| This study explores the experiences of ten female doctoral students as researchers in the field of education and seeks to understand the construction of their research practice in relation to transformational encounters, feminist consciousness, and activist involvement. Using a feminist approach, by putting females' experiences at the center of the research, this study reviewed the history of women's education from colonial period to present day in the United States as well as issues surrounding women in higher education. Self-study, observation, face-to-face individual interview, e-mail interview, focus group, and researcher journals were used as methods of data generation.; Feminist theories, transformational learning theory, and critical activism provided the framework for this study. Participant descriptions functioned as a way to heighten this feminist, qualitative research through "found poetry" from interview data and portraiture writing. Detailed information on the study context and portraiture description of the ten participants were presented as an expression of creative qualitative research writing.; Interview data revealed that qualitative research methodology is recognized as a powerful research tool for most participants and, for some, becomes the turning point in affirming their pursuit of a doctoral degree and completing a fulfilling research experience. The study revealed the complexity of being a woman in academe, as female doctoral students felt traditional role performance as mother, wife, daughter, sister, or grandmother were equally important. At times, these traditional family roles were even more intense and overlapping than their identities as teacher, facilitator, professional person, learner, business owner, or feminist.; In addition, the study suggests that research courses in colleges of education should be taken during the early stage of a doctoral program in order for students to establish a solid theoretical foundation of educational research. It also shows the importance of broadening programs to include courses such as critical theory, feminism, and emancipatory approaches.; The more conscious female doctoral students are of researcher identity and feminist understanding, the stronger their motivation, both internal and external, is to approach a constructive knowing of their research and to complete a satisfying research project. As a result of discovering this researcher identity through qualitative methods and critical feminist approaches, the participants were more conscious about their research potential and hopeful about their future active involvement in the academic environment as well as their immediate local community. |
