PREPARING FOR THE ORAL DEFENSE OF YOUR DISSERTATION

Preparing for the Oral Defense of the Dissertation

This week I get to celebrate one more doctoral candidate who successfully defended her dissertation, congratulations Dr Priscilla Ndlovu! In the spirit of celebration and as several others run towards the finish line, I decided to revisit a topic I covered a year ago on (March 30, 2012) on getting to a successful defense. In that earlier post, I talked about creating a plan and working it, avoiding distractions and derailments, keeping a pace akin to coursework, learning from those who have gone before you, social support and accountability. In that post, Keith Keppley also posted his reflections as one who had successfully completed his defense.

First of all, at this point in the journey, you are an expert on your topic – including the context and content of your study. Act like one! Demonstrate your competence confidently. Own it!

Be prepared to answer questions about the content of your study. Expect questions about the conceptualization of your study, the theoretical framework, the methods employed (not only how suitable, but what you learned about research design by using the specific method), the findings and implications.

As far as implications go, at this point the committee or examiners want to know, ‘now that we know this (your study findings), so what?’ Demonstrate your expertise by linking your study findings to existing literature where you can be extending it and/or even critiquing it.

Further, expect questions related to the practical implications of your study. That is,  in what ways does your study inform the practice of [e.g. leadership development, organizational change, long term healthcare administration, college teaching…]whatever your topic is? Your examiners are interested in hearing you articulate the [potential] practical applications of your study. 

Finally, I have noticed in some of the committees that I have served in, that some of us are also interested in hearing how the dissertation process impacted you. Indeed, if the dissertation process is more than just an intellectual exercise, it might, for example, impact the choices you make about your future career goals, it might make you reflective about your social identity and the power associated with the researcher role. My dissertation process opened up a world of cultural explanations and depth of understanding about women’s status in my motherland in ways that came as a surprise. For some, the impact might be in getting them excited about scholarship to the point of deciding to become academics…

As usual comments and questions welcome. All the best as you prepare for your oral presentation.

Dr Faith 

A Modest Report about Our Inaugural Writing Retreats

In the last few weeks, I have had the privilege (and disappointment) of reviewing my calender to see where all my time was going. Very little of it was going towards accomplishing my writing goals. The tyranny of the urgent was taking over most of my time.

So, I decided to re-evaluate where I was spending my time, and sought for more effective ways to accomplish all my goals - teaching, dissertation advising, conference presentations/preparation, and writing for publication. Somewhere within my weekly schedule, I also need to re-insert my physical fitness and wellness goals, and make sure I accomplish those too.

In my attempts to help myself, as well as my constituents - faculty and doctoral students - to meet our writing goals, I scheduled two writing retreats, or as one doctoral student dubbed them, boot camps.

The writing retreat for faculty was for just half a day, 9-12 on a Friday. Unfortunately, I scheduled it on a day when I needed to be away on fieldwork. However, the faculty tell me that it went very well, they wrote quietly for the three hours and then engaged in feedback about the process during lunch. Six faculty members who are part of my Faculty Learning Community attended this inaugural retreat. In my book, that was a great turnout! I am very encouraged and look forward to facilitating the next one, which will be one day long in December.

The doctoral candidates boot camp was one day long on a Saturday since all my students are working full time. Even though it had been advertised to all the local students from our program, only two showed up. Not a great turn out, but I am still very encouraged and will continue to offer such intensive writing times to support their dissertation completion goals.

So what did I learn from these inaugural retreats?

First of all, that it is important to have a goal for the retreat, one that can be accomplished within the time limits. Because accomplishing a set (small) goal contributes towards the overall goal, and more importantly, helps us to feel that we are making progress.

Secondly, that you don't need fancy facilities to make it work. The faculty write-in was in a colleagues house, students met on campus (thankfully it was a very quiet Saturday, allowing for focused time).

Thirdly, next time I offer the doctoral boot camp, I will include the option of participating via Skype or Adobe Connect. That way, those students who are not local, or who cannot otherwise come to campus, can find some other quiet distraction-free space in which to work, and enjoy the benefits of camaraderie.

And finally, accountability helps in goal accomplishment. Having to share what we hope to accomplish within a given time period, then reporting back and maybe even asking for feedback all work towards enabling us to accomplish our writing goals. I felt a certain gratification in saying these are the four items on my agenda at 9:00 in the morning, and reporting that I had accomplished those four items at 4pm that day (modest though each of them was).

What are the strategies that you employ to enable you to accomplish focused writing time?