Autoethnography, Question 3

Describe how you initially joined the doctoral support group, what motivated you to join, and why you stayed involved.

I think I hit many of these points in earlier posts, but I don't know if I discussed motivation enough. 

I was not necessarily "motivated" to join the group. I think I went into it grudgingly. I am not a "group" person. Never have been. In general, if there is a team sport or a solo sport, I'll pick the solo every time. So, really, it's a surprise that I joined the group and stayed with it. 

I feel certain the reason I "joined" was that Dr. Fishback recommended it. I seem to think Andrew wrote me and said, "Hey, Dr. Fishback recommended that we join together as a study group," and although I may not have a great group work ethic, I do have a very rigid "order following" ethic. If someone gives me an order, I perceive them as higher in rank, then I follow it to the best of my abilities. If Andrew had leveraged Dr. Fishback's name, I would have definitely jumped at the opportunity.

I seem to recall not thinking it was worth my time at the beginning. But as I said, there was enough "help" there to make me want to hang around. Remember, I was super impressed by Daron's ability to find information and Andrew's ability to navigate and decipher the world of academia. So those two things alone would have made me think this was worthwhile to stay around. Anne's contribution to my motivation to stay was that she and I were both in corporate settings. I probably wanted to find someone with a like mind who was in a similar boat to me. Will kept me motivated to stay because he made the group so fun. He brought lightness and humor. 

I think I stayed involved out of fear. As I'm a loner by nature, it's not natural for me to stay in a group, but I saw this as an opportunity to help me navigate the courses and the program as a whole. For example, I had no idea what a dissertation was, but by hanging around the group, I heard from Andrew what it was, from Anne, and from Will about their research focuses and areas of interest. That helped me realize and develop my own thoughts. When Daron stopped coming, I realized, too, how easy it might be to step away. I was motivated to join a PhD program by my boss, so stepping away would have likely affected my job in an adverse way. So it was not an option. I saw the group as one more tool that could help me through the process. Obviously, I saw value in the meeting's results, or I wouldn’t have stayed around. 

Finally, I would like to comment on the virtual technology. Would this type of support group have been effective in person or without the use of Zoom? In person, sure, but none of these were "traditional" students. Anne was in Kansas, but none of the rest of us were. Could this have worked via conference calls? I don't think so. The opportunity to use online web conferencing, with cameras, was unique, and I think we exploited it to a degree that it helped make the group successful. 

The KSU Adult Learning and Leadership PhD Program is unique because of its hybrid nature and residency requirement. But I think even though it creates connections once residency comes around, there is little to no connection before that. Our group helped create a connection well before the residency connection became relevant. Then, when residency came in, we were already well ahead of the pack.