Dr. Shirish Lala, EdD in Mind, Brain, & Teaching | Academic Clinical Coordinator at Daytona State College

In this episode, we discuss what inspired Shirish to pursue a doctorate in education coming from the field of occupational therapy, how he implements his doctoral training to more effectively teach both his patients and incoming doctoral students in his field, and the different ways he finds teaching to be a grounding experience and a source of spiritual and emotional connection.

Hosted by Brooklyn Arroyo

To connect with Shirish and to learn more about his story, visit his page on the PHutures #100AlumniVoices Project website.

Transcript

Brooklyn Arroyo

Hello I'm co-host Brooklyn Arroyo and this is 100 Alumni Voices podcast, stories that inspire, where we explore the personal and professional journeys of a diverse group of 100 doctoral alumni from Johns Hopkins University. Today we're joined by Shirish Lala EdD in Mind, Brain, and Teaching. How are you?

Shirish Lala

I'm well, thanks. How are you?

Brooklyn Arroyo

I'm doing great. I'm really excited to be able to work with you today. So, let's just jump right in and I'd love to hear about what went into you deciding to study about mind, brain, and teaching and why you went down that path.

Shirish Lala

So, one of my first loves and passions has been the study of neuroscience. I chose to pursue a career in healthcare in the field of occupational therapy back in the late 90s because of its foundation in the human mind and the human psyche, always been fascinated by it, and that's one of the reasons why when I was pursuing my masters and then decided to go through advanced degree in Mind, Brain, and Teaching and one of the things that I wanted to do is combine my two passions, one being the study of neuroscience and the brain, and the other being education and my profession of occupational therapy allowed me to utilize the human brain and its functions alongside teaching and training others in a manner where I could be more creative. You know, I could infuse a little bit more ingenuity and authenticity in what I did based off of my understanding of how multiple perspectives and the context often determines what the human brain does. And so that was in a nutshell the reason why I chose to pursue Mind, Brain, and Teaching because I knew for a fact that the human brain is such a complex thing, but it is also under the influence of so many factors which determine its future and its presence.

Brooklyn Arroyo

So, I think that that's extremely interesting. I am actually a neuroscience and cognitive science double major, so I am also interested in the human mind and and how it relates to education and teaching as well. So, what was some of the work that you did within your EdD and what did that look like for you?

Shirish Lala

So, a lot of the work in the EdD program was initially ingrained in learning about, you know, the research methods and how you can collect data and how can you can collect data which can inform future practice in different contexts. It was mostly in classroom contexts for me at the time because I was teaching in an occupational therapy assistant program at a local Community College, so I knew for a fact that, you know, I needed to gather evidence to present or support my hypothesis. And besides research methods, we learned a lot about how the human brain understands literacy and numeracy, and how in the future as the brain evolves and grows the adult brain is sort of situated in knowing about different learning preferences, knowing about different aspects of the context and stakeholders that inform how we learn even as adults. And one of the things that I wanted to do is to explore creative avenues in terms of some of our educational delivery. And I was very fortunate that I had the opportunity to look at creative learning methods in the form of simulation using patient actors and standardized patients in my profession to develop learning modules for my students, which could then be used for their workplace clerkships and training.

Brooklyn Arroyo

Wow. So, did you find that with all this work that you did and and now within your career, did you find that the things that you researched have really impacted the work you're doing now or the way that you perceive education now? In what ways did that really influence your work?

Shirish Lala

I think the EdD Program at Hopkins helped me understand the importance of leadership and also looking into collaborating within my discipline and outside the discipline to inform my practice now and then also in you know to help me gather more and more resources as well as have the ability to pursue a future career in the profession that I am in with additional knowledge about how learning and teaching in my profession can be benefited overall. One of the things I'll be honest with you is that you know practitioners such as myself who pursue allied health or healthcare professions don't typically go to school to become educators, so we don't learn so much about the educational delivery process, how students learn, what works in the classroom context, what doesn't, and sometimes we are oftentimes teaching like we were taught by our teachers, which is not necessarily perfect. And and what Hopkins did in the education the EdD program did was help me unlearn some of those behaviors that, you know, sort of are just generational, that you teach like you were taught and then help sort of develop leadership styles and then almost an authentic teaching methodology for myself where I was not necessarily under the influence of what had happened in the past when I was a student, but I was trying to meet my learner's needs in the moment. And then also being creative, also being innovative when unexpected challenges such as the pandemic sort of throw us all in the loop. I've learned a lot in terms of handling crises in academia. I'm sure all of us have, whether be practitioners in healthcare or students or faculty and educational context. That you know this last three years since 2020 have taught us so much on how we can use the opportunities to our advantage, despite the extreme polarities and the suffering that we've all endured as a species.

Brooklyn Arroyo

Definitely. It's been a definitely a lot of learning within the past couple of years, adaptability and all of that. So, what did your academic life, you briefly mentioned it, but was it a linear path for you? Or was there spaces of work experience where you, you know, let's let's look at that experience for you.

