Being the Mentor She Should Have Had with Dr. Janice Weaver
Dr. Janice Weaver [00:20:46]
Well, that’s that. Yeah. Yeah, you have to. Yeah, you have to.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:20:51]
So what other challenges would you say you faced as you were going through the dissertation process?
Dr. Janice Weaver [00:20:59]
Well. When I had to get I had to find the site where I needed to recruit participants and I wasn’t told soon enough. This is when you need to get site approval. So by the time it came running in my chair, who I was having problems with, she said, oh, you should have gotten site approval months ago. I said, would have been nice if someone would have told me. So I was focusing on community colleges and nontraditional students because that’s how I started. I was nontraditional. So I called the community college and they said, oh, we don’t even have an internal review board. We can’t we can’t allow you to come here. And I thought your life in this group isn’t this great. You know, I get this far and I can’t find a site. And I thought.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:21:53]
That’s again, one of those things that we’re planning is the failure there.
Dr. Janice Weaver [00:21:58]
Yeah. Failure to plan. That’s right.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:22:01]
Let’s see what your data is going to look like. Where you going to get it from? How are you going to do.
Dr. Janice Weaver [00:22:05]
That’s right. That’s right. So fortunately, I have a relative who who is the chair of the psychology department at community college, and he was able to recruit participants for me. But had you not been there, I don’t know what I would have done. Yeah, because even though there are there are five campuses where I live, they had they could not allow me to conduct research because they had no internal review board to allow me to do that. And that was devastating because I thought, I’ve come this far, and you mean to tell me that I can’t find a site, why didn’t someone, you know, help me with this or tell me ahead of time?
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:22:52]
Yeah, so that just illustrates why it’s so important to have that person in your network who who is kind of. Scene, absolutely, and all the way to the finish line and can can help you figure out, navigate and avoid the bumps in the road, right?
Dr. Janice Weaver [00:23:08]
I mean, that’s very practical. I mean. Yes, I was filled with the thrill of studying something I wanted to research, but, you know, you have to come down and realize, OK, how am I going to do that? Where am I going to do that? You know that.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:23:26]
I tell students. this. I break down the research plan into three little questions and then it sounds like I’m talking to an elementary school student here, but it works. You need to know, who are you going to talk to? What are you going to ask them and what are you going to do with their answers? And if you know that’s good, whether it’s a quantitative project, qualitative project, it doesn’t matter. I mean, it could even be a guy out on a on a production line who’s checking to see what the failure, pressure of their tires are going out to 15 tires off of Assembly Line G, I’m going to pump them up and what I’m about to let them until they blow up. And that’s the pressure they blow up. And what am I gonna do with their answers? I’m going to run an analysis that’s going to tell me what the maximum safe operating pressure is. And that’s a little bit handwaving that we want to be more specific about that analysis. But that gives you an idea for how malleable that framework is. If you just know in all of these, who are you going to talk to that want would say that much?
Dr. Janice Weaver [00:24:27]
If I would have had a clear cut plan, which, you know, it was hard enough being doing all the scientific writing and learning research methods and statistics, but I needed someone to help me with a plan. They have a plan now. I graduated that and I look at that and I think, wow, you know, where were they when I was there?
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:24:52]
So, so many of our of our students. I like to use that analogy of the GPS. Yeah. The flip side of that, the way I look at that is like a a bloodhound. If a boy gets lost in the woods or something like that, you can take a t shirt or a hairbrush or something wave in front of one. Yeah. Yeah. And then they’ll just take that scent and they’ll go run with it. They’ll just move in the direction that they think gets them closer. They keep following the scent. They’re just following their nose to see where it goes. And some universities condone or specifically implore or urge their students to follow this kind of bloodhound approach to the dissertation where they never know where they’re going, they just keep trying to take the time. Yeah, it’s better to, like, know where you’re going and then go that way instead of hope that eventually you’ll run into a dissertation and you’re just wandering around following the same path the boy lost in the woods took.
Dr. Janice Weaver [00:25:54]
Yeah. You feel lost. So lost, so well.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:26:00]
So you mentioned some of these challenges with the planning, with the committee members you were dealing with and so forth. What helped you finally overcome all that? Because obviously you came out successfully on the other side. So what was it that got you over over the hump finally?
