The metaphors we study by: the doctorate as a journey and/or as work

Abstract

The ‘journey’ metaphor has come to the fore as a way of conveying the student's experience of change, difficulty and progress in doctoral studies. The use of this metaphor is critically assessed through the application of a classic journey tale, John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress, as a parallel to the doctoral process. An alternative case is then presented for considering the doctorate as a form of work, while recognising that work, in this context, is also a metaphor. There are, however, different kinds of work and thus different kinds of doctorate. Here, rather than pursuing the contemporary distinction made between ‘traditional’ and professional doctorates, it is argued that it is important to understand the doctoral student experience as multi-faceted and complex, with many variants, indicating the relevance of a range of metaphorical descriptions.