Research Proposals as Rites of Passage in Interview Research Method

In some respects becoming an academic is like joining a club. As in most other somewhat-exclusive clubs, there are those who are in and those who are out; there are elites and non-elites. There are privileges of membership, and there are penalties for not paying dues. To some extent, success in the club is a matter of merit; but that success is sometimes af­fected by issues of race, gender, and class that can influence entry into the club in the first place, or weight the power of those who have been admitted already.

Although pressures, strains, and contradictions affect those who work in collegiate institutions just as they do those who work in others, still, college faculty are paid for the pleasurable activities of reading, writing, teaching, and doing research. Relative to public school teachers, for ex­ample, we have a great deal of autonomy over our time and professional lives. Not all doctoral candidates in education move on to faculty posi­tions in colleges or universities. But those who use their doctorates to assume leadership positions in school systems often gain a degree of au­tonomy in their working lives that many would envy.

Those who have already earned the doctorate often act as gatekeep­ers to the club. During the rituals of proposal submission, review, and approval established by the gatekeepers, the power relationship between candidate and doctoral advisor is very unequal. (See Locke et al., 2000, chap. 2, for further discussion of dysfunctions that can occur between doctoral candidates and faculty mentors.) Elements of sexism, racism, classism, and institutional politics can enter the process. When that rela­tionship is inequitable, the rite of passage can be excessively anxiety pro­ducing. It takes a great deal of thoughtfulness on everyone’s part to make the relationship between doctoral candidate and committee equitable at the proposal stage.

Source: Seidman Irving (2006), Interviewing As Qualitative Research: A Guide for Researchers in Education And the Social Sciences, Teachers College Press; 3rd edition.