The Doctoral Journey and One's Unfinishedness

The following was shared with Ed.D. students at New Jersey City University during a hooding ceremony in 2021.

Good morning. How wonderful it is to see you here this morning. I am so excited to look out across the lawn and see so many of you in your regalia and think about what this ceremony represents: the culmination of your work as doctoral students. This is a point in your life where you have achieved a goal that few ever achieve. While approximately 21% of the U.S. population have master’s degrees, only two percent hold doctoral degrees. You are now among this exceptional demographic.

On days like today, I cannot help but think about my own journey as a doctoral student. I recall my experience with my comprehensive exams. I remember sitting in a conference room on the fourth floor of a former bank building on Courtland Avenue in Atlanta. It was the conference room for Georgia State University’s Department of Educational Policy Studies. I had many classes in that room, but for the next three days, I would sit alone in this space and write for a total of sixteen hours. I had spent nearly every waking minute that summer preparing for what would follow over the next three days. My advisor, Dr. Dorothy Huenecke, came into the room, and in trying to calm my nerves, she told me a lie. With a wide grin, she exclaimed, “You will never know more than you know right now.”

I understand why she said it. After all, I spent six hours that day writing two essays – first about Jurgen Habermas’ Theory of Communicative Action and then the history of American Education based upon the four social forces identified by Herb Kliebard. The next day I spent five hours justifying a revised epistemological syllogism based upon John Dewey’s theory of inquiry, and the final day I reconceptualized a framework for curriculum theorizing framed along both epistemological and axiological dimensions. So, yes, on that day in that conference room my head felt full of theories, quotes, points of justification, and essential citations.

Nevertheless, as one of John Dewey’s biggest fans, I could not help but feel unsettled by her remark. In his book Democracy and Education Dewey contends, “We have laid it down that the educative process is a continuous process of growth, having as its aim at every stage an added capacity of growth.” That point – education leading to greater capacity for growth – drove my work as a classroom teacher, a school administrator, and a doctoral advisor. In his book, Pedagogy of Freedom, the Brazilian educator, Paulo Friere reminds us that we are unfinished beings. He argues that it is our recognition of that unfinishedness that leads us to build capacity for more growth.

I have seen this not only in my own life and work, but also in the lives and work of my former doctoral students. I think about Dr. Matthew Robison, who as a doctoral student worked with LGBTQIA students to understand the degree to which they could find safe spaces across campus. He now creates those safe spaces for students at Gordan State University as its Vice President for Student Affairs. I think of Dr. Claire Miller, who as a student wanted to understand the challenges women faced when seeking positions as school superintendents. She has since helped many women become leaders in their districts and was just named the president of the Georgia Association of Educational Leaders where her impact will be felt across the state. I think about Dr. Dhanfu Elston, who as a doctoral student was passionate about the success of young black men in college. Now he is helping change national policies and supporting universities to retain and support first-generation and minority students across the country as the Chief of Staff and Senior Vice President of Strategy for Complete College America.

Each of these former students sat in that same conference room in Atlanta – in classes about policy, equity, and leadership. Each of them sat alone in that room to write their comprehensive exams, and each of them defended their dissertations and became “doctors” in that room. But at the point when the hoods were placed on their shoulders, they were (and continue to be) unfinished beings, and their impact as unfinished beings has been felt in ways they could never have imagined.

So, as you mark your incredible achievement and celebrate your exceptional distinction among the 2% in this country, I hope you will also celebrate your unfinishedness. Know that you will impact the lives of others in ways that you cannot fully imagine, and for the rest of your lives, recognize that in the midst of your unfinishedness, you continue to build capacity for even more growth.