Science teacher Kristen Riggs started teaching at Archer this year. She received her Doctorate of Education in Educational Leadership on Thursday, May 8. Her dissertation focused on Southern California teachers’ perceptions of artificial intelligence.
Riggs began her teaching career after college, holding a degree in zoology. She has been teaching for 10 years, including eight years at Crespi Carmelite before joining Archer.
The Oracle sat down with Riggs to discuss her journey toward earning her Ed.D. and how she balanced the responsibilities of teaching and conducting research.
What is your Ed. D. in, and why did you decide to get it?
Kristen Riggs [KR]: [My Ed. D. is] in educational leadership, and my dissertation was specifically focusing on Southern California teachers’ perceptions of artificial intelligence, and which factors could be influencing those [perceptions]. I got my master’s degree from San Diego State right after the pandemic, and the thesis was looking at how distance learning impacted whether or not teachers wanted to use more technology. I found that a lot of teachers — because the tech jumped up so quickly with distance learning — when they went back after distance learning, they went the other direction, where they were like, ‘I’m done with technology, we’re going back to pen and paper.’ So when I started my doctorate at USC, I was going into it with that lens, focusing on educational technology. I was also the innovation coordinator and head of educational Technology at my old school. I saw how much as AI started jumping up in 2022 and wanted to do a deeper dive into if this is going to exacerbate what I was already seeing.
What has been your favorite part of either getting your Ed. D. or the process leading up to it?
[KR]: I have a science background, and I love doing research, so I developed three research questions and was looking at a social cognitive theory, talking about different social, behavioral, cognitive factors that influence adult learners and whether or not they’re willing to do something. One of my findings actually went completely against what all of the current self-efficacy theories are. As a scientist, it’s really exciting to do research and find something that’s an anomaly, because it just gives me more and more questions. It opens up more doors for what I could study in the future and where I could go from there and what I could look at. So just the research aspect of it, analyzing the data, and being able to dive into those findings and think about implications for practice, moving forward for teachers, and how we can best support teachers was what I was really excited about.
What has been a challenge in the process and how did you overcome it?
[KR]: Time management, for sure. Working full time while doing this was absolutely a challenge, and I will definitely say — knowing myself and my own personality — I am not the most structured person all the time. So finding the motivation — for example, if it’s Saturday and it’s beautiful outside I need to remind myself to sit down and write. It has been hard, and then starting a new job right in the heart of the dissertation writing was a huge challenge. But Archer has been really supportive, which was helpful in the transition because it definitely could have gone the other way, and it would have been really detrimental to my work.
How did you balance your teaching responsibilities and getting your Ed. D.?
[KR]: I wake up really early and I have set times where I would always write, and then from 8 a.m to 3 p.m. I tried to turn off thinking about my dissertation up until the last couple of weeks so I could just focus on work. I try to never leave work with more stuff that I need to do at home so I can switch my mindset. Once I get home, I know that I’m not doing teacher stuff, I’m doing student stuff instead. Having the separation of the actual locations was helpful for me. I also found that I am terrible at working in my apartment by myself, so there’s something called body doubling, where just having someone next to you, even if it’s online, can be helpful, especially for ADHD brains, which I have.
What advice would you give students who are interested in pursuing science beyond high school?
[KR]: I think that you should throw out any conceptions you have whether you’re a good scientist or not, because I really, really, really struggled in high school and even in my undergrad. I really never would have thought when I was 16 that I could have gotten here. It’s taken a lot of self- reflection, and I’ve realized that I am so much more resilient and stronger than I thought that I could have been when I was 16. Any idea that there are only some good scientists — that’s out the door; anyone can be a good scientist. No matter if you don’t love one science class in high school, it doesn’t mean that you’re not going to find something you’re super passionate about in the future and want to research that.
