Open AccessWorking Together more than Alone: Students' Evolving Perceptions of Self and Community within a Four-Year Educational Administration Doctoral Cohort
Author(s) -
Lance Ford,
Courtney Vaughn
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
the qualitative report
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2160-3715
DOI - 10.46743/2160-3715/2011.1321
Subject(s) - context (archaeology) , symbolic interactionism , thriving , cohort , focus group , sociology , pedagogy , qualitative research , psychology , identity (music) , dramaturgy , medical education , institution , perception , social psychology , social science , medicine , paleontology , art , physics , literature , neuroscience , anthropology , acoustics , biology
School administrators rarely have the opportunity to confer and share their challenges with colleagues. To address this problem in 2005 the Educational Administration Department (EAD) at Central University (a Midwestern PhD granting institution located in a thriving city of about 100,00 people) created a virtual/local doctoral cohort for 14 school leaders living and working in two states. Three years into the course of study we conducted a year long inquiry that asked, "How did students' self-perceptions evolve within a cohort context, and how did these changes advance or retard professional learning community (PLC) growth?" Our interviews had a phenomenological focus but we used symbolic interactionism to analyze them and dramaturgy to present our findings. Themes of faculty and student relationships, work and/or personal problems and dealing with technology indicated that despite some significant hurdles students' identity evolutions moved the group toward becoming a PLC, a collaborative culture of thinkers.