Have you ever thought about the potential for unintended
consequences in acquiring disciplinary expertise? While one might assume that you see the
rewards as worth the risks, this might not be the case, as some of you might be
in the program more for the post-credential opportunities than for a genuine
desire to become an “expert.” How does all of this relate to your situation and
also to the current state of Doctoral
Education in Education?
10 comments:
Dana Brookover - I enjoyed reading the Richardson article, because it explored some of the questions I have had about Schools of Education- particularly how the courses of study within them can vary so much. I will say I did not consider the potential for unintended consequences prior to my starting the doctoral program- however, upon reading this article two things popped into my mind. One is the unintended consequence of my masters program in counseling. That I entered for the post-credential opportunity, but I left with a completely altered outlook on life. There was development happening beyond the skills/techniques of counseling. My multiculturalism counseling class in particular led to this. Becoming a school counselor now was not my only goal, but social justice, advocacy, furthering the counseling profession, and trying to share the knowledge I had learned with those outside of my program were all goals (and challenges). I imagine becoming an "expert" holds the same transformative experience- there will be changes beyond academic skills or counseling techniques. The second idea that instantly popped into my head was using "expert" knowledge can definitely be politicized; I was reading literature just today and one article stood out to me. It was an article on how undocumented immigrants are "taking a toll" on the US's healthcare system and workers. Surely, this was a topic the author was interested in and took a long amount of time to research/report, but I want to know more. Was there money involved? Was it truly just a matter of curiosity, or did the author think this article would change the country for the better? It seems in my current situation (I want to go the faculty route) I will need to focus on what it is I want to add to the body of knowledge in counseling- what I want my legacy to be.
What I appreciate about Richardson’s article was the thorough treatment of all the outcomes of a doctoral education in education, not only as what students need to know and be able to do, but also the habits of mind that students will develop through the program. These outcomes were not only knowledge of the field, but also the ability to think and research within the wider context socially and politically. For myself, these are actually the foremost outcomes I am pursuing in this program. I think the “unintended consequence” for me might actually be the knowledge of the field that I will acquire, and that somewhere in the process of learning to think and research well, I might accidentally become an “expert” on something and increase my post-credential opportunities.
Golde and Walker’s article was also illuminating on some of the realities of doctoral education in education. I am fascinated by the fact that “no comprehensive study of doctoral education in education has been conducted since the 1960s” (p. 246) and I am wondering if this is still the case 12 years later.
Yingying- No, not until I finished reading this article, I have thought about any unintended consequences I might get from an educational Ph.D. program. Immediately, I started to remind myself of the reasons I wanted to come to this program. Being a student of all most of my entire life, I think of education as an activity. I like learning things I didn’t know, I like getting my questions answered. Getting to know about education as an inter-discipline from this article, now I know how flat and one-sided my idea was.
In addition, never have I thought about me becoming a representative of this discipline, this field of study. However, as challenging as it can be, all the “potential for unintended consequences” are learning processes and these might end up becoming my new passion (since I don’t have a solid research interest yet).
Rachel Regal
One of the unintended consequences of developing an expertise that I’m concerned about is developing a niche that is outside the traditional realm of my program, counselor education and supervision. I’m interested in integrated care, especially healing & adjustment after a traumatic, physical disability. While this incorporates cross discipline training and work like Richardson notes, it also puts me in a position where I may need to explicitly outline my connection to counselor education versus being part of the mainstream. I’m wondering how a field distinguishes between an area that is on the cutting edge versus unrelated. It seems like a risk to identify a small target of expertise for a lifetime of work that could become irrelevant, but perhaps that’s just because it is a bit of a risk for me!
In addition developing my niche in integrated care has exposed me to the reality of academic life being at times influenced by the availability of grant funding. I have been challenged to prioritize some interests over others for the time being in order to set myself on a path towards academic success (as defined by impact, grant funding, and prestige within the field). Richardson proposes that graduates need to appreciate that research is “socially situated”, and perhaps an extension of this is that research (and our areas of expertise) are also directly affected by the political arena of education and research. One of the unintended consequences then of becoming part of this field is that I too will become more directly part of the politicized system.
I hadn’t really thought of research as advocacy but I am beginning to see that more clearly since starting this program. I took Richardson’s discussion of skills in the area of research to include cultural competence and awareness, as well as social justice efforts. Especially given today’s national discourse on truth and the role of science, it is even more important to learn how to communicate results in a way that the community and policymakers can hear and use to improve society. I hope to incorporate social justice into my research expertise through an area of focus on health disparities.
I’m proud to be part of a field with a high level of diversity, given that education has the highest number of minority doctoral recipients. As a woman, another unintended consequence is that I’m contributing to the "feminization" of the field, which I have to say, I kind of love.
Cat Henney here – To be totally candid, for a while I was worried that with expertise –particularly expertise about systems of power and educational policy- I might have a growing sense of despair rather than hope. That might sound extreme, but it was my truth. The matrix (adapted from Ball & Cohen) gives me new vocabulary to temper this anxiety while giving it a little space to live for a while. For example, the Habit of Mind “Have passion for the ideas but dispassion for scholarship (genuine curiosity or desire to develop a careful, analytical contribution to a problem)” suggests that passion and dispassion can –and probably should– coexist. These are surely more productive than “despair and hope” ...
