PhD Sage's Page

One of the quotes from the Fielding Summer Session that has lingered in my thoughts comes from one of the retiring faculty, Dr. Barnett Pearce. Dr. Pearce is a long time distinguished Fielding professor and an authority in the area of communication and meaning. At the risk of misquoting Dr. Pearce, I will paraphrase his words based upon my memory of the moment.

While addressing the Fielding community, Dr. Pearce said that he no longer wished to be associated with those who "constructed him" in… Continue

I am back from attending the Fielding summer session in warm and humid Kansas City. The session was filled with many great seminars that were in varioius parts inspiring, educational, and humbling. One of the most powerful experiences was in attending the graduation ceremony for those students who had completed their PhD journey.

I have attended graduations at various levels from pre-school to elementary school to high school to undergraduate and even graduate program ceremonies. The Fielding c… Continue

Today is Father's Day. At the most basic level level of biology and genetics, were it not for my dad I would not be writing this note. At a deeper level, my dad is responsible for my desire to enter the PhD program.

I grew up in a house filled with books. My dad loves books and bookstores and owns the equivalent of a small town library that fills several rooms of his house. You need only open a book to see the hand written notes and underlined passages to know that he has indeed read most of th… Continue

This week I got into a heated discussion with my boss at work over his use of the word "proactive". I even offered to get him a dictionary when he mentioned that I might be the one who had an alternate meaning of the word.

After three months in the PhD program I have found myself being more attentive to the use of words and language. Strangely, I find that people often use words to mean the opposite of their intended meaning as if calling something "proactive" or "innovative" or "creative" or "… Continue

Somewhere along the doctoral journey is a milestone called "portfolio review'. With the thought that one of the important aspects of a portfolio review is having a portfolio to review I've set up yet another wordpress blog to post the papers that I write as part of each knowledge area.

The hope is that it will be easier to review the evolution of my doctoral skills and inquiry topics if i can refer back to the chronology of my work from these initial KAs. It is a form of scholarly journal or sc… Continue