Results will be presented from a phenomenological study that analyzed the narratives of online female doctoral candidates to uncover the influence of family in their persistence. Implications will be presented. Administrators and faculty will learn about policies and supports needed for online doctoral programs to promote female persistence. Scholars will gain future research ideas.
There has been exponential growth in online doctoral programs and second generation EdD and other practitioner focused programs, which have removed obstacles that once kept many women from pursing doctoral degrees. The convenience and flexibility of these programs have allowed women to not uproot their families and to remain in their profession while pursuing their doctorate. In fact, women represent approximately 60% of the EdD population (National Science Foundation, 2009). Unfortunately, this population experience attrition problems, which is estimated to be 10 to 15% higher than the traditional doctoral attrition problem of 50%.
While a myriad of factors, both personal and environmental (Tinto, 1993), attribute to low degree completion rates, online doctoral students’ development from students to scholars, whereby they begin to develop a research agenda and cultivate academic, collegial relationships, is influential in their likelihood to succeed (Gardner, 2008). Unfortunately, women who pursue doctoral degrees often experience difficulty in the academic identity development process as they seek to intersect this newly developed identity with other salient identities, namely their female identity. Personal values and beliefs about what it means to be a female (e.g., wife, mother) often appear irreconcilable with beliefs about what it means to be a successful student and scholar (Rockinson-Szapkiw & Spaulding, 2015). Apparent incompatible identities and the tensions often leads to attrition (Haynes et al., 2012). Alternatively, women who successfully develop as scholars and in turn intersect their identities, persist in their online doctoral programs (Rockinson- Szapkiw, et al., 2016).
Within identity development research, many have explored the association and intersection among multiple identities (gender, academic, race, sexual, etc.), suggesting that external factors play a significant role in the negotiation and intersection of identities. In their multidimensional model of identity and its expansions, Jones and McEwen (2000) demonstrated the importance of understanding the relationships among one’s multiple identities and the contextual factors that influence them. They purported that numerous contextual factors including background experiences, socio-cultural conditions and norms, and family, both family of origin and the current family system, can influence the development and growth of identities, and ultimately, their successful intersection (Jones & McEwen, 2000). While the influence of one's family on adolescent identity development has been examined, the role of the family in relationship to the understanding, growth, intersection, as well as conflict, of the female identity in association with other identities, including academic identity, during the pursuit of and persistence in a doctoral program in general, and online, has remained relatively unexamined (Rockinson- Szapkiw, et al., 2016), and, these presenters conducted a study focusing on this. Understanding the role of family in the identity development and intersection from the perspective of female candidates enrolled in online practitioner focused doctoral programs can illuminate what supports or impedes their persistence. This understanding can in turn assist female doctoral students in persisting in their program and doctoral faculty and administrators in developing program supports and policies.
Thus, this presentation will provide an overview of the literature on online doctoral attrition and academic identity development, namely for women. Results of a qualitative phenomenological inquiry that investigated how family of origin and current family systems shape identity and influence online female doctoral persistence (N=9) will also be described. Data were collected through online questionnaires, life maps, and interviews. Findings suggested that in addition to current familial support and adaption, choosing to continue or discontinue family of origin patterns was significant to a female’s identity development. Individuation and differentiation from the family of origin and current family was essential, marked by excitement and personal fulfillment, but also wrought with self-sacrifice and hurt. However, the primary aim and purpose of this presentation will be to discuss empirical and practical implications for faculty, administrators, students, and researchers who are involved in online doctoral programs. Implications related to spousal support, familial integration, sacrifices from spouses and children, and female doctoral candidates sacrifice to intersect their academic identity with other identities will be discussed among other topics, special attention will be paid to the unique elements of the online environment that make family central to persistence. More specifically, the integration of policies and supports into online doctoral programs to promote family integration and support to enhance female persistence will be discussed.