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Ileya Grosman, Ph.D. is a 2024 graduate of the PHD Program in Leadership and Change at Antioch University.
Ileya Grosman at her Dissertation Defense.
From L-R: Dr. Harriet Schwartz. Committee Chair, Dr. Celeste Nazeli Snowber, Committee Member, Dr. Fayth Parks, Committee Member
Dissertation Committee
- Harriet Schwartz, PhD, Committee Chair
- Fayth Parks, PhD, Committee Member
- Celeste Nazeli Snowber, PhD, Committee Member
Keywords
relational teaching, mattering, embodied knowing, felt sense, connection, mutuality, leadership, undergraduate faculty, intersubjectivity, embodiment, relational cultural theory, mentoring, interpretative phenomenology analysis, photovoice
Document Type
Dissertation
Publication Date
2024
Abstract
In higher education, the focus on student success often takes center stage in research and the professor-as-teacher practice. While numerous empirical studies concentrate on the growth and development of undergraduate students, this dissertation delves into professors’ relational and felt experiences in positive teaching-learning relationships. Four terminal-degreed professors from four different schools and three different disciplines–education, humanities, and leadership–engaged in photography and were then interviewed. Participants reflected on their photographs and their experiences in a teaching-learning relationship with their students. The present study aimed to illuminate the unspoken language of connection by utilizing interpretive phenomenology and photovoice to uncover professors’ relational and felt experiences and how these moments energize and rejuvenate them. Research revealed two overarching themes: generativity and seeing students’ humanity; and five group experiential themes: foundational influences, relational proximity, intentional presence, assessment as a learning conversation, and feeling aligned. The theoretical foundation of this dissertation weaved together a diverse array of theories and concepts, including relational cultural theory (RCT), somatics, and embodiment. The insight from the literature combined with the findings from this study offer understanding in how professor-student relationships in higher education can be places of mutual empowerment, empathy, and mattering. By grounding the research framework in human interaction’s relational and fluid, alive, and pulsating bodies, this dissertation contributes to a more humanized and inclusive understanding of the intricate relationships that shape higher education. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA (https://aura.antioch.edu) and OhioLINK ETD Center (https://etd.ohiolink.edu).
Recommended Citation
Grosman, I. N. (2024). The Pulse of Connection: Professors' Experience of Positive Relationships with Students–An Interpretative Phenomenology and Photovoice Study. https://aura.antioch.edu/etds/1077
Included in
Adult and Continuing Education Commons, Art Education Commons, Contemplative Education Commons, Counseling Psychology Commons, Counselor Education Commons, Curriculum and Social Inquiry Commons, Educational Administration and Supervision Commons, Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons, Educational Leadership Commons, Educational Methods Commons, Educational Psychology Commons, Higher Education Commons, Leadership Studies Commons, Multicultural Psychology Commons, Social Work Commons
Comments
Ileya Grosman
ORCID: #0000-0001-5005-8436
On a quest to understand what connection feels like, Ileya N. Grosman has danced, stretched, and straddled the worlds of education and community engagement. With a special interest in mentoring, guiding, and teaching through a relational practice, she remains fascinated and energized by what it means to be connected, the growth that comes from connection, and what can happen when we allow ourselves to connect with others. Key elements like vulnerability, empathy, and listening to our embodied knowing serve as guiding principles in how we can create and recognize the interconnection between one another.
Her passion lies in bringing undergraduates to the intersection of leadership and social justice through multi-sensory teaching methods, dialogue, and discussions about how community action grows through our interconnectedness. She believes that what happens in the classroom and in mentoring sessions between professor and student is only one part of the process. Therefore, she also spends time fostering a culture of care within the education community by nurturing coalitions of diverse ideas and compassionate hearts. As she often says, “If we want to center the student, then we need to center the relationship.”
Ileya lives by a simple ethos: acknowledging how we engage with each other, how we show up in spaces, and how we influence one another creates the connective tissue needed to drive meaningful and lasting change.
She received her PhD from the Graduate School of Leadership and Change at Antioch University and her M.A. in Leadership and Change, her M.Ed. in Education – Special Populations from the University of St. Thomas, and her B.A. in Human Communications from the University of Denver. An artist at heart, she uses her camera and sketches to communicate and inspire others to express themselves through art, illuminating the vibrant connections within humanity.