Tuesday, February 1, 2011

On becoming a Doctor: My Graduation and Looking Back


I graduated on Friday at the University of Sussex's Winter graduation ceremony. After five years of work I received my Doctorate of Education. The occasion was perfect for bringing together family, friends and colleagues together to celebrate, for what is, quite an achievement. Here I share a few thoughts about the day and some tips for those doing a doctorate right now. Hindsight is a wonderful thing!

I was apprehensive about going, but the the event was amazing and really worth every moment. Sussex is very lucky to have an excellent Chancellor - Sanjeev Bhaskar (pictured below). He somehow gets the right balance between a serious ceremony and a fun celebration of the graduands achievements. He is entertaining, waves to the proud parents for photos, gives a good speech and is an ideal figure-head for the University of Sussex.


To add to the excitement Stephen Fry received an honorary Doctorate for his charitable work for mental health awareness and HIV and AIDS.  He was introduced by Simon Fanshaw (Photo below: from middle, second on right) and gave a splendid speech full of wisdom and the wit you would expect from Mr (Dr.) Fry (Photo below: from middle, third on right). The whole event takes place in the Brighton Dome and is incredibly grand.


Many of my colleagues were sat on the stage, I had two other colleagues getting their doctorate and I had a number of successful PGCE trainees who I had taught in the rows behind me. So it meant that when it was my turn to collect my award, my jelly knees had to be tamed as my colleagues erupted with cheers and applause from the stage and my husband, parents and ex-PGCE students whooped from the stalls. My mother-in-law was watching on the live video link and was impressed by the spontaneous cheers. Although it was only a blur for me crossing that stage!




I have to say I was somewhat shocked when I went to collect my gowns from the robing area. I did not know what they looked like. I thought the helper had handed me a super hero's costume! I thought - five years of hard work and they make you look like a prat! Seriously though once it was on, it did feel good and special and I strutted around the gardens of the Royal Pavilion having my photo taken. The doctorate graduands certainly stood out!



This time is an opportunity for reflection. A doctorate is a huge undertaking. Personally mine caused me to question everything I thought I knew about teaching, learning and education. It is not just an intellectual journey, it is an emotional journey. You lose confidence in what you know and have to readdress it, re-evaluate and refocus. During my doctorate, amongst other things, I had a civil partnership, became an uncle four times, changed career, wrote several books and almost lost my mother to a kidney infection. Life can get in the way of a doctorate.

The key things that got me through the doctorate were:

1. 'Don't get it right, get it written': This is a mantra that I was taught by a colleague (who was told it at a writing workshop). When you sit in front of a blank computer screen, sometimes it is hard to know what to write or you stress over getting it right. Instead just start typing, not worrying about it: write about what you hope to write, a list of bullet points, things you need to find out before you can write. Then it just seems to flow. It doesn't matter if is good or bad. It can be edited later.

2. Like-minded support: I was fortunate enough to make a friends with a group of my colleagues who were doing the doctorate at the same time. Although we lived quite far apart, we used Facebook as way of communicating. We met up for dinners when we could and discussed our progress, crises and explored methodologies, epistemology and ontology. These people are the only people I can discuss these things with freely, learn from them and make mistakes.

3. Plan thinking time: A big part of a doctorate is making sense of complicated theories, conflicting ideas, difficult concepts. Allowing myself to think, giving myself space (gardening and drawing were my favourites) to allow my mind to ponder, synthesise and consolidate my thoughts was very important in coming to write up my doctorate.

There are plenty of other pearls of wisdom I could offer others who are doing a doctorate, but I will leave it to another post.

Dr. AC-G

PHOTOS BY G.GREVATT-CHANDLER

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