What I've Learned Advising Ed.D. Students

Although it wasn’t planned, I’ve recently written a series of posts based on my role co-coordinating an Ed.D. program. In previous posts, I speculated about the growth of Ed.D. programs and some things to consider when looking at Ed.D. programs. In this post, I share some insights I’ve learned advising/mentoring Ed.D. students. As is my custom, let me start with a caveat: I’m not an expert on this topic and have had to figure things out as I go, often through trial and error. I’m still learning and see this post as part of that process.

My lack of experience is part of the reason why I wanted to put my thoughts down. I had no training in advising/mentoring graduate students before I started in this role. My entire knowledge of advising/mentoring graduate students stemmed from my own experiences with advisors and the approaches that served me well. However, having been advised/mentored doesn’t automatically make me ready to effectively advise/mentor students. Moreover, I was a full-time Ph.D. student and my students are part-time Ed.D. students. The approaches that served me well don’t necessarily work well for my students. So, we’re talking about limited capacity here to do an important part of my job. What’s a junior faculty member to do? I jumped and tried not to mess up too badly.

As I mentioned, my experiences as a PhD student didn’t necessarily apply well to my Ed.D. students. I was a full-time Ph.D. with a part-time graduate assistantship. I had no children, and for several years lived within biking distance of campus. When I was working on my dissertation, I really had few distractions. My graduate assistantship was low-pressure enough that I could even write for a few hours per week while working that job. Honestly, my advisor didn’t have to push me too much. My Ed.D. students are working, typically more than 40 hours per week, in stressful jobs. Many of them have families and are juggling the expectations associated with work, classes, and loved ones. Some of them are putting in very long nights and giving up weekends to pursue their education. I have so, so much respect for my students and what they are doing. It is a small miracle each time one of them graduates. Nevertheless, the truth is that they need significant help to reach the finish line.

Here are some of the things I’ve done to help them get there. And many of these things help me, too, with time management and stress.

Group Advising Early in the Process

I still do individual advising with my students, but early in the process I bring students who are at the same general point together for a few group advising sessions. During these sessions, we talk about the nuts and bolts of the entire dissertation process, my approach to feedback, common pitfalls students face, the importance of communication, and other topics. Part of the idea is to bring students together and help them to see there are others they can lean on for help. I also try to remove some of the mystery in the process. Many students see the dissertation as this massive thing that has to be totally groundbreaking. These sessions can help right-size their ambitions and inject a dose of reality.

Tell Them What A Dissertation Is and How It Is Organized

During group advising sessions, I also break down the purpose and organization of each chapter of the dissertation. My approach isn’t to say that these are the magic ingredients of a dissertation that must be present and placed in this exact location. Rather, I stick to a few principles about what is generally included in a dissertation within our program, and I share a few examples. There is still room for students to shape the organization of the dissertation in ways that fit their project and goals. But I found early on that it’s unproductive to expect that my students know what a dissertation is and how it is organized. Telling them to simply go write and send me a draft is a recipe for disaster. So, I give them a bit of a blueprint. I know programs incorporate some of this information into a course. Ours does not in a systematic way, so this is my strategy.

Start Small and Build

This is a new thing I started doing, and I’ve been really happy with the results. Instead of having my students jump right into writing a chapter, I ask them to put together a 2-3 page statement of purpose with research questions. This helps to focus and give direction to subsequent parts of the dissertation. Many of my students have a decent idea of their project, yet when they started writing, they often danced around the purpose. As a result, they included a bunch of content that, while relevant, wasn’t necessary to the project. So, to help them save time, I start with the statement of purpose. After talking about the statement of purpose and agreeing on the research questions, I ask students to start outlining remaining sections of chapter 1. Next, I have them write the first 8-10 pages. Each of these pieces has a deadline, which I don’t police but use from time to time to nudge students. Starting small helps students to see that a dissertation is a big project, but it’s composed of many small, manageable parts that can be tackled in a systematic way, not dissimilar from work they would do in a course. Over time, they develop their own approaches and flow, without as much need for me to help them plan things out. At that point, the scaffolding can come down.

Help Them Protect Time

One of the main hurdles for my students is carving out time to write. They are sometimes their own worst enemies in this regard. After finishing courses, there is a false sense that they have space in their lives to add or change things. So, they take on new professional responsibilities, shifts jobs, and sometimes complicate their lives at a point in time when simplicity is highly valuable. I’ve had to learn as an advisor how to help my students navigate some of these decisions and help them to prioritize completing their dissertations. This means helping them understand how a new opportunity might interfere with their progress and sometimes helping them figure out how to talk with supervisors or supervisees about protecting their time. Ultimately, I can’t create their schedules or make them sit down and write. But I can provide support and gently remind them of why they decided to pursue this degree and how close they are to the finish line.

Advocacy, Empathy, and Tough Love

One of the hardest parts of advising/mentoring, for me, is recognizing that it’s not just a process. It’s a relationship, one that hopefully lasts a long time. My natural inclination is to want to treat everything like a problem that can be fixed with the right structure and systems. What I quickly learned--and this is probably true of all advising/mentoring relationships--is that my students needed more than just an explanation of steps to follow. They wanted to know that I am on their side, that I am as committed to their success as they are. They want someone who knows about them, their goals, their families, their professional joys and challenges. When I get busy, I can sometimes forget this and slip into a “business only” mindset, talking about edits to chapters, paperwork to file, and so forth. When I’m being a little more intentional, I ask a lot of questions, and the answers provide important context for problems and even possible solutions. But this doesn’t mean I sugarcoat things. If a student’s work has slipped, we talk about it. If a chapter isn’t ready, I send it back. Many of my students, by the time they reach the dissertation, are desperate, even zealous, to finish and get back to their pre-Ed.D. lives. One of the toughest, but most frequent, things I have to do as their advisor/mentor is be honest about their timeline.

Remember It’s Not My Project

The last thing--at least for this post--that I’ve had to internalize is that, despite working hard with students over many, many months, it’s their dissertation. This means I have to understand that they might do things differently than I would. There might be imperfections that I have to let go, even if they drive me a little crazy. I could certainly push to have a student edit and edit until their project aligns with my vision, but I’ve come to believe that’s not my purpose. Micromanaging a dissertation can lead to a never-ending spiral of passing drafts back and forth. I don’t think it’s good for students or advisors. At some point, as an advisor, I’ve learned to step away and let my students take the project where they want to take it.

I’ve had a crash-course in advising/mentoring over the past 4 years. I still feel like I have a ton to learn. If only there had been a course on this in my graduate program! Truth be told, I probably wouldn’t have taken that course. But I do wish my field provided more venues for workshops and other professional development on this. It’s such a critical and difficult part of being a professor. It’s also really, really enjoyable, especially when it goes well. My hope is that some of these insights are useful to others, and I absolutely welcome conversation and tips!