Dr. Janice Weaver [00:26:16]
Well, towards the end, I started for seven years and before, I guess about six and a half years in, I was very tired, physically and emotionally. And when I had to start to analyze and come up with a research design and learn how to analyze through SPSS statistical software, I realized that I needed to do very complicated analysis that I was not prepared for. So I thought, well, I’ll look for a statistician their way out of my price range, a statistician. So I contacted someone within internally within the university. I said, is there someone here that can help me with statistics? And I was referred to a woman who actually in her career was research and statistics. OK, and when I contacted her and she learned of my plight, she was just like a gift to me because she said, Janice, we’re going to get you through, we’re going to get you through and you’re going to graduate. And you know that just what life into me. Yes. I felt like like like you’re talking about tires. I felt like a flat tire was putting air into me. And and she helped me pick the appropriate type of analysis, which I wouldn’t have been able to do on my own. But she had and she was a statistician herself. And so it was a fact that I was proactive. I knew I had to be my own advocate right in the chair. I had at the time was furious with me for going outside of her realm to find help outside of that area. And she was furious. But, you know, it was my life and my dissertation and my dream and, you know, it was up to me to find someone.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:28:35]
Someone who’s had their student in school for seven years is then upset when the student looked for more help. That doesn’t surprise me at all because, that’s that’s the type of chair. Unfortunately, they don’t really care. Yeah. Your goals are or how how this process is impacting you. They they care about their kind of their authority and their reputation and whatever it might be. And this shouldn’t be a power game at all. I mean, if you’re there in in a as a as a dissertation chair, I mean, your goal should be to teach and to help your students succeed. Right. And you better want to do at least one of those things and preferably both.
Dr. Janice Weaver [00:29:20]
Yeah, that’s right. That’s right. And and of course, there are any long term prolonged time of learning things happen in life. Know, I had things happen in my personal life and in my family and I would bring that up with her. And she said, well, we can’t talk about personal things. We need to keep academics and personal issues separate. And of course, that made me feel even worse. Right, because that influences how I study that influences every life and their academic life and their work life and their. Yeah, it’s like you can’t compartmentalize it. I mean, it doesn’t work. No, no.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:30:01]
So, yeah, we do that a lot with our students. I mean, it’s unfortunate, but life doesn’t take a break now while you’re working on your dissertation. And so we’ve had students who have lost jobs, who’ve had to move homes, who’ve had to deal with an illness or the loss of a loved one. I mean, these are very difficult things. And it’s and it’s important that you can, again, compartmentalize isn’t exactly the right word because it is going to affect you. But the incident that you can appreciate what you’re going through and give respect and deference to that moment, but also remember your goals and your objectives. Right. And you work towards those because, yes, it’s you don’t get a break or reprieve from outside influences while you’re while you’re working on your dissertation.
Dr. Janice Weaver [00:30:51]
But then once once I had this woman who was professor, who I could tell really supported me. Then I my work on my dissertation help distract me from losing my dad, you know, things that happened that were very hard. So it became where my working on my dissertation became therapeutic for me instead of causing me to have a breakdown or just say I’m going to quit. Right. It was very therapeutic because I could focus on something that that was good for me, you know,.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:31:34]
It’s ironic in some sense because doctoral students are all the time saying, I don’t feel like I have enough control over my dissertation. I don’t have control over this process. But then when something like that happens in life, you feel like this is something I know and something I can control. Yeah. Compared to the larger landscape. So, yeah, that and so many of our students say, well, you know what, my loved one who my dad or whoever it was wouldn’t have tolerated me not finishing this, and certainly wouldn’t let me use them as a excuse to not finish. Yeah. Yeah. And that can again become a way to to to focus by, you know, doing that person’s memory, honor, as well as helping you reach your own goals.
Dr. Janice Weaver [00:32:17]
Well, I think those people are that have support from their family, are very fortunate. Yeah, I was I’m a first generation student, meaning no one in my family knew what college was like, let alone a Ph.D. So I really some in my family even questioned, why are you getting a PhD at your age? And so I really didn’t have support from there like that last part there. Yeah. At your age, yeah. What what what are you doing? You know, and and they didn’t have any understanding.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:32:54]
Like I do have both feet in the grave, but I want to take that piece of paper, lay my head down.
Dr. Janice Weaver [00:32:57]
Put it on my tombstone and some of that, that’s people that do have family that are supportive of them. I consider very fortunate.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:33:08]
True. That is true. Yeah. That that’s that’s yeah. That’s very true. And so and so with all the challenges you face, finally finding someone who could support you, understand those goals and support you through them that. Turned out to be the difference for you.
Dr. Janice Weaver [00:33:24]
Oh, that was all the difference. Yes, I wouldn’t have made it. Some things you can do alone and there’s some things I would I could not do alone. When I realized I realized that I realized that.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:33:38]
No one really does that alone. I know personally, I had when we talk about this notion of the instant roadmap for your dissertation and figuring out exactly what you’re going to do right up front. Yeah, I didn’t know that when I started, but I went through and I didn’t realize how difficult it would be for me to recruit participants. And I have at the time and the dean for one of the schools that I was was teaching with, I was telling him about the issues I was having, and he was gracious enough to allow me to use that school student body as my participant pool. And because I had someone who was able to look out for me and give me that assistance. Yeah, pass that hurdle. And my and I think one of us can point to someone who gave. That’s right. Would have push or some sort of inside or something. Yes. Not with this. So I absolutely always remember to give back to to those that are that are coming after us to the extent we can. But if nothing else, people like you mentioned your chair just don’t get too full of yourself.
