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 The traditional top-down, apprenticeship-based model in doctoral education is obsolete.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

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Oct 8th, 9:45 AM Oct 8th, 10:55 AM

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.