Swimming Upstream: Summary of Findings from The Writing Hour Micro-autoethnography

This qualitative, micro-autoethnographic study explored the perceptions of four female doctoral
students at FAU that made up the founding and consistent membership of a self-created, self-directed,
and self-sustaining blendedlearning cohort focused on doctoral dissertation completion. The
participants also served as co-researchers of this study that investigated their motivation to persist
through their doctoral programs in educational leadership with a focus on the dissertation phase. This
study utilized group and individual interviews, spontaneous drawing, document review, and the SDLRS
instrument to collect and analyze data on the group’s formation, development, challenges, culture,
sustaining factors, and outcomes. Findings show that while this group of doctoral students faced
substantial challenges and distractions, their self-created cohort evolved through the stages of group
development into a viable and supportive community of practice based on their learner motivation
orientations achievement and affiliation, personal strengths, and strategies that included dependence
on technology; meeting structure, time management techniques, rules, sharing, critiquing,
accountability, artificial deadlines, and emotional support. This study fills a major void in the literature.
While research exists that examine doctoral cohorts, graduate student retention factors, and graduate
student peer mentoring, literature is sparse regarding the outcomes of self-created and self-sustaining
graduate student cohorts. Given the high rate of attrition among doctoral students across disciplines in
the U.S., the implications of this study include improvement of graduate student advising, suggestions
for supportive restructuring of graduate study programs toward increased retention, and the creation of
an empowering model for student cohort formation to be validated through further research.