I also wonder how it will feel to have my (mis)conceptions challenged and changed throughout the program, but I’m ready to experience disequilibrium and, at times, be humbled. I think I will have to go through this in order to empathize with teachers -and others- who may express resistance. Richardson notes, “In exploring their own beliefs, the Ph.D. students should become more cognizant of how unwarranted beliefs and misconceptions develop in others and what it might take to change these beliefs” (p. 258). So now I’m rereading the question, “Stewards of What?” and thinking that I might become a “steward of self-reflection”. Doctoral Education in Education may really begin with uncovering beliefs and biases (which can be a painful process!) in order to realize the dual goals of researching and improving education.
Erin Hanley
This article from Richardson definitely allowed me some time to think a bit more deeply about things I had considered only fleetingly previously, mostly out of not wanting my fears to take hold. I am interested in becoming a professor, and have to stop ignoring the reality that research will play into that role. This has been mentioned often in my little time in the program so far. Though I am interested in research, and realize its importance, as Richardson alluded to, I generally do not see it becoming "the center of my professional identity," and am hoping I find some way to realistically approach its inclusion in the professional role of a university professor (p. 246).
Something else Richardson pointed out is the large amount of African American Ph.D. students in education. Though I am glad this is true, as someone with this goal in mind, I also realize how few African Americans - in my personal educational experience - have held faculty positions. In both my undergraduate and graduate careers, including this current program, I have had three African American professors. Of those three, only one professor was a woman. Again, these are realities that I both acknowledge and avoid, and that I know I will have to face sooner than later. While completing this program will of course be an incredible accomplishment, I am hoping I am in a position to either inspire every kind of student to further themselves academically (something I also hope I accomplished as a School Counselor), contribute to changes in "ethnic and gender composition" that Richardson references, or both (p. 246).
As the readings mentioned, there is a perceived (unfairly perceived) distance between practitioners and scholars in a field at times. In a field like CJ, that distance is clear between the way that scholarly thought and research perceives and the way that field practitioners apply the craft. Until this prompt, I had not given thought to the idea of shifting away from practice to scholar. That designation that separates master in craft to philosopher doctorate really can bring with it a prestige but also a prejudice from practitioners that "they only know how it works in theory but not in real life." Unfortunately, this is a reality at times when it comes to establishing credibility in my field as there is already an field administration vs. field practice dichotomy in CJ and the idea of crafting scholarly thought and research adds another rung in the ladder of separation. The article, Doctoral Education in Education, was very interesting and gave me insight into what's to come. Golde & Walker stated, "One-third of the students starting a doctorate in education have an undergraduate degree in education." (p. 246). Well, you can count me into the two-third category on the other side as my undergraduate and graduate are in criminal justice social science field.
Andrea Moreau-
My response to this article, especially the discussion of disciplinary expertise, gave me a very visceral reaction. I have been so singularly focused on the need to become an ‘expert’ in the field, that I failed to stop and reflect on the negative consequences of becoming an expert. While reading this article, I found myself referring back to my master's education and discussions had on unconscious bias. My background is in counselor education and when working with students it is critical for all counselors to be aware of and acknowledge the unconscious biases we hold as individuals. Serious harm can be done when not actively working to challenge those unconscious biases. The same can be said when acquiring disciplinary expertise, the earning of a Ph.D. does not give an individual the right to disregard research or information that contradicts their expertise. Not only is this behavior a sign of a poor scholar but it can also cause harm to those our research affects, our students.
Preeti Kamat-Richardson’s article is quite an eye-opener for me. Prior to reading it, I never gave a thought to ‘ the potential for unintended consequences’ that may result in acquiring disciplinary knowledge. Now I would love to explore possibility of such unintended consequences. I hope that it might be an enlightening journey and that might be helpful to me to grow as a person and as an educational researcher, too.
I also realized that as a PhD student in Education, I would not only required to examine my own beliefs and misconceptions but also would need to help others recognize and change their beliefs and misconceptions. Particularly, I also appreciate the need to be able to learn about issues of educational policy and its implementation and to be able to communicate practical knowledge with those who are passionate about improvement in education but have hardly any understanding of the complexities of the system. Having said that, it has provided a multi-fold array of the tasks for me to pursue as a PhD student.
As I was reading the Richardson article, I found that it raised good questions with regards to how we perceive education. I had not considered the fact that education, as a whole can be both a field of study for academic’s sake, but also an enterprise dedication to knowledge with the goal of action. Becoming a good steward of education as both a field of study and an enterprise well-defines why I am here. Knowledge, in my opinion, is only useful if it is paired with action (enterprise) to further the field and help others. Until now, I had not considered any unintended consequences in acquiring disciplinary expertise. As I am reflecting on these consequences, I think back to the differences within me before and after I received my Master's in Counseling. I went into school with the hopes of developing a set of skills that I can use in my career. To make it more simple, I could not be a counselor before school, but I could be after. I came out of school with these skills but also an entirely different way of seeing the world. When we discussed our "lens" last class, my lens was completely altered. I look at myself, others and the world through a lens of what is mentally, relationally and socially healthy and useful to promote human flourishing. This complete alteration or enhancement of my worldview was absolutely an unintended consequence of going through my Master's program. I started this program because of the post-credential opportunities. I want to teach and supervise counselors. History repeated itself in that I went into school looking for a set of skills and credentials that would allow me to do what I wanted professionally after graduation and it is indeed foolish of me to not believe that I will come out of the program changed. I anticipate that my lens will be altered yet again. Positively, I hope!
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