Shirish Lala

So, my path was never, you know, sort of established in the very beginning. Like I didn't have a very clear-cut idea when I was in high school as to this was going to be my career path. It was never linear. It was always one of those things where, you know, I was one of those very fortunate people to finish my bachelors in a school in India in occupational therapy where in Mumbai and at the time it was Bombay, I was able to finish my bachelor's. And immediately around the time I was finishing my bachelor’s, I had this wonderful opportunity to come and work in the US and that was one of those turning points in my career where I thought, you know who at the age of 23 would get a job opportunity to work in the US and I use that to my favor so that I could pursue my masters online at the University of Florida while also working in the community as a therapist. And I did that for a few years. As soon as I got my masters, I was very fortunate at 27 to be offered a job as an assistant professor at the local Community College, and I jumped on it. And eight years into doing that, I realized I needed a doctorate. And it was, you know, it's almost serendipity that I found the Hopkins program, which is online again. I finished the Hopkins program just around the time the pandemic was sort of settling because of the availability of the vaccines. But as I mentioned to you, my path was never linear. It was mostly dependent on what was available at the time I was finishing up a program or education and you know how life sort of migrated me to places almost serendipitously.

Brooklyn Arroyo

Do you feel that there were moments of, I guess bumps in the road or transition periods from going into the US or going into online school and that sort of thing? And what did what did that look like for you?

Shirish Lala

You know when when it came to these challenges and the bumps in the road, I was focused enough that once I, you know, one of the things that I did to tell myself that I'm going to start something, I'm going to finish it. And that's one of those things that I kept telling myself that despite the challenges and the bumps in the road, like for instance with the doctoral program, I didn't expect COVID to throw us off the rail for a bit. During my masters, I didn't realize that, you know, because I wasn't going to campus as much, although it was a doctoral program, there were opportunities on campus that I could have utilized, but back then I was not very comfortable driving because I learned to drive on the other side of the road, as they say. So, you know, driving was a big bit of a challenge and language was a bit of a challenge when I moved to the US because I I didn't speak the way I speak right now when I first moved. And, you know, just the part and parcel of being away from home, being away from your regular routine people that you see on daily basis. That was challenging enough, and then you add these layers of driving, communication, you know, just unexpected life things. And that's why I've sort of kept the faith that if I start something, I'm going to finish it, particularly when it comes to academics. And that's been one of those, fortunately, a very helpful thing for me to keep on going and keep on forging ahead despite all of the bumps in the road.

Brooklyn Arroyo

I think that's a really important sentiment to have with everything. And again, especially after the pandemic, I think that was something that a lot of us had to internalize that lesson of you just got to stick with it and keep on moving forward. So, back into the work that you're doing with your EdD, what was your first job after you graduated, and what did that look like for you jumping into a postgraduate workplace? And what does that look like for you?

Shirish Lala

So, after the EdD, I started teaching at the doctoral level in my profession of occupational therapy, and I realized that, you know, I could use everything that I learned at Hopkins and sort of look into how there are gaps between the way things are taught and the way things should be taught. There's a term that we oftentimes use in the educational realms that is known as pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), so I in my profession I may have the content knowledge of what a therapist needs to do while working with patients. And I will be able to work with patients rather easily because I am a subject matter expert in that area. But if I lack the pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), then I won't be able to teach that to someone who's new to the profession successfully. And so, when I transitioned over into the DOC program and teaching at the higher levels, what the EdD did for me was to help me understand how I need to bridge that gap between content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge so that a newcomer in the profession, someone who is entering the field the first time, can go yes, I get it. Because I've attended in my day several classes with medical students, with Allied health students, where they're sitting in the class with this deer in the headlights look. Like you could see their hazy eyes and go, yep, half of them or more didn’t get it. So, the instructor kept teaching, the doctor kept teaching, the senior therapist was sort of in their own head while they were delivering the content because they were so seasoned that they worked with patients they could teach all that in their sleep. In the doctoral program, and even now, when I sit down in my classes and I look around and like, how many of these students are getting what someone is teaching. I almost want to be a fly on the wall to say this is how I'm going to teach it sometimes when I when I stand on the podium because I observe and I've learned so much from my observations. It's not always easy though. With time and practice.

Brooklyn Arroyo

So, how did you go about maintaining this academia path, because you still work in academia now, and and what advice would you have for somebody who is also hoping to to maintain and stay in academia?

Shirish Lala

I think one of the things that I knew at a very young age is that despite the profession that I chose, you know, I could have chosen to be a pharmacist. I could have chosen to be a surgeon, a nurse practitioner, and anything else. But you know, I always thought that teaching someone was a way to ground myself and sort of to commit myself to lifelong learning. And as someone who wanted to, you know, continue down the path of lifelong learning. I see myself as a professional in healthcare. But I also see myself as someone who is a professional educator, because my work in the clinic and my work in the classroom is sort of related. It I I oftentimes look at my patients and go, did they get what I taught them? And then the same thing when I, you know, work with students, I go did, did they understand what I was trying to teach them? And then I ask them to return demonstrate and I, you know, test them and things of that sort. So, you know there is almost sort of like this emotional connection and almost this sort of a spiritual thing for me that no matter what I do, as long as I'm able to do it, if I can impart that knowledge and share that to someone's benefit. It's not just them benefiting from me sharing my knowledge, but it enriches me, and despite all of these challenges that we've noticed in academia, historically, academia has never paid practitioners in the educational realm as highly as you would expect, but I think for most teachers who've kept on doing it and have maintained their sort of passion for doing what they do, it's almost an intrinsic motivation that, you know, this is like, it's like almost like a spiritual wealth. It may not let help you have materialistic gains. It may not help you always have that fancy car or the big house that you would want to buy, but it may help your spiritual overall development in ways that I don't think material gains can.

Brooklyn Arroyo

Definitely, the spread of knowledge and and the way that we all interact with one another, I think that it's really important work. And so, have you experienced any, I suppose, misconceptions or surprises when working with students or with patients that you then shared with them and taught them? And what would some of those might be?

Shirish Lala

I think one of the biggest misconceptions and, you know, some of the issues that we oftentimes have is that we don't necessarily think of a person’s situation. You know, we oftentimes as human beings attribute problems in the educational sector or even in the healthcare sector to be human problems. So, like, you know, if patient came down with the diagnosis or if a student is struggling, we oftentimes think about that to be a human-centered problem where whereas it often times could be a situation-related issue. So, when I when I talk to patients and I talk to students, I oftentimes now having the knowledge that I have try to understand the situational factors that have led to the human error or the human problem, so you know the importance of studying the context and the situational factors that led to the problem or led to the misconception led to these challenges that you and I oftentimes discuss. And you know, communication theory is one of those things that some of my instructors at in the EdD program asked me to look into because they they they wanted us to to sort of share how, you know, depending on what someone hears or learns from a particular conversation, if you ask them to teach that to someone else, you'll notice that the concept has continually changed depending on the situation that the reader or the instructor who was delivering was in. And and I have always sort of kept that in mind and I try to use that as a way to reduce the misconceptions and also to sort of shatter the issues that we've had with diversity, equity, and inclusion in in our context, not only in healthcare but also in academia that you know, oftentimes the students’ performance or patients healthcare outcome is based off of their ZIP code and is not related to necessarily their human factors.

Brooklyn Arroyo

I think that that is something that unfortunately not enough people realize. That we're a lot more than than what we were perceived to be or what were identified by others. We're all our own peoples with a lot of history and a lot of circumstances that impact us definitely. So, how do you go about thinking about the next phases, is if there is a next phase, for you career wise? What would that look like?

Shirish Lala

That's a great question. And I think the next phase, no matter what I choose to do, is going to expect of me to be some sort of a leader or a manager or, you know, sort of head down the road of being an admin, as an administrator. Whether that happens in the next two years, five years, 10 years, that's again subject to situational factors because you know, a lot of times we we think that I'm going to be here in two years, but it takes longer or it takes shorter. Especially, you know, given that we've noticed mass resignations at different workplaces in the last year or two. And then we also notice that some of the baby boomers are retiring early because of the stress induced secondary to the pandemic and more so. So, I I you know, I always think about it from a very generous aspect is that, you know, I know that they, you know, given my educational background and the expertise admin management related positions may be calling. But I also know that you know, being in a classroom, working with students or working with patients, where the rubber meets the road is grounding, is sort of helping me, helping me intervene at a level where good work can be done. Otherwise as an administrator or manager, I can sort of sort of feel isolated in my office. And if I could even as a manager or an administrator and be a servant leader where my goal is to serve people to serve the population, serve students where the rubber meets the road or where the educational or intervention is delivered. I think that would that would be helpful for me as well as a more meaningful way of having a career that helped serve people rather than just myself.

Brooklyn Arroyo

So, it's along those lines of of service and inspiration really our last question for all of our interviewees on this podcast is sort of the grand finale of each episode. And that is what inspires you right now?

Shirish Lala

Now right now if you would ask me what, I would say that there, you know, people would have these inspirational figures in mind, like the Dalai Lama, or someone who is sort of this inspirational, transformational figure as people that they may look up to, look forward to meeting maybe listening or hearing to inspire them. But if you ask me what inspires me instead of who inspires me, I think what inspires me is human connection and our our ability to understand each other, learn from each other, recognize everybody's lived experiences. And then find more common themes than differences amongst us. I think that shared human connectedness, that sort of is missing sometimes because of pandemic because of technology because of, you know, people being people and aloof sometimes or self-centered. I think that we need to go back to our emotion of connecting with others and then trying to find ways to be patient and having faith. The grace that comes with that, because sometimes we we we sort of are afraid, we lack faith, we lack patience and trust. So, you know, trying to get back to that and understanding that that's where transformation can occur, not only outside of you, but within you. That's that's my my little take on what inspires me.

Brooklyn Arroyo

No, that's a a beautiful take. I I think that's I I definitely agree with that that having some grace and being able to seek understanding with all people and and try to find connections is it's what's going to keep us moving forward and and keep the progress going. Well, thank you so much for coming on to the PHutures Podcast. I really loved working with you today and hearing all of your amazing insights.

Shirish Lala

Thank you so much, Brooklyn. You take care.