A Situated Framework for Socialising a Scholarship Mindset with Doctoral Students

Abstract

Aim/Purpose: The doctoral experience is a complex, challenging, and life-changing process. Cultivating a scholarship mindset is a requirement for success in early and later academic careers. This paper presents a situated framework for socializing doctoral students' scholarship mindset. Background: Faculty of doctoral education programmes prepare students for higher education and other scholarly positions. Methodology: In this situated framework, two doctoral faculty utilized their academic qualifications, programmatic experiences, and related academic literature to develop a framework that has been successful in a particular School of Teacher Education context. Contribution: The situatedThe situated framework, which includes steps to Develop, Nurture and Challenge, Apprentice, and Celebrate scholars, can serve as a guide to encourage review and evaluation of doctoral education programmes and the ways in which they develop doctoral students' scholarship mindset and preparation. framework can serve as a guide to encourage review and evaluation of doctoral education programs and the ways in which they develop doctoral students' scholarship mindset and preparation. Findings: Key findings included increased doctoral student participation in events and experiences that contributed to developing a scholarship mindset and strengthening their scholarly publication and research trajectory. Recommendations for Practitioners: Doctoral students need to engage in ongoing, strategic experiences that will positively impact their scholarship trajectory. Retention of doctoral students is not just a matter of successful completion of course work. Recommendation for Researchers: Research in the environmental learning contexts of doctoral education programmes and in the ways in which doctoral academic mentors engage students in scholarship may prove useful to programme developers. Impact on Society: Scholarship during doctoral studies and beyond will contribute to the development of quality education, knowledge, and research at all levels. Future Research: Future research should focus on empirical studies that explore the effectiveness of this situated framework through the perspectives of additional faculty and doctoral students at the particular university context.