When students enter our doctoral program, we talk with them about the process of becoming a scholar. We hold the image of a scholar up for them to consider: “What does the term scholar mean to you?” “What do scholars do?” “What habits do scholars regularly practice?” We tell students that, to us, the term scholar is not a synonym for an academic. This surprises many of our students. To them, scholars work in universities and administrators work in schools. Because many students accept this role-defined image of scholarship and because the scholar versus practitioner divide so characterizes our profession, many students do not see themselves as scholars; neither do they aspire to be researchers. For many students, the doctoral degree provides a path to senior levels of management in educational systems. These exchanges helped us to realize that, to our students, being a scholar is a role to be filled within the academy, and most of them have no intention of being a scholar in this conventional role-defined sense.