Staff in FE are commonly juggling other major demands alongside their college day job. That is a particular reality for anyone involved in research. So how do you juggle competing priorities and make sure you are able to give your research work the attention it needs without it taking too great a toll?
My first challenge to you is: Enjoy it.
If I was to judge the experience of studying for a Masters/EdD/PhD by what I read on social media, rather than my own experience, I’d think it was hard labour. Nobody seems to get any pleasure from it. This negative feed is only part of the conversation, but it’s very visible.
I got myself a companion species – a little bowerbird figurine. He had a number of theoretical functions during my PhD, but he came to be more than that. After the first couple of years, I never studied without him at my side. In any research, there’s always a metaphor to be crafted, crocheted or purchased from Etsy. Because the Bowerbird was connected to my ethics, he always reminded me of why I was there.
