Lane Trotter
Vancouver Cohort, 2006
Lane Trotter is the Senior Vice President Academic at Fanshawe College in London, Ontario which serves over 15,000 full time and 25,000 part time learners. As Senior Vice President Academic he is responsible for providing the educational leadership, vision and direction to one of Ontario's largest colleges. Lane says that the Educational Leadership Doctoral Program at SFU prepared him to make the transition from the position of Dean of the School of Transportation at BCIT by engaging in critical reflection on his professional practice and to shift from an operational leadership perspective to a more senior functional strategic leadership perspective.
Lane enrolled in the EdD program as part of the Post Secondary Leadership cohort based out of the Harbour Centre in Vancouver Downtown in 2006. He is now a doctoral candidate after completing his course work and comprehensive exams in the summer of 2008. Lane is undertaking field research for his dissertation. His research builds on his previous work as a graduate (Masters) student at the University of Victoria in the area of "Higher Education Governance and Accountability".
Lane was mostly drawn to the EdD because he felt that this was a practitioner based program for working professionals in the education field. "The program is designed to improve the professional practice of both the individual and the education community," comments Lane. To him, the strength of the program is that it blends the examination of practice with research that critically examines existing and emerging issues within higher education.
In addition, Lane finds that the cohort model provides a practical support structure for the students as they enter back into the field to till the soil of academic exploration. He appreciates the fact that the professors and instructors in the program continuously encourage and challenge students' philosophical assumptions, he adds, "while the peer structure allows for discussions to be embedded in relevant and current practitioner challenges".