Felsher, Rivka A.

The call for higher education reform in the U.S. intensifies as the gap between the haves and have-nots
widens. Policy actors from across the political spectrum advocate for various policy solutions creating a
policy environment that is complex and often contentious. In such environments, policy entrepreneurs—
those individuals who advocate for policy innovation from within and without government—try to break
through the barriers of incremental politics to create reform. As important as this role is in structuring
higher education policy, it has not yet been explored. This study fills a gap in the extant literature by
cataloging the traits, values, motivation, skills, and strategies that enable higher education policy
entrepreneurs at state and national levels to accomplish sustainable and innovative higher education
reform. This study employed a descriptive, revelatory, singlecase study research design interpreted
from the postpositivist paradigm. Data drawn from interviews with 23 policy entrepreneurs from across
the U.S. were triangulated with document reviews and a multi-level coding strategy. Data were then
juxtaposed against nine propositions extracted from the extant literature to derive the findings. Policy
entrepreneurs in this study are creative political leaders with a passion for improving educational
opportunity. They are pragmatic, resourceful, perseverant, strategic, and influential actors who don’t
work in isolation; rather, they are network dependent and value collaboration, compromise, and
listening. They reach across the aisle, work hard to build credibility and trust, recognize windows of
opportunity, create opportunities to advocate for policy innovation, take calculated risks, and make
sacrifices for their cause.

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.

As the gap between the haves and have-nots widens, the call for reform in higher education in the United States intensifies. Policy actors, philanthropists, and academics from across the political spectrum work on various policy solutions, creating a policy environment that is complex and often contentious. Incrementalists claim that major policy reform is unlikely since unknown variables and inexplicable events can stall or dismantle policy initiatives. In such environments, policy entrepreneurs—those individuals who advocate for policy innovation, work for change, and help shape policy solutions from within and without government—try to break through the barriers of incremental politics. As important as this role is to the influencing and structuring of higher educational policy, it has not yet been explored. This study fills this gap in the extant literature by cataloging the characteristics and skills that enable higher education policy entrepreneurs at the state and national levels to persevere and accomplish sustainable and innovative higher education reforms over time.