Two Dissertations, a Pandemic and the Magic Lab: A Story of Serendipity
Location
Session 2 Presentations - Doctoral Education
Proposal Track
Research Project
Session Format
Presentation
Abstract
Serendipity can be defined as an unplanned fortunate discovery. Stories of scientific discoveries abound with lucky coincidences. The work we present has little to do with luck and coincidence, but with the "serendipitous" building of an unplanned community of practice between two doctoral students and their mentors in the middle of a global pandemic. This narrative piece elaborates on the impact and catalytic role played by the Interactive Research Methods Lab (IRML), dubbed The Magic Lab by a doctoral student, in the conceptualization and culmination of two doctoral dissertations on teachers' vocational identity and experiences with technology integration models. Collegiality, teamwork, and positive interdependence have been instrumental in coping with the effects that the global pandemic has had in the lives of two doctoral students who are also full-time teachers. The traditional top-down, apprenticeship-based model in doctoral education is obsolete. Given the paradigm shift that has been occurring worldwide, doctoral programs are moving away from the one-to-one, master-to-apprentice learning approach, and are now leaning towards more horizontal models based on peer education and the promotion of communities of practice. We present the serendipities that pushed the mentoring process away from a student-teacher model to one of collegiality.
Keywords
Doctoral education, Communities of Practice, Interactive Research Methods Lab
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Abellán, Iván Jorrín; Wright, James; Post, Tiffany; and Bennett, Michael, "Two Dissertations, a Pandemic and the Magic Lab: A Story of Serendipity" (2021). Georgia Educational Research Association Conference. 40.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/gera/2021/2021/40
Two Dissertations, a Pandemic and the Magic Lab: A Story of Serendipity
Session 2 Presentations - Doctoral Education
Serendipity can be defined as an unplanned fortunate discovery. Stories of scientific discoveries abound with lucky coincidences. The work we present has little to do with luck and coincidence, but with the "serendipitous" building of an unplanned community of practice between two doctoral students and their mentors in the middle of a global pandemic. This narrative piece elaborates on the impact and catalytic role played by the Interactive Research Methods Lab (IRML), dubbed The Magic Lab by a doctoral student, in the conceptualization and culmination of two doctoral dissertations on teachers' vocational identity and experiences with technology integration models. Collegiality, teamwork, and positive interdependence have been instrumental in coping with the effects that the global pandemic has had in the lives of two doctoral students who are also full-time teachers. The traditional top-down, apprenticeship-based model in doctoral education is obsolete. Given the paradigm shift that has been occurring worldwide, doctoral programs are moving away from the one-to-one, master-to-apprentice learning approach, and are now leaning towards more horizontal models based on peer education and the promotion of communities of practice. We present the serendipities that pushed the mentoring process away from a student-teacher model to one of collegiality.