Experiential learning in doctoral training programmes: fostering personal epistemology through collaboration

There has been increasing recognition for the need to reform doctoral training practices to foster students’ personal epistemology. This study describes the design and evaluation of a learning experience designed to help students understand the scholarly publication process. Firstly, this study discusses the design of the learning experience, describing the collaborative process of writing an interdisciplinary publication using both online and face-to-face learning. Secondly, this study evaluates the effectiveness of the learning experience by examining students’ reflections. We show that participation in the learning experience helped students to develop their academic writing proficiency, collaboration and teamwork, intercultural competence, and ability to engage in reflective practice. Importantly, we show that each student also created more individualised knowledge, gaining insight into how they and others think. This study, therefore, demonstrates that personal epistemology can be fostered through collaboration in a doctoral writing group context.     

A sociocultural view of doctoral students' relationships and agency

Existing literature suggests that doctoral students' learning and experience are significantly influenced by their relationships with a wide range of people within and beyond academic settings. However, there has been little theoretical work focused on these issues, and questions of agency in doctoral study are in need of further attention. This paper draws on sociocultural theory in the analysis of interviews conducted with 33 doctoral students across four UK research-intensive universities. It focuses on agency and frames others as mediating students' experiences whether as embodied or represented in material, or imaginary form.     

Identity and agency: pleasures and collegiality among the challenges of the doctoral journey

How do doctoral students develop their identities as academics? In this analysis, we explore identity from the perspective of agency – humans as active agents. The analysis was based on the collective data from three earlier studies in different contexts. Embedded in the data were expressions of agency linked to affect – both positive and negative – in which doctoral students were acting to shape and not just be shaped by their experiences. Key findings were evidence of collective student identity as well as supervisors modeling and affirming student agency. Both these findings are pertinent in rethinking doctoral pedagogies: the latter provides a model for supervisors to explicitly model student agency, and the former suggests the value of creating opportunities for collective identity in which students act as positive agents in improving their own doctoral experiences.     

Departmental academic support for doctoral students in Russia: Categorisation and effects

Departmental academic support plays an important role in a doctoral journey. However, different types of support may be related to different outcomes. This paper aims to provide a categorisation of types of departmental academic support and analyse the relationship between these different categories of support and doctoral students' confidence that they will complete their dissertations. The empirical base for the research is data from a cross-institutional survey of doctoral students at six Russian universities. Based on the results of latent class analysis (LCA), we distinguished six types of departmental academic support depending on the functions performed by supervisors, other faculty members and department heads. Consistent with previous research, we found that departmental academic support plays a crucial role in doctoral students' experiences and outcomes, while lack of support is related to a lower level of confidence about completing a dissertation. At the same time, our results provide evidence that excessive collective engagement in doctoral students' work from departmental staff may be less effective than the strong engagement of a supervisor, assisted by informational support from other staff members.     

Power,pedagogy and the personal: feminist ethics in facilitating a doctoral writing group

The paper explores questions of power arising from feminist facilitators running a doctoral writing group at a UK university. Butler’s [2014. Re-thinking Vulnerability and Resistance. [Online]. Accessed September 12, 2017. http://www.institutofranklin.net/sites/default/files/files/Rethinking%20Vulnerability%20and%20Resistance%20Judith%20Butler.pdf] theorisation of precarity and vulnerability inspired us to re-think normative constructions of research writing and the academic identities and subjectivities this presupposed. Our doctoral writing group was imagined as a space to think collectively and reflexively about the thesis, the multi-faceted power-dynamics at work in its production, and our relations to the text as both writer and audience. This paper antagonises some of the pedagogic consequences of inviting seemingly ‘personal’ matters into the space of the writing space and, subsequently, the doctoral text itself. We speak back to discourses that position doctoral writing as always and only an individual, and individualising endeavour, that eschews encounters with the personal and relational. Indeed, we recognise that configurations and spaces for research writing are always ‘political’.     

Theoretical trajectories within communities of practice in higher education research

In this article, the role of theory in higher education research is problematised using a communities of practice framework. Drawing on a case study derived from the author's own published work and doctoral study, the article concludes that the differential uses of theory within communities of research practice can be fruitfully explored, in part, through a consideration of the ways in which the explicit use of theory by newcomers to the community is, or is not, sustained as community membership deepens. The article concludes by suggesting that the differential use of theory amongst communities of educational researchers constitutes a problematic object of practice that requires critical exploration.     

