Addressing the Curriculum Problem in Doctoral Education

Abstract

How best to understand the curriculum problem in doctoral research education: that is the question that this paper engages. It begins by noting that curriculum as such is little referenced and inadequately theorised in higher education and certainly in doctoral education, and indeed has been described as a 'missing term'. The paper then reviews a now longstanding research programme in the latter field addressed specifically to research supervision, focusing on notions of pedagogy, textuality, subjectivity and knowledge. Over more than a decade and a half, a body of work has been produced in this regard, informed by literary and cultural studies, feminism and poststructuralist theory and philosophy, thereby opening up the field to new theoretical resources and perspectives. Following this, the paper goes on to draw more directly on contemporary curriculum thought and on what is called post-Reconceptualist curriculum inquiry to outline a curriculum-theoretical perspective on doctoral studies and research education, bringing together notions of representation, emergence, practice and futurity. It does so here with reference to both the PhD and the professional doctorate, but arguably has relevance for doctoral education more generally.