Dr. Janice Weaver [00:34:47]
Oh, it’s terrible. Yeah, I don’t know. I didn’t understand and I didn’t want to be disrespectful, you know, I don’t think I was disrespectful. But when when she became angry and and compared to my reaching out for help to the scorched earth policy that I was, I, I mean, she made me sound like a terrorist, like and they were at war when Saddam Hussein’s scorched earth. She used that phrase and I started crying and I was so upset, I just couldn’t believe it.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:35:25]
We’re all people, doctoral students, even those who graduate and become doctors will equal this and obviously has some issues that she hasn’t fully dealt with yet. She didn’t have someone to help her process. Yeah, you’re right, I. I hope that those listening to us who are going to graduate and going to be successful, remember not to take out whatever might be going on your life on students or other people who are going to come to you. That’s right. Or advice or assistance. Because once your first name is doctor, everybody that knew you win is going to treat you the same way. But everybody needs you after. That’s going to think of you as a different person. That’s true. You have to be. Respectful of that power that you’re going to wield when your first name is Don. Yeah, and I’m sorry that this person wasn’t because there’s there’s no need for that. It’s it’s it’s insecurity to.
Dr. Janice Weaver [00:36:21]
Not I just think it was a psychology major. You know, you would think, but, you know, learning psychology intellectually is one thing, but now learning how to use it and be compassionate and empathic, you know, that’s different.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:36:43]
Yeah, yeah. You reminded me of the the psychologist from Good Will Hunting Shawn Robin Williams played. It’s like I didn’t say I know how to do it. So, OK, so I know our students are going to be super interested in this part. You crossed over, right? You graduated, you got your doctoral degree, and then you went to the other side, you started batting for the other team, you became a dissertation chair yourself. What was that experience like? What made you decide to do that? And tell us what you’ve learned from from from being on the other side of the of the fence, so to speak?
Dr. Janice Weaver [00:37:29]
Well, I didn’t want the students to go through what I went through, to be honest. And I love teaching. I love guiding students. I love listening. And and what I the term that I picked up from my dissertation was validation. To validate people that they need that because I was on the opposite of invalid invalidation. Right. So I really wanted to to go back and be the type of chair that I didn’t have for the majority of my time. And I wanted to be like the woman who helped me get through. And so when I was given a learn doctoral learners, they said, you know, we’ve heard horror stories about chairs. And I said, well, I said, we’re in a partnership here, you know? And I said, you know, you put in the work, you know, and I’m here. I’m here for you. And I said, we’re going to communicate through Zoom because I felt I felt that was greatly lacking, that they because that was that’s the only social connection there was that I needed. Because, like I said, I’m a social person. Right. And I’m and I needed to see the person. We can’t talk to them here. They’re terrible situation like this.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:39:04]
You have to you have to have some way of interacting.
Dr. Janice Weaver [00:39:08]
Yeah. I mean, email and texting discussion forum just started up very different. And so when I heard that, I mean, it was like a great burden came off of them because they had heard stories like mine. And so I said, no, I said, this is I am with you and I’m going to do all that I can to help you through this process and not add to it, you know.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:39:39]
So now that you are on that other side, now that you’re a dissertation chair, what are some of the mistakes that you see students making that you may or may not have made yourself, but that you can see very clearly now from this perspective as opposed to being the student on the other side?
Dr. Janice Weaver [00:39:56]
Well, what I’m seeing is that some of them don’t realize that a dissertation is not the same as a master’s thesis, a dissertation involves a tremendous amount of reading. And the word they don’t like to hear is synthesizing, they don’t like that, I mean, it’s difficult and so and they don’t know how to search databases. And so getting that there’s a specific outline for a dissertation, they give you that in a template and a lot and some of them, a few of them don’t understand what is necessary. And so I can’t read the beginning. That’s yeah. Until I have something I have to do. So there that are there in the beginning, they’ve had, of course, before me where they should have known what was expected in the sections, you know, but some are struggling with understanding when I hear the word original research. Right. Go that way out of proportion. And and I explained to them it has to do with the gap in the literature. And I have to explain about what that means. And some of them just are having problems with the articles because they are very difficult to read some of them as this journal articles. And some of them come into it thinking, well, I’m going to tell them I’m passionate about my topic and I’m going to tell my I’m a tell the story. Well, a dissertation is not a story.
