622 The Professional Counselor | Volume 10, Issue 4 and process prior to delving into the transcripts. The coding team regularly challenged each other (i.e., suggested that a team member stop and reevaluate their position as it seemed more personal than based on the data) regarding these potential biases throughout the process. The researchers identified a priori codes that included: (a) participants will be of the dominant culture; (b) how voices are centered would impact the data and results (hearing from the faculty member versus hearing from the student); (c) communication between student and chair, as well as student and committee, being important; (d) lack of awareness of race and gender influences on the dissertation advising process; (e) belief that the influence of the full identities of the doctoral candidate on their dissertation experience would not be captured in the data; (f) type of university (i.e., traditional, hybrid, online) impacts advising process; and (g) the doctoral student’s timeline does not align with the chairperson’s expectations of what the student needs (can impede the student getting to the end of the process successfully). Reconciling the a priori codes required coding team members to be open and honest regarding how their own experiences and perceptions have impacted their lens as educators and researchers. All researchers agreed to engage in these discussions during each meeting to ensure proper bracketing and to reduce the potential for bias negatively impacting the coding and analysis process. Results Five themes were identified based on the analysis of interviews with the 15 counselor educators who have served as dissertation chairpersons. The first and second authors collapsed 11 broader categories into the five emerging themes. The themes identified demonstrated some impact on a successful dissertation process: (a) mechanics of the program, (b) selecting and working with committee members, (c) intentionality in developing a scholar identity, (d) supportive environment, and (e) accountability. Each of these themes will be expounded upon below. Mechanics of the Program The mechanics of the program theme referred to program structures put in place that allowed students to move through the dissertation process. These program structures addressed the curriculum sequence and timelines. Faculty acknowledged that successfully navigating the dissertation process required a structured process on the program’s part. A participant commented that, in their experience, having an unstructured program usually led to “more ABDs than if it is structured.” Such a structured process started with “getting to know faculty members in terms of their research interests and identities and processes.” As students developed this knowledge, they were able to see examples of different faculty research identities within counselor education, while also learning which professor might be a good fit as the chairperson for their dissertation committee. From there, programs put curriculum sequences in place that allow students to begin thinking about the dissertation process from the start of their doctoral journey. According to multiple chairpersons, doctoral students in their programs had at least one class in which they wrote research papers or miniature dissertation proposals that could be a starting point for their actual dissertation proposal. Creating this structure in the program, they believed, also supported students in developing a scholar identity, a theme that will be addressed in more detail later in this article. As one participant shared, “Students would essentially write a mini version of their dissertation proposal with lots of feedback and guidance from the course instructor and lots of check-ins with their major professor.” The class and check-ins became accountability measurements for the students, and these were established by the program as formalities rather than steps the students had to implement on their own.
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