Transitions,transformations and finding success. A phenomenological analysis of the experiences of a doctoral student in early candidature

ABSTRACT

This article examines and analyses the authentic experiences of a doctoral student, Kate, in the period just prior to Confirmation, an academic milestone in the Australian doctoral education context. The article uses qualitative phenomenological inquiry as the methodology and employs ideas drawn from the writings of hermeneutical phenomenologist, Paul Ricoeur, especially his notions of narrative, self, time, and human agency. These ideas are utilised in order to ‘get inside’ the constructions of self, the strategies of learning and adaptation, and the experiences of being a doctoral candidate within the milieu of an Australian university education faculty. The writers argue that such a close and personal examination of experience and a hermeneutical approach to analysis is important for a deep understanding about how Kate negotiated her way through the hurdles of early candidature and adapted her life and identities towards success. Particular focus is given to Kate’s experiences of transition and change and the formation of her academic identity that emerged out of these experiences, which led to successful negotiation of this early period of candidature. The research findings reported in this article suggest that Kate’s deep reflexivity, enjoyment of her research and sense of her own well-being as a doctoral student are significant for her perseverance through difficult milestones and ultimately her successful completion of her PhD.     

Excellence in doctoral supervision: an examination of authoritative sources across four countries in search of performance higher than competence

Supervision is generally recognised as playing a crucial role in the quality of a research student’s doctoral experience and their academic outcomes and, in common with most areas of higher education, there is an oft-stated desire to pursue excellence in this important area. Excellence in research degree supervision is, however, an elusive concept and on close scrutiny most of the discussions of high-quality supervision, even those that purport to be identifying excellence, refer to competence rather than excellence. This paper examines two potentially national authoritative perspectives from which excellence in research degree supervision might be explicated (codes of practice and learning and teaching awards) from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the United Kingdom but concludes that the complex nature of the activity and the complexity of the concept itself mean that rather than identifying excellence in supervision we can only respond to claims for excellence.     

African international doctoral students in New Zealand: Englishes,doctoral writing and intercultural supervision

While the experiences of international doctoral students, especially those from Asian countries, have been well researched, fewer studies have explored the experiences of African students in Southern countries like Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand. This article reports on doctoral writing and student and supervisor perspectives on English languages in a small study of supervisors and African students in New Zealand. It challenges deficit constructions of African students and illustrates how the growing internationalisation of higher education is adding to the complexities of doctoral writing, raising questions as to how students and supervisors recognise and navigate differences in Englishes and doctoral writing. It makes a number of recommendations about how supervisors might work effectively with African and other doctoral students.     

Professional agency in a university context: Academic freedom and fetters

Professional agency is an urgent topic in academic contexts, albeit relatively unexplored, and elaborated with contradictory conclusions on its extent and characteristics. To contribute to the discussion, this multimethod study investigated professional agency within a Finnish university. We utilised questionnaire data and interviews to explore agency, as manifested in influencing at work, developing work practices, and negotiating professional identity. We found that overall, these three dimensions of agency were manifested fairly substantially, and in a similar manner among the academic staff. The study further emphasises the social nature of professional agency, and presents theoretical and empirical considerations for future research.     

A social realist perspective on student learning in higher education: the morphogenesis of agency

Contemporary critiques of student learning research call for new theoretical and methodological approaches. This article proposes a social realist approach to this research, using the morphogenetic theory of sociologist Margaret Archer. The applicability of this approach is demonstrated by reference to an empirical study of engineering students at a South African university, using narrative analysis. In the article itself, two narratives are given in some detail, illustrating the key outlines of the analysis. Students’ emerging personal identities are shown to be highly dependent on their social backgrounds, yet when in the university the possibilities for the morphogenesis of student agency are very constrained. A critical interrogation of these findings proposes that a true higher education should facilitate the development of an enlarged sense of agency for students.     

Identity in science learning: exploring the attention given to agency and structure in studies of identity

This paper explores the ways in which the concept of identity has been conceptualised and studied within science education. The Personality and Social Structure Perspective is used to examine the attention paid by researchers to three levels of identity analysis: personality, interaction and social structure. Tracing the development of science identity studies and the resulting body of literature reveals that most authors have focused their attention on aspects of identity related to individual agency to the exclusion of issues of social structure. This paper argues that this attention is related to the position of communities of practice as the dominant theoretical framework for identity studies and argues that researchers need to consider broader frameworks that encourage the integration of ideas at all three levels of analysis. Broadened methodological approaches, including mixed methods, are also advocated as a way to increase consideration of the level of social structure.     

Foundation degree learning: an educational journey of personal development

The foundation degree is an intermediate-level qualification designed to widen participation in higher education while providing work-related skills and knowledge. It has a vocational focus and a pedagogic approach that integrates academic and work-based learning. Research into opportunities and the process of learning within foundation degrees is limited, particularly that which looks in depth at personal development occurring within these courses. This study contributes to the literature in this area, reporting on the results of a case study of the foundation degree in medicines management (University of Portsmouth). A key finding of this work was that knowledge was gained within a community of practice, and led to students’ development as individuals. Motivation, learning to learn and guidance and feedback, alongside peer learning within the course, were central aspects of this process. The learning and personal development taking place resulted in increased awareness, confidence and empowerment in students, which was reported to influence their work and personal lives. However, the development of specialist work-related skills and knowledge was found to be limited, questioning the fitness for purpose of the course researched. While key aspects of the subject investigated have been described in this work, further research is needed to understand this complex phenomenon.     

Teacher agency in the Canadian context: linking the how and the what

Even though there is no common conceptual basis guiding teacher education in Canada, over the past two decades teacher educators both in Canada and around the world have called for teacher candidates to become agents of change. While researchers across Canada strive to demonstrate how to prepare pre- and in-service teachers to be agents of change, few scholars have examined in detail what teacher agency might mean in the Canadian context. This paper reviews the conceptualisation of agency from five theoretical perspectives (psychology, sociology, critical theory, historical studies, and post-structuralism) and examines how empirical studies in the Canadian contexts align with these perspectives. This paper makes explicit the connections between the how and the what of agency, and as such informs current approaches to preparing pre- and in-service teachers and their potential role as agents of change, and maps out how the notion of agency is taken up in a particular jurisdiction.     

Positioning ourselves in our academic lives: exploring personal/professional identities,voice and agency

ABSTRACT

This paper provides a rationale for understanding personal/professional identities to support personal/professional learning and positioning in academe and higher education. It explains the importance of women writing and speaking out the stories of their lives (everyday and academic), having their voices heard and responded to, and using embodied knowledge to question and challenge workplace systems and structures of power and sexism and invisibility. Importantly, this paper opens the space for women’s visibility, voice and agency in academic and educational life.     

Learning communities and fair trade in doctorates and development: report of a collaborative project

This article reports the second stage of a study examining an academic partnership in which Bangladeshi doctoral students in a western university focus their research in the grounded context of Bangladesh and investigate the processes for change. After briefly outlining the previous published stage which examined the academic trade in higher education with developing countries, the article builds on the concept of fair academic trade to critically reflect on the development of a doctoral learning community, a publication project and three specific doctoral studies. The methodological approach is one of participatory action research, with focus on critical reflection on practice.     

Writes of passage: writing up qualitative data as a threshold concept in doctoral research

Effective writing is an essential skill for all doctoral students, yet it is one that receives relatively little attention in training and supervision. This article explores extensive feedback from participants in a series of workshops for doctoral candidates engaged with writing up qualitative data. The themes arising from the data analysis are discussed in terms of the affective domain of writing, and the main claim is that writing up qualitative data has been identified as what Meyer and Land would call a threshold concept for doctoral candidates employing qualitative analysis. Drawing on Turner's notion of liminality, the article concludes that interdisciplinary workshops can be instrumental in helping doctoral candidates understand the role of writing, and of writing up qualitative data in particular, in their development into independent, autonomous researchers.     

博士生多元化培养的构想及实现路径 ——基于我国博士生教育质量研究20年的反思

1999年以来,我国博士生招生人数显著攀升,回顾我国博士生教育质量20年的研究,其思想纵向呈现出三个变化趋势:从专注学术取向到关注多元发展,从聚焦在学质量到追求发展质量,从强调显性成果到倡导综合能力。依据这一趋势,当下的博士研究生培养应以立德树人为根基,以科研能力为主干,以服务社会为枝叶。高校要以此为培养标准,树立起多元化培养目标,实现博士生全方位、多维度发展。具体到实践层面,鼓励博士生全面参与学校治理不失为实现博士生多维培养的有效途径,具体应以党建工作提升政治觉悟,以课题参与提升学术水平,以志愿服务厚植奉献情怀,以社会实践推动成果转化。