Who would have thought that a little girl from a village in Zimbabwe would end up being called a doctor? The journey has been filled with highs and lows, but it's absolutely been worth it. I’ve lived in the UK since 2004, and over the past 21 years, I’ve worked and been involved in education. Education is my passion, mainly because it saved me — it transformed me from a depressed child into someone striving academically — that’s a blog in itself!
My journey through university to complete my EdD has not been easy, but there were more good moments than bad. I chose to write about the experiences of Black graduates because I faced some racism and discrimination during my undergraduate degree. However, most of my experiences were very positive. I’ve learned a lot from my undergrad, master's, and PGCE journeys to reach this point. As a result, I’ve had many opportunities to experience higher education in North-West England.
Finishing the EdD brought its own challenges, such as COVID-19, which occurred right when I was starting my proposal process. This caused many delays and left me feeling demotivated throughout. There were times I didn’t look at my work for weeks, and I had to find ways to pull myself out of those ruts repeatedly to keep going. What kept me going was the fact that I wanted it more, to prove to myself that all I had gone through and the journey that has brought me here has not been wasted. I had sacrificed a great deal to the stage where I was able to write and complete my thesis. There were times when I doubted myself and I had impostor syndrome, but I had to pull myself out. My supervisors helped, and some videos from other professors were also helpful.
After completing the viva voce, challenges arose with making corrections, as one of my examiners was unwell, so I had to switch to another examiner, who brought their own corrections to address. Receiving the email that my thesis had been accepted was such an emotional moment that I had to read it several times before I could believe it was real. My supervisor, Deb, was there for me to call and discuss things. I don’t know what I would have done without her. She also invited me to speak to her master’s students at the university, which was such a highlight of this journey.
Last year, in January 2024, I was invited to a conference organised by the Institute for Educational and Social Equity (now a University Centre), where I met Sir Paul Grice, Vice Chancellor of Queen Margaret University, Scotland. He agreed to read my thesis; to learn from my research and experiences, and so I am now in the process of sending it to him, to see what Executive Teams in HEIs can learn from both my research and my lived experiences.
My eventual goal is to establish myself back in Zimbabwe and give back educationally to the community that shaped who I am today, but I hope to influence change here from my work before then… watch this space, and the publications that I now need to work on to come from it!
