Yesterday, I finally got the courage to email the scholar who wrote the most amazing dissertation (in my opinion). I guess its amazing because he is one of the few scholars who have written their dissertation on the perceptions of proprietary schools as it relates to hiring practices. When I first found it over a year ago I was ecstatic! Much of what he (aka Dr. Bolton) had done was exactly what I wanted to propose for my dissertation. Needless to say, I had a heck of a time tracking him down. Late in the fall of 2012 I went out on a hunt to locate him. With the help of online search engines I ran into dead ends. Then something told me to contact his university, The University of Southern California Rossier College of Education. It was there I found his committee chair and sent him an email. Did you know that he took it upon himself to send out feelers within his department to help me find Dr. Bolton! I must say that academia sure has its perks. Even as I talk to my colleagues in our Facebook group for ABD (all but dissertation) scholars, I have witnessed that they have experienced the same thing when contacting authors of theoretical frameworks about their work. It is truly amazing! But I digress.
It took only about 36 hours to track him down and it was all done without a private investigator. I reached out to him over the holidays and indicated that I wanted to speak to him about his work. Needless to say, that nearly 2 and a half months had passed before I was at a place to reach out to him. You see, I have been hung up writing, revising, editing and cutting chapter 1 of my dissertation. I just got to a place where I am working on my methods section (chapter 3) where I can talk to him about my survey and interview protocol that I hope to use. So yesterday I emailed him my purpose statement, research questions and the adapted survey and interview protocols that I adapted from his study for him to review. Get this, he wrote me back late last night and you would have thought that I had won the lottery! Yes, I’m a scholar groupie! I love smart, educated people who have something to say. Nonetheless, he was pleased that I wanted to cite him in my study. He also offered some pearls of wisdom which I plan to implement immediately into my study.
Dr. Bolton wanted me to take heed to the limitations that he experienced in collecting his data. I am so glad he did that. I am doing my study on for-profit higher education and Dr. Bolton was curious to know if I would experience some of the same issues that he did. His study was in 2010 and his research participants really didn’t know a lot proprietary schools. His suggestion was that I look to screen them a little more on that issue and try to provide more education about proprietary schools before identifying who will be selected for the follow-up interview. So this weekend I am going to revise my documents and try to finish up chapter 3.
Takeaway: So for anyone who is inspired by someone’s work, don’t be afraid to let them know. It is humbling and gratifying to know that something you have said or done made a difference in someone’s life. Reach out to them and ask questions or ask for help if you need it. You never know how the person on the other end will respond. Take a chance.
Good luck!
The Kole Chronicles 