Struggles of doctoral candidates

Ross Woods, Dec. 2020

Dr. Tamika E. Haynes*, a member of the “Doctor of Education (Ed.D) Network” initiated a Facebook survey with the question: “What is the #1 struggle for candidates/students when trying to complete a doctoral program?” This network is a private group on Facebook with the following stated purpose:

The Doctor of Education Network is a support group that is open to everyone who is in the process of completing their doctorate degree or who have [sic] finished the process and are [sic] moving toward new projects after the doctorate. We engage in discussions about the doctoral process, methods for successfully completing doctoral programs, and support in future research projects. This network is here to help alleviate stress during the doctoral process, provide an opportunity for networking, and providing continuous support to Ed.D recipients and candidates.
(Viewed Dec. 7, 2020.)

Members of the network formed an accidental sample. One respondent was a doctoral supervisor, and all others appeared to be past or present doctoral students. The survey responses were divided into 43 separate responses as several respondents provided more than one kind of struggle. Some did not mention struggles but gave positive comments about how they responded to them, and these were counted as comments on their respective topics.

I identified the most relevant emerging categories for classifying responses (Time and self-organization, Writing, Coursework, Advisory committee, and Motivation. I then agglomerated the responses to anonymize the respondents, although this was more difficult in the case of unique responses.

Time and self-organization

Not surprizingly, problems related to time and self-organization were dominant:

  1. Two responses simply referred to a lack of time, one of them mentioning studying in one’s spare time while in full-time employment.
  2. Eleven responses referred to time management. Three simply mentioned that it was a problem, while two mentioned that it was difficult to maintain schedules. Two others related time management to self-care, one saying that recovery took a year after graduation. Four respondents specifically mentioned difficulty in balancing their studies with other activities, usually family responsibilities, employment, and managing a house.
  3. Nine mentioned that it was difficult to keep themselves organized in some way. Four mentioned distractions and two mentioned procrastination. One did not mention distraction but gave his/her response to overcome it. One mentioned that having a family made study difficult, not mentioning lack of time but lack of energy for study.

Writing

Nine students reported that they found the writing load difficult. Specifically, these referred to the literature review, the writing load in non-dissertation work, and a general aversion to writing. Two mentioned helful solutions; one wrote with a friend so that they pushed each other, while another would make notes in order to maintain progress. It is possible, but was not demonstrated, that difficulties with the writing load indicate an underlying lack of writing skills.

It was unexpected that only one student reported that they had not learned enough writing skills during coursework to be equipped to write a dissertation. Anecdotally, doctoral students frequently need help in writing skills, and many employ editors. Some also hope that their supervisors will provide some editing services.

Coursework

Four students and the doctoral supervisor reported difficulties in doing doctoral coursework while also working on their dissertations; the difficulty seems to be in balancing them simultaneously.

Advisory committee

Only three students mentioned that their advisory committees were a source of difficulty. This was unexpected due to the normal number of complaints on the help forums. The comments related to doing what the committee asked and waiting for feedback.

Motivation

Three students mentioned that they had difficulty maintaining their motivation. One reported that a source of discouragement was research participants' failure to adhere to scheduled meeting times, resulting in delays in completion. For another, the motivation was a fear of not graduating. This was also surprizing in that anecdotal evidence suggests that most doctoral students, especially those who take longer than expected, become discouraged and demotivated at some point.

Institutional responses

Institutions have several kinds of possible solutions:

  1. Students must finish all coursework and the comprehensive before they may commence the dissertation. (This responds to the question of balancing them simultaneously.)
  2. Students go through the dissertation process in a set of carefully defined steps, like a quality gates system. The purpose is to ensure that students do only one task at a time, in an order that will maximize their chances of success. It also prevents them from moving ahead in the wrong direction.
  3. Supervisory committees have clear guidelines on what they should do and response times for students queries and submissions.
  4. Some institutions are much stricter on writing skills in the prepatory stages.
  5. Some provide templates and general writing advice through a writing center.
  6. Some use the doctoral coursework as intentional preparation for the dissertation.

_________________
*With thanks to
Dr. Tamika E. Haynes, CEO/President, Scholars Professional Editing Group LLC
Website: www.thescholarsediting.com
Email: info@thescholarsediting.com | 302-295-4953