Poppy Gibson and Suzie Dick (Paper co-authored by Rehana Shanks) The EdD And One Bedtime Story More! An Exploration Of The Third-space Inhabited By Mothers Working In Educational Leadership Whilst Studying For A Professional Doctorate Poppy Gibson and Suzie Dick (Paper co-authored by Rehana Shanks)

The Paper Brief history and context to the paper The authors Where it has come from Where this will hopefully go on to

The Title The EdD and One Bedtime Story More! An exploration of the Third-Space inhabited by mothers working in educational leadership whilst studying for a professional doctorate

Context And Settings We had a story to tell Three mothers, all had children during the EdD Three women who have only met in the virtual world Writing in the third space about the third space Research gap

A summary Through the writing of this paper we acknowledged our other identities, bringing them into the open The need for that space to be acknowledged by those whose main focus is another space About identity and the role taking part in an EdD may have in a flourishing life. Conclude by saying to all those universities out there running EdD programmes that we are stating our claim that we can live this life, not in spite of being mothers, but because we are and we dare.

Soja’s Third Space Theory (Your ‘Third Place’?) Soja’s Third Space Theory Soja (1998) suggests another way of thinking about the spaces we inhibit; the first space is a place where we behave in one way, such as when at home, and the second space is a different- possibly conflicting- place or spatial group, such as at school or work, where we may behave differently. ’Third spaces’ are the in-between, or hybrid, spaces, where the first and second spaces work together to generate a new third space.

Methodology Narrative approach Small sample size Semi-structured questions Qualitative data Thematic analysis: Emergence of themes

Narratives The impulse to story life events into order and meaning is a natural human ‘impulse to narrate’ (White, 1980: 5). Narrative is presented as the framework for this research project, with the style following that of descriptive narrative research (Polkinghorne, 1988). Narratives were constructed from the responses from three women and presented within the paper as lengthy, fluid pieces which allowed for honest revelations and insights into the participants’ experiences.

Going forward… So how we can use this knowledge in order to inform …

Challenges This Presents To The EdD Team, (In Relation To Lifelong Learning And Learner Needs).   ‘We are coming to believe that leaders are those people who “walk ahead”, people who are genuinely committed to deep change in themselves and their organisations. They lead through developing new skills, capabilities, and understandings’ (Senge, 1996: 3). Despite the three authors of this paper being very different, perhaps the one desire they all share is the intrinsic desire to continue to develop and change, despite the often discomfort (Leitch, 2006) and risk involved.

Implications For EdD Programmes Kolb defines experiential learning as ‘a process whereby knowledge is transformed through the transformation of experience’ (Kolb, 1984). A professional doctorate such as the EdD must allow for an active approach, where learners can construct meanings and interpretations relevant to their particular contexts, by reflecting on ideas in relation to their own experiences. The use of reflection as a vehicle for learning is particularly important for professionals, since much of their work is unpredictable and non-routine, so building up expertise is an ongoing process (Schon, 1983). The three honest narratives shared in this article highlight the importance of emotions in making challenging decisions, and how the ‘emotional work’ and ‘emotional labour’ (Ginsberg and Davies, 2007; Hochschild, 2012) can place great strain on individuals’ emotional resources and resilience. …Should EdD programmes build resilience training into their structure?

Implications For EdD Programmes The EdD offers us an escape to think and a space to explore new concepts. It helps to ground us into our realities by having something which is indeed a selfish pursuit. Lifelong learning development of doctoral programmes needs to reflect regularly on the individual motivations of the candidates to be more than career enhancing economics and be mindful that the main pursuit could be just to be a learner. For this to be a reality the programmes must allow creativity and flexibility to allow participants to flourish in their own environments as well as lead in schools. It is also important to recognize the importance of social digital networks to support learners; the value of human interaction and comradeship can never been undervalued. For professional doctorates to be successful they must be flexible enough to support individual learning journeys. Implications For EdD Programmes

Thank you Poppy Gibson: poppygibson@live.co.uk Suzie Dick: suziemdick@gmail.com