Quals Passed, Proposal Defense to Follow

Thanks to anonymous for asking about the status of my qualifying exams (nothing like leaving a story unfinished). I (Mike) received unofficial word that I had passed the Friday before President's Day (made for a very pleasant weekend!). However, I did not receive official word for another week or so. Phew! This means we won't be packing up and buying that B&B in Alma, New Brunswick. On a more disturbing note, my friend did not pass her exams and has expressed her intent not to continue fighting it out. Some colleagues and I are attempting to convince her otherwise, but the cards seem stacked against her. Not that I am unaware of the difficulty of the process, but this is the first time that I've seen how brutal the process is in the life of someone close.

Sobered, I am now in the process of preparing for my proposal defense. I will be conducting a grounded theory study of educational leadership from the perspective of the led. A grounded theory study is one where you use raw information gathered (mostly) from interviews to develop a new theory about a social process. You are trying to answer a big "How?" question. My big "How" is "How do students enrolled in an educational opportunities program participate in the program’s leadership practices?" Basically, I believe that leadership happens anywhere people get together, and I am interested in looking at leadership from the perspective of the led. What do ordinary people do that affects the ability of organizations to do their jobs? As a teacher, I learned that my biggest problem in the classroom was my own lack of awareness of my students, their needs, and the little things that went on in their lives both in and outside of school each day that helped or hindered their ability to learn. They played a vital role in my ability to do my job. I know, I know. So why did it take pursuing a PhD to learn that. I'll let you in on a secret: PhD's are weird. We don't think like normal people. And we're running your lives! How's that for scary. Anyway, that's the sort of drivel that occupies my time.

On another note, read this book! From the link: "We just don't think critically anymore, says journalist and former Washington Times columnist Michael LeGault. To anyone who's been intrigued by the 'thinking without thinking' concept presented in Malcolm Gladwell's bestseller Blink, LeGault says Gladwell is wrong, and he explains why critical thinking is more critical than ever, in his book Th!nk"