The Doctoral Challenge: Select Women Students’ Experiences in a Higher Educational Leadership Doctoral Program

Abstract

<p>There is scant research on the topic of challenges and coping mechanisms necessary to the<br />success of women doctoral students. Thus, the purpose of this study was to assess<br />qualitatively the experiences of 3 women doctoral students enrolled at a 4-year university in<br />southeast Texas in an attempt to explore the challenges that evolve while they are enrolled in<br />a doctoral program. Specifically, we examined the lives of these women doctoral students<br />outside of the program and their progression to the completion of their degrees. We attempted<br />to provide insight surrounding the doctoral process, attrition, and completion. A collective<br />case study research design was utilized in this study that was driven by a critical dialectical<br />pluralistic philosophical stance (Onwuegbuzie & Frels, 2013). Specifically, these 3 students<br />were interviewed individually to examine their lived experiences as doctoral students. The<br />verbal interview responses then were subjected to an ethnographic analysis (i.e., domain<br />analysis, taxonomic analysis, componential analysis; Spradley, 1979), whereas their<br />nonverbal responses were subjected to a classical content analysis. The ethnographic analysis<br />of the verbal data revealed the following 2 themes: program perceptions and role inequity.<br />The classical content analysis of the nonverbal data revealed 2 major categories that<br />represented both explicit and inferred forms of communication: types of challenges and<br />survival strategies. Implications of the findings are discussed.</p>