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By Michael Childs
mchilds@coe.uga.edu
Educational-leadership professor Jo Blase often takes her work home with her. And twice a year she invites her doctoral students to come along.
 Blase holds two day-long seminars at her home--one in the fall and another in the spring--to advise and mentor students pursuing a doctorate in educational leadership.
Recognizing that the department’s doctoral students are often disconnected from UGA because they are part-time students working full-time jobs and living in towns stretched across the state, Blase created a “learning community” with 15 of the students she serves as major professor.
The day-long seminars, which Blase has held for the past six years, provide opportunities for her students to network with one another while examining individual and collective progress toward their doctorates. Students meet in both small and large groups.
The seminar sessions “are a great opportunity for me to hear from other folks . . . and to get inspired,” says student Angie Gant, an eight-year teaching veteran currently instructing fourth- and fifth-grade students in music at White County Elementary School in Cleveland.
Gant hopes to become a principal and work more closely with teachers, helping them grow professionally. Later, she wants to enter higher education so she can “work with graduate students promoting high standards for those charged with preparing future instructional leaders.
“Dr. Blase not only teaches instructional supervision, but also asks her students to look deep within themselves to discover ways of promoting self-discovery through reflection on one’s own practices,” she says. “This is the first step in learning how to help others improve their instructional practices.”
Students just beginning their program of studies meet in a small group to identify individual research and career interests, and the coursework that addresses those interests. For rookie doctoral students, this can be a helpful, and often, rewarding experience.
“Seminar sessions are comforting,” says Ellen Sabitini, a teacher at Alps Elementary School in Athens and another of Blase’s students. “Dr. Blase encourages her students to support one another. Each student gets the floor to celebrate accomplishments.”
In the seminar sessions, Blase models “unleading,” one of her major research interests, by engaging advanced doctoral students to share their work portfolios, including chronicles of coursework, artifacts from independent projects, and long-range plans.
By unleading, Blase creates an inclusive environment that empowers students through sharing their experiences with one another.
“By meeting regularly with fellow doctoral students, I have been able to build valuable professional and personal connections, as well as a strong support system. This, along with the mentoring and professional development opportunities offered to me by Dr. Blase, will make this a more natural transition,” says Sabitini, who also aspires to enter higher education.
Blase’s other students agree.
“It is so helpful to meet with others who have gone before us,” says student Misty Overman, a 14-year veteran educator and now an assistant principal at the Greater Atlanta Christian School.
“Dr. Blase challenges us to think, to be organized, to be realistic and to be systematic in our research,” says Overman. “I feel I have been challenged to go beyond what I originally thought I could do in my doctoral studies.”
Overman intends to share what she has learned from Blase by remaining in K–12 schools and “expanding my role to include more work in the realm of teacher supervision and staff development.”
During large-group activities, members of this learning community celebrate success--individually and collectively. On a large bulletin board, students chart where they are in their studies by checking off what they have accomplished since the last seminar (e.g., completion of qualifying exams, defending the prospectus, directed readings).
After completing formal course work, doctoral students face the challenge of qualifying exams and the development of the prospectus. Isolation occurs at this level as students are further disconnected from the university, but the seminars fill a void left by the absence of classes.
Ritual is also an important part of the learning community Blase and her students create. Ritual and celebration are blended when she “hoods” recent doctoral graduates in a ceremony complete with hood and gown.
Past graduates also attend the seminars and talk about their experiences since graduation. Blase says she views her work with students--past and present--as a long-term commitment that does not end with the awarding of the doctorate.
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