Understanding the Lived Experiences of Practitioner Scholars: Exploring Doctoral Education in Action

• In Event: Student Experiences in Graduate and Postdoctoral Education

Abstract

This study explored the work of the practitioner scholar as a member of multiple worlds (university and K-12 schools; theory and practice; researcher and practitioner) as they live out their daily work within a K-12 school. Third space theory was used as a conceptual lens to analyze the lived experience of two practitioner scholars as they put theory and research from the university into practice. The findings suggest that the participants in this study were able to use theory, research, and learning from the university as an integral part of their work in schools and present the opportunity to embrace new understandings of the ways educators take action within a new space that is neither solely theory nor practice bound.

Authors

• Angela Hooser, University of South Florida

• Nancy Fichtman Dana, University of Florida