Programs". First Steps. Making the PhD Happen, Stage 1: Preadmission to Enrollment. The Overnight Psychologist. Not All Who Wander Are Lost. The Ticket to the Dance. The Importance of a Successful Peer Support Group. The Language of the Academy: An English Language Learner in a Doctoral Program. The Doctoral Experience: One Single Woman's Response to the (Mis)perceptions of Academic Peers and Family. My First Year: Is Work-Life Balance Achievable?. Ahead of the Curve. "You Can't Make a Silk Purse Out of a Sow's Ear," My Mother Said. Widening the Circle. "My Keepers": The Power of Mentorship During the First Year Doctoral Experience. Making the PhD Happen, Stage II: First Year of Program. This Was Not the Original Plan. Who Would Have Thought?. Against All Odds: Persevering While Pursuing the PhD. Mentoring: A Real Relationship. "Lift As We Climb": Community in Doctoral Education. And This Too Shall Pass. From ABD to EdD/PhD. Making the PhD Happen: Part 3. The Big Push. Advancing Through Candidacy: Selecting a Dissertation Topic, Chair, and Committee. When Motherhood and PhD Collide: The Power of Positive Messages. Promise and Potential: How I Lost and Found My Scholarly Counseling Self. A Greater Purpose. Monsters. The Importance of Social Capital and Internal Determination. Mrs., Mommy, Doctor: The Dissertation Phase. Making the PhD Happen: Part 4. Talking Me Off the Ledge. A Place for Me. My Albatross: Completing the Dissertation at Last. A Story of Thriving and Arriving: My Online PhD Journey. The Doctoral Study: The Intertwined Professional Transition and Personal Transformation. Dear Miles: Letters from a Grateful PhD Student. Why Perseverance Was Crucial. "Finish Wisely". And for You. Finding My Scholarly Voice. Finding Your Cape: Discovering the Educator Inside.
