Antioch PhD in Leadership and Change

One of the opportunities I have to close triangles I have just started...a PhD program (Antioch University PhD in Leadership & Change) with 27 individuals from across the globe. What I have already found in my first three weeks is that it is going to be a great opportunity to think about the work I do and connect it to my studies. Every week I have a prompt given for me to respond to. I will share these on the blog as a way to be as transparent as possible about my journey....and so that everyone can share in the learning!

Here's my first response from last week....

A few weeks prior to the residency in Yellow Springs I had a chance to spend the morning with Dr. Gregory Cajete. He was giving a lecture of his book Native Science and started by talking about the epistemology (how he came to know what he knows) that led to his work. I appreciated how in his presentation he was able to weave the philosophy that guided his approach into his experience and research. I reflected on this experience as I read this article. I have always thought of myself as leaning towards the qualitative research as I enjoy finding themes and context from lived experiences. What surprised me while reading this article is that my basis for my seemingly qualitative work has not been tied to philosophy but in the human experience.

Honestly, all of the philosophical texts referenced seemed quite overwhelming! Where does one start? It also seemed that most texts had been refuted at some point so how does one begin to determine who is “right?” From the texts mentioned, Gadamer, Geertz, and Habermas intrigued me, as it seems their work is tied to human behavior and interactions.

Both of my degrees are from an Agricultural Education department in a College of Agriculture. As you can imagine, all of the other departments in the College are strictly quantitative and mine was qualitative. Just over the past ten years or so have Agricultural Education professors found their way into college or university leadership positions. I have to imagine that, in part, this is due to the emerging appreciation for both the qualitative and quantitative approaches and the shared philosophy that guides them. The article seemed to point towards this shift and it was interesting to tie to my experience.

I think my methodological challenges over the coming years will come most in grounding my work in philosophy. I have had the opportunity in my professional experiences to do quite a bit of qualitative and quantitative work and am fairly comfortable in coming up with questions, exploring various ways to approach the work, and report on the efforts. As Kezar shared “My thesis is that the scholarship in the field suffers because we have had limited exposure to and engagement with the debates and assumptions that shape and frame thinking in the social sciences“ (p. 44). I agree. What has been missing for me is the grounding for what is known about the people side—that has been proven for years—that perhaps has not been taken into account.

As I think about my journey to become a reflective practitioner/scholar, I know that it will take quite a bit of work to even know where to start with the reading and application of the philosophical texts. I am also aware that for me to truly internalize this work, it must be applied to something I have experienced or have deep interest. I saw this intersection modeled by the Antioch faculty in Yellow Springs and from Dr. Cajete…so I know it is possible!