A Feminist Postmodern Study of Women in an Online Doctoral Degree Program: A Heuristic Inquiry.

摘要

So I am studying a world of which I myself am part, with all the emotional involvement and accusations of subjectivity that this creates. I do not attempt to keep my surveyors at arm's length and do study "on" them as my subjects whilst maintaining a dominant position, as is common in much traditional "objective" study.| Greed, 1990, p.14 This study focused on women and their pursuit of an online doctoral degree; their challenges; their dreams; their stories. More specifically, these studies explored how seven women and I have juggled and continue to juggle multiple roles throughout various stages of our doctoral degree journey. "It is reliably estimated that over half the several million learners who make up the world's distance education population are women" (Burge and Lenskyj, 1990, p. 23). Home (1998) has conjectured that distance education is a practical option for adult female students trying to balance multiple roles and demands in their personal lives. Utilizing a qualitative study methodology in a feminist framework, this study undertook to examine the online learning experiences for female doctoral graduate students. This study was framed through heuristic inquiry, to uncover the meaning and essence of the phenomenon being studied: namely the fundamental nature of female graduate students' experiences pursuing a doctoral degree in education in an online learning environment and how they are balancing work, family and education---the 'third shift'. This study is about women and their experiences to complete their doctorate degree in an online environment.