90s08 Hurdles

In the fall and winter of 1990-91, I began to work in earnest on my dissertation. Getting a Ph. D. is a series of hurdles. Taking all of the courses is part of the series. Each can be a major ordeal. If you survive all of the courses and are still going then you can take the comprehensive exams, which are followed by a meeting to defend your answers. And then there’s the dissertation! The single greatest stumbling block for most.

Many get to the dissertation and never get any further. There are a lot of folks that never got beyond the All But Dissertation (ABD) status. I couldn’t stand the thought of getting that close and not finishing up. For many, though, the thought of writing a dissertation is so daunting that they never really get started on it.

The process begins with an idea. My advisor asked me to write my idea about what I wanted to research on a single sheet of paper. I must have tried that twenty times and tuned at least ten of the efforts over to him. He would cut it to pieces and hand it back to me and I would start all over again. Finally, I realized that I needed to research something he was interested in and if I was interested in it that was fine, too, but not necessary.

Finally, in the fall of 1990 I got his approval. On January 11, 1991 I wrote: I have a busy weekend planned working on my dissertation. It is very frustrating because every time I send something in to Dr. Shepardson he cuts it to pieces with the red pencil. He forgets what he says or recommends from one time to the next. I do what he recommends one time and he recommends the opposite the next time. Oh well! I guess it is part of the process. It gives new meaning to the word “revision.”

On January 24, I was scheduled to present the first three chapters to my committee. I wrote that the prospect of five people doing what Sheperdson was doing sounded awful, but I knew it would put me one step closer to completion. I just had to keep my eye on the goal and work to get there. I sent the three chapters ten days before the meeting.

When the 24th arrived I went to Iowa City with much trepidation. I expected the worse! I was in for a big surprise. The committee was not only supportive they were enthusiastic! That was when I first got the sense that they were going to make sure I got through this ordeal. I felt relieved and encouraged!

The plan was that I was going to co-teach a cooperative learning graduate course with Dr. Shepardson and then study the implementation of the method with some of the participants. I would follow all of the participants in general and couple in great detail. I would specifically look at the things that were roadblocks to the implementation, the roadblocks to teacher change. The more I thought about it the more intrigued I became.