Metaphors and similes are often used to try to describe a lived experience to someone outside of those experiences. Getting new job can be like scaling a mountain (or corporate ladder, as the hierarchy may be). The pain of childbirth is said to be worse that loosing a limb. As for education, marathons and roller coasters are often used to describe the intensity of work and emotional expenditure of the experience. Entering my 3rd week of school, after a hiatus of more than 8 years, I am wondering, "Is this roller coaster safe?"
Of course it's safe in the sense that I'm not actually strapped into a cart, hanging upside down. But education at this level is very demanding of time and emotional investments, so it is bound to have its ups and downs like a roller coaster. I am tremendously excited to be studying again. I have really felt over the past several years my drive to contribute more fully to the work I have been involved in, and I have sorely wanted to contribute more. Intellectually, analytically, I know I have the capabilities. It is really the philosophical and theoretical foundations that I felt I lacked to be able to make confident and comprehensive contributions. And to test my knowledge of them and be puched to really think rather than regurgitate is what this type of education should provide. We had a first class last week with the lovely Carole Farber. It was a wonderful opportunity for meeting the students in the class, and Carole. My impressions of the time we spent together were very positive. The space quickly became one of relaxed comfort and safe, but serious, discussion. The group, through Carole's honest and unassuming lead, were encouraged to be open about their goals and gaps of education. It was refreshing to see everyone accepting and engaging in the opportunity. Something I have learned in my years of working in applied ethics, particularly while engulfed in the art of interviewing participants, is the necessity of building trust and the creation of a safe space. Trust that the people engaged in the conversation are being honest with each other and themselves is an enormous part in making a safe space. The sense of a safe space (and I mean sense in that, though it can be created in a room, a safe space really isn't a physical location) is also built on respect for individual expression and non-judgement. Fortunately, this is what I felt coming out of our first Methods class last week. That is a very good impression to come away with, particularly given the intensity of PhD education. And intense it is. I knew coming in that this was going to be a lot of work. And in the past 2 weeks I have already been exposed to the roller coaster and marathon that have come to routinely describe this level of education. Being exposed to new ideas (and old ones in a new light), have helped me understand with more clarity where my beliefs germinated. But it's the rubbing of these ideas, old and new, with what I thought I knew - the negotiation of its meaning and impact on my worldview (to use Creswell's term) is where the roller coater metaphor is most apt. I look forward to seeing where the ride will take me.
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