I reached a point of calm desperation during the week when I handed in my last assignment for this course in Educational Leadership that I’ve been taking since September. The extent of the toil was not beyond the reach of human endeavour but doing it on a part-time basis brought its challenges. Suffice to say that it has massively re-sparked my practice (as in teaching) but I’m treading a trepidatious path towards embarking on the path to a PhD or what is the next logical step in my studies. I just don’t know what to do next.
You see, I like studying, I like researching. I always did but it took me a long time to knuckle down and allow myself the scope and space to fully engage. I get a buzz out of reading up on something (the lit review part), finding out what others have discovered and pitching them against each other. Then you get to do your own research and find out what is happening out there in practice, bringing the lessons learned to bear on your own practice and off you go again. You read, reflect, relate, research; read, reflect, relate, research and on it goes. Your practice, as such, improves and so the students you are teaching benefit and learn better than before. So, a PhD is not the end of the journey—it’s a circular route to knowledge, to depth of understanding, to improvement.
But why would anyone want to do a PhD? It reeks of pretentiousness, more letters after your name, the requirement that people now address you as doctor (lol:). But it’s the obvious next step right? Or I could do another masters or simply just read on and write and leave it at that? What’s stopping me? Aside from the financial and temporal implications, I’m just not sure what I want to do next.
I teach, I write, I read, I study. I’m interested in teaching, leadership, mentoring and coaching, literacy; language: the Irish language, the French language; words, (I took a course in proofreading but work and other study took precedence and I didn’t see it out); short stories, novels, poetry; not to mention the world outside my window and the tandem blackbirds in my back garden beaking around in the cherry blossoms the rain drenched and sank to the grass.
Just at that I’ve reached a conclusion: everything is equal after a walk. I’ll head out and let the universe decide.
TÓL
tea and a peach 