1. ABC’s for Surviving the
Dissertation Process
Sandy Harris, Ph.D.
Cindy Cummings, Ed. D.
2. • Acknowledge your passion
• Agree on Topic early
• Address class assignments toward your topic
• Ask:
– Is it doable?
– Is the methodology appropriate?
– Is the study grounded in the literature?
– Does it contribute to the knowledge base?
3. • Allocate responsibilities
– Around the house
– At work
– At volunteer organizations - Learn to say No
– Say No to Facebook and other social networking
• Admit your need for help
– Be willing to pay for a good editor
– Contact others who may be able to help
4. • Build relationships with Cohort
– Share resources
– Pace yourselves
– Encourage
– Only other cohort members will really understand
• Build relationships with Professors
– Understand the political process
– Learn to handle their criticism
– Stay in constant touch
5. • Build relationships with your family
– Have their support from the beginning
– Plan specific time for them
– Include everyone
– Don’t expect them to understand
– Great opportunity to model life-long learning
6. • Commit to a timeline
– Begin with the end in mind (Covey)
– Work backwards
– Follow it (Eliminate distractions)
– Carve out blocks of time to write
– Count on the unexpected
• Communicate, Communicate, Communicate
• Carefully Maintain Balanced Perspective
7. • Create humor moments
– He who laughs, lasts!
• Cultivate a CAN Do Attitude
– Persevere
– Plan Wisely
– Be Resilient
– Believe in yourself
8. Remember
*A
• acknowledge your passion,
• agree on topic early,
• address class assignments,
• ask the right questions,
• allocate responsibilities,
• admit your need for help
*B Build relationships with cohort, professors, family
*C
• commit to a timeline,
• communicate,
• carefully maintain balanced perspective,
• create humor moments.
• cultivate Can-Do attitude
“Don’t try, just do it!”
Editor's Notes
Introduce self: Earned PhD from UT Austin in Executive Leadership in 1992. In my 16 years in Higher Ed, I’ve served on over125 completed dissertation committees and have chaired approximately 75 dissertations. All of those students have completed coursework within 3 years except 2 or 3. Currently I’m Coordinator of Dissertations for the Lamar University Center for Doctoral Studies in Educational Leadership. My job is to work with students and faculty on the dissertation process.Cindy:
*Acknowledge: What are you curious about? *Carolyn – interested in gender and communication styles – Compared communication styles of male/female principals Johnny – Hispanic students – looked at principal behaviors in schools with high populations of Hispanic kids*Agree – do this early – first or second class if possible.Based on work I had previously done, I was interested in the role of the principal in technology integration. At first I wanted to compare what the principals and teachers said about the principal role but it was not doable. *Assignments: – social justice class – equity audit looked at Hispanic students pass rates on TAKS compared to other groups; Leadership – strategies & role of principal; Organizational Change – how principals bring about change; Qualitative: Practice interviews with principals. Dissertation: A qualitative study of Best Practices of Principals of High Performing Schools with a Majority of Hispanic Students
Allocate: you can not do all that you used to do; be sure family supports you in this endeavor at work – have approval from principal/superintendent, etc. before you start. Duties can be realigned – instead of afternoon duty on Friday afternoons when you need to leave for class. . . Morning duty, etc.Admit: Find a good editor – has references. Others: Doing my dissertation, I got to a point in the Data Analysis where I was just stumped . . . Picked up the phone to call a friendDepend on your family and your cohort for providing support.
People ProcessCohort: - Our students say that the Cohort is the best resource. They send articles when you find them; be available; We send e-mails when students defend dissertations so that others can pace themselves.Professors: Chair is King/Queen. . . If you can’t agree, change professors – because they will not change FOR you.Criticism: a different way of writing; no opinions, everything supported . . . You must develop a hard shell, yet be open to suggestions; call, e-mail, visit. . .Create a cohort dropbox or facebook page to use to ask questions and share resources.
Be sure family has input into whether or not you should do this; Save Friday nights or Sunday morning. Make times together specialInclude: read a passage and ask how it sounds. . . ; ask them to check for cross-referencing citations – is it in the body of the paper, but not in the reference list? Talk about Our degree . . . When WeTook my daughter to some classes with me. . . Saw me graduate, decided that’s where she wanted to graduate from . . . And she did
Timeline: university timelines, getting committee together, time to read, review, make edits, etc. Most have at least a 10-day rule;Someone suggested that you should write every day; another suggested never clean off your work space. . .Unexpected: viruses, family issues, computer troubles, etc.Communicate – tell about Larry – I expected to hear from him; chair said, he’s an adult, I expected to hear from him . . .This is your responsibility.Carefully: Balanced perspective – 3 – 5 years of your life; Those 3 – 5 years will go by anyway . . . But if you persevere, at the end of those 3 – 5 years you will be Dr. ?; dissertation not a Pulitzer Prize winner; I do know of one young man – perfectionist – who continued to write, re-write and re-write. I finally told him STOP, that’s it . . .
Humor – Remember the value of humor . . .flash drive – only doc students wear like a necklace; gain weight; learn to laugh at yourself. One student sent me a picture of one of her textbooks – just covered in sticky notes. . . It just struck her as funny. One group of dissertation students presented their professor with a blood transfusion bag noting that when their papers were returned it looked as though she had “bled” all over their papers. Remember, He who laughs, lasts!Completing a dissertation is not about being the smartest person around, it is about planning wisely and persevering!Resilience – I well remember the day I lost several hours of writing when I closed my computer and forgot to save my work. Hours of writing lost . . .after I raged and raged. I simply went back to work – tears running down my cheeks . . . A set back was no excuse to give up.Believe in yourself – doctoral programs don’t try to fill seats, they look for students who need this degree, but who also can do. Most programs are evaluated today by the states on their completion rate – are looking for students who will complete the program. Your doc program believes in you . . . You must believe in yourself.
Paraphrasing the wise advice of Yoda to Luke Skywalker, “Don’t try, just do it!”
