Fischler Professors and Alums Publish Book Chapter Together

A team of three professors and two doctoral alumni from the Fischler College of Education and School of Criminal Justice have published a new book chapter.

Gina Peyton, Ed.D.; David Ross, Ed.D.; and Vanaja Nethi, Ph.D.; and two doctoral graduates: Melissa Tara Sasso, Ed.D.; and Lucas A. DeWitt, Ed.D., recently published the chapter “Proven Best Practices in Guiding Non-traditional Dissertation Students to Degree Conferral in the United States.” It was published within the Palgrave and Macmillan book by editors Mulligan, Ryan, and Danaher, titled “Deconstructing Doctoral Discourses: Stories and Strategies for Success.”

Peyton said the theme of the book focuses on the different perspectives of many of those involved in the education process, including the students, advisers, and dissertation chairs. Furthermore, their chapter discusses methods of helping non-traditional doctoral students who are often professionals with full-time jobs and family commitments.

“They have all these other challenges that they’re faced with in terms of work life and family life, and aging parents, sick children or being ill themselves. Students have all these other obstacles that they’re dealing with, in addition to trying to complete an Ed.D. program. Our perspective is how do you work with this type of population? What do they need in terms of getting through the process successfully?”

One thing that Peyton said that helps these non-traditional students is having a strong support system.

“The literature supports that if you don’t have a good dissertation chair-student relationship, the success rate is not as high. Between all the resources that we offer, and then the individual attention that we offer our students, is why we have a pretty successful rate with our students who graduate.”

Peyton was also grateful that she and her colleagues were able to include the point of view of two recent doctoral graduates who previously went through the process. “Drs. Sasso and DeWitt wrote a lot about what they needed as well as provided the necessary steps to succeed, for example a solid support system and good time management skills.

According to Peyton, students, advisors, and dissertation chairs could all benefit from reading this book.

“It gives all of our experiences.”

Congratulations Peyton, Ross, Nethi, Sasso, and DeWitt! For more information on the book chapter, click here.