Interpersonal Hardiness: A critical contributing factor to persistence among International women in doctoral programs. A Trioethnographic Study
Location
1048
Format Type
Event
Format Type
Paper
Start Date
January 2019
End Date
January 2019
Abstract
Women in PhD Programs, in particular, minority and international women are especially at risk for drop-out (Castro et al, 2011; Haynes et al, 2013). This initial part of a longitudinal trioethnography captures the experiences of three international women in a doctoral program, highlighting the challenges, support systems and coping mechanisms they engage in the process. Discoveries include the identification of ‘Inter-personal Hardiness’ as the potential vehicle which could ensure our success.
Keywords
Trioethnography, International Students, Minority Students, Inter-personal Hardiness
Interpersonal Hardiness: A critical contributing factor to persistence among International women in doctoral programs. A Trioethnographic Study
1048
Women in PhD Programs, in particular, minority and international women are especially at risk for drop-out (Castro et al, 2011; Haynes et al, 2013). This initial part of a longitudinal trioethnography captures the experiences of three international women in a doctoral program, highlighting the challenges, support systems and coping mechanisms they engage in the process. Discoveries include the identification of ‘Inter-personal Hardiness’ as the potential vehicle which could ensure our success.
Comments
Recent studies report that challenges associated with work life balance among international students in graduate school are more pronounced (Brus, 2006; Colomer, Olivero & Bell, 2015; Haynes, et al. 2013; Oswalt & Riddock, 2007) than for domestic students. Moreover, even though more women are enrolling in U.S. doctoral programs, they, especially ethnic minorities, are less likely to obtain a doctoral degree (Castro, Garcia, Cavazos & Castro, 2011). Gardner (2008) cites a lack of diversity in graduate education as a growing concern in the USA, this has given birth to a number of recruitment and retention programs for women and students of color. Despite these initiatives there remain various challenges to the success of women in doctoral programs of study. Nonetheless, current studies show that persistence issues related to completion of doctoral programs, especially for minority women with children, still lingers (Castro, et al., 2011; Colomer, et al., 2015). Tinto (1993) suggested that strategies for improving degree completion rates and for predicting doctoral persistence must “emerge from an understanding of the graduate experience as it is understood by doctoral students themselves” using qualitative methods. Therefore, this study was to ascertain the lived experiences of three international, women of color persisting in a doctoral program in the USA.
The objective of the study was to document and share our intra- and ‘Inter-personal Hardiness’ discovery through dialogue to identify challenges, support systems and motivators that we have individually and collectively experienced. The rationale is to share with readers our early experiences of the efficacy of ‘Inter-personal Hardiness’ and how far it carried us in pursuing our program so that other students who are facing similar issues could learn from our experiences. The question that guided the study was: To what extent (if any) can ‘Inter-personal Hardiness’ contribute to persistence of international women of color in doctoral programs at a USA based institution? Even though we are yet to complete our programs, we are realizing benefits from our experience, hence, we decided to share our initial story with others.
Trioethnography was the method adopted for this study. In this type of research, researchers collectively examine an aspect of their lives and this approach enabled us to share our doctoral journey from our own perspective as researchers-cum-participants. Using a constructionist orientation, we co-constructed the data through discussions, explanations and exploration of our individual experiences to create understanding and meaning on the focused topic through our interactions (Roulston, 2010). We each had responsibility for one of three themes. The process and discoveries of our trioethnographic experience is presented in first-person narrative form by the three participants at different stages in the study to enable us to highlight each voice. We infused John McLeod’s (n.d.) poem titled “Awakening” into the narration because McLeod used the analogy of a painter to compare how we live our lives and we felt this was analogous to our doctoral journey.
We documented the journey as we faced each hurdle, supporting each other in this process. As we met, deliberated and finally composed this paper we were always mindful of ethical stances. Although the paper was about our lives it included reflections relating to others, and we gave due thought to personal disclosure. We also considered the privacy of our shared story (Norris & Sawyer, 2012). We were careful therefore, to protect the privacy of ‘others’ represented in our reflections and where applicable shared the purpose of the study and sought consent form those we mentioned in our study. The analysis of our conversations generated three major themes: challenges, support systems and coping strategies which we presented as motivation. Our results confirm that no one journeys through doctoral studies without stress but, it is more burdensome (if not unbearable) for international minority women with children (Gardner, 2008).
The results indicated that the stress on us has affected our families as well which compounds what we are already undergoing. Martinsuoa and Turkulainen (2011) in their study of doctoral students’ personal commitment, support and progress found that peer support has a positive effect on both course completion and research. Reflecting on our experiences we see evidence of the components of hardiness, commitment, challenge and control and believe that individually we are exercising personal hardiness, a psychological phenomenon that is part of one’s personality that allows one to succeed even when undergoing stressful situations (Kobasa, 1979; VandenBos, 2007), we have all benefited from peer support in one form or other outside of our research triad, furthermore, we have started to benefit from what we consider to be ‘interpersonal hardiness’. Psychologists define the term interpersonal as having to do with actions, events and feelings that exist between two or more persons, in other words, relationship between persons. Hardiness speaks to exercising resilience. In our context, studies suggest that as minority, international, married women, we are less likely to complete doctoral studies (Castro et al., 2011). Our separation from family, financial challenges, limited support, family and other responsibilities could be considered as adverse realities that we face, with each reality having the potential to cause significant stress which is further compounded when combined. We therefore coined the term ‘Inter-personal Hardiness’ to represent the resilience evident in our mutual associations and how we encourage and support each other to forge ahead irrespective of the challenges we are individually and collectively experiencing. Thus, resilience resulting from the relations between persons is our definition of ‘interpersonal hardiness’. Interpersonal Hardiness is therefore, our mechanism to combat adversities as we strive to successfully complete our course of study. Overtime, we have become our own support network in defiance of failure.
As our journey continues, we hope to see where our paths lead us over the next four years. As we continue to intersect and parallel each other on this doctorajourney that is fraught with high attrition rates (Colomer et al., 2015; Haynes et al., 2012; Martinez et al., 2013), we will hold to the view that personal and ‘Inter-personal Hardiness’ will indeed help us to finish and finish well.
References
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