Cana Fuest, PhD Candidate

I haven’t written much about my PhD journey. I have been in a PhD program for four years now (sometimes it feels like it will never end!) I am getting closer to the point where I will conduct my research and report the results. Having gotten this far, I am feeling reflective about the process. Interestingly, teachers want their students to focus on the process, not just the result. However, it is too easy to forget to do this in other areas of life. We often rush to the result and neglect the meaningful experience of moving through the process.

Lately, I’ve been trying to notice the process more intentionally, such as the slow progress, the false starts, and the small breakthroughs that only come after frustration. This stage of doctoral work has reminded me that growth often happens beneath the surface, in ways we don’t recognize until much later. It’s uncomfortable, but it’s also the space where deeper understanding takes root.

That realization has influenced how I think about teaching and learning. As educators, we often talk about helping students develop a “growth mindset,” yet we can be impatient with our own learning. We design courses around outcomes and assessments, but we sometimes forget that genuine learning is messy and iterative. It takes time for new ideas to connect and for confidence to catch up to understanding.

In my work with faculty, I’ve noticed that the same principle applies to teaching. When we experiment with new approaches, we are also engaging in a process of discovery. It can feel uncertain at first, but those moments of experimentation are what keep teaching alive. They remind us that learning is not a linear path toward mastery but a continual process of refinement and reflection.

As I move closer to completing this long academic journey, I’m realizing that the value isn’t just in the finished dissertation. It’s in what the process has taught me about patience, curiosity, and the kind of learning that changes how we see the world. Teaching, in that sense, is never finished either. It’s a practice of staying open to being changed by what we learn along the way.