Doctoral Research Process Research Articles

“Workplaces in the mind” as metaphor: advising industry managers doing doctoral research about organisational change management

PurposeThis study aims to reflect on “good practices” in doctoral research supervision and transfer the author’s experience to other academics. The author explains the sources of his approach to doctoral research supervision drawing on traditional practice in adult learning and some reference to phenomenology as a “meeting of minds” between academic and industry mindsets.Design/methodology/approachThis is a reflective paper condensing many years of practical experience advising industry managers doing doctoral research. It is not an empirical study as such but draws on extensive practitioner experience based on many successful PhD completions in the business and management domain.FindingsThere are no empirical findings as such, but ample practical experience of doctoral research process and outcomes over 40 years of supervision in both the UK and Australian Universities.Research limitations/implicationsGeneralisation is limited to the number of doctoral research completions (between 70 and 80).Practical implicationsThe paper concludes with indicators of what the author regards as “good practices” in doctoral research supervision.Social implicationsNone is directly applicable, but academe-industry working partnerships might be improved with the author’s learner- and customer-centred approach to doctoral research with adults in senior positions in the industry wanting to do research.Originality/valueThis paper is based entirely on the author’s own working experience as a senior academic in UK and Australian Universities.

Person, context and judgement: Exploring the potential of a theoretical model describing the role of information and communication technology in the doctoral research process

This paper presents an early exploration of the utility of a theoretical model of internal and external factors that influence and determine relationships between doctoral researchers and information and communication technologies (ICTs). We discuss feedback gathered from three iterations of a voluntary, online, open programme called 23 Things International to illustrate how the components of the model emerge through participants’ reported experiences of the programme; a key is understanding how context-dependent uptake of specific ICTs can be closely connected to whether participants can relate materials directly to their own situation. Although further investigation of the model is warranted, there are indications that it will be useful for guiding not only improvements to future iterations of 23 Things International, but also for designing, developing and implementing learning environments that meet the needs of participants from a variety of (doctoral research) settings. It will also help those responsible for providing such support to understand the varied responses doctoral researchers may have to professional development programmes and support. Implications for practice or policy The model provides insights into factors that influence and determine learner response to incorporating ICTs within doctoral research processes. Examples and discussion of learner responses to doctoral research ICT-focused professional development programmes are useful to course designers. Course design should enable learners to translate ideas into meaningful thinking and practice within their own research contexts. Improvement to the model's applicability requires systematic analysis of its components using a relevant test base (i.e., 23 Things International).

The Journey of Doctoral Research Challenges and Lessons Learnt

Abstract This work would like to bring into the attention of readers various aspects associated with the process of doctoral research. For many of the students this can represent quite a challenging experience with an increased level of complexity. The author will show his experience while enrolled in this form of education. Main ideas are based on the factors identified while planning and writing the papers associated with the research journey. Most of the works belong to the themes of the doctoral school, like economics, financial system or international affairs. The sample of analysed papers contains several works covering the field of interdisciplinary research. This concept will be approached inside the literature review to familiarise the readers with its meaning. Content of this area includes elements from economics, financial system, international affairs and environment. Novelty of the paper is represented by the personal experience of the writer. He will show the challenges encountered while performing regular and interdisciplinary research, connecting particular notions from business process management and business process improvement. Lean Six Sigma methodology will be used to sustain specific elements of the analytical representation. Moreover, the author will provide an overview on the lessons learnt, hoping this will contribute to the decrease of the research process complexity level and support publication status.

Public and Patient Involvement in Doctoral Research During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Reflections on the Process, Challenges, Impact and Experiences From the Perspectives of Adults With Cerebral Palsy and the Doctoral Researcher.

IntroductionCerebral palsy (CP) is a lifelong condition, where people may experience complications as they age. Including the views of people with CP through Public and Patient Involvement (PPI) ensures that research into the condition is relevant and meaningful in addressing their concerns. However, there is a lack of evidence on incorporating the voices of adults with CP in the doctoral research process. Therefore, this paper aims to provide an overview of how adults with CP were involved in a doctoral research process during the pandemic.MethodsThis paper describes the PPI process and its impact at various stages of the doctoral research process and reflects on the experiences from the perspective of the doctoral researcher and adults with CP using the INVOLVE Values and Principles framework. Five adults with CP were consulted throughout the doctoral research programme. The data for this paper is a combination of reflection notes, email exchanges, meeting minutes and informal discussions with the PPI team on their experiences of being involved in the PPI process. The content of this paper is informed by GRIPP 2 checklist.ResultsThe doctoral researcher and adult reflections highlighted the value of collaboration and the positive impact on research at each stage of the doctoral research process. Although meetings were adapted due to the pandemic, the values of PPI were adhered to throughout the doctoral research.ConclusionInvolving adults with CP positively impacted the doctoral research process. It is recommended to consider individual access needs to ensure meetings and information are accessible for disabled adults. Our reflective findings and recommendations may help other researchers who plan to involve adults with CP in doctoral research.

The invisible support networks of doctoral candidates: What acknowledgement sections of doctoral theses reveal

Although some argue that acknowledgement sections should not form part of doctoral theses, others welcome such sections and are of the opinion that they reflect original and personal contributions, constituting a neglected genre. Previous research on acknowledgement texts have focused more on their linguistic characteristics as related to the academic writing of theses. The present study, however, inquired into acknowledgement sections from a social support perspective. The aim of the study was to bring to light the dimension of the social milieu and its importance in supporting doctoral students in successfully achieving their doctorate. More specifically, the study sought to investigate the role of “significant others” in the academic success of doctoral students as reflected in the genres of acknowledgement in doctoral theses by analysing such texts from 30 completed doctoral theses in South Africa and Israel. Follow-up interviews with graduates assisted to probe deeper into the meaning of the texts. Although limited in nature, the study found that, based on who doctoral graduates acknowledge, several role-players and supporters seem to contribute to doctoral success. This includes family members, friends, colleagues, study supervisors, funders and university administrators. What also became clear was that doctoral candidates rely mainly on psycho-social forms of support and that particular kinds of such support are crucial at different stages of the doctoral journey. Acknowledgement studies confirm the doctoral research process as an activity stream that integrates the personal, the interpersonal and the institutional to reveal the mostly hidden, but very important, influences on the doctorate.

Doctoral Thesis as Entangled Becomings: Moments That Tremble With Potential

This paper attempts to exemplify an emergent doctoral research process that plugs into the political activism of Deleuze and Guattari’s “becoming minoritarian” and the transformational potential of Erin Manning’s “minor gesture.” Revisiting and responding to texts and images produced over the course of one month, the author attempts to demonstrate how an attentiveness and openness beyond the bounds of the traditional doctoral thesis can generate shiftings and shimmerings that have the potential to produce tangible impacts and affects. In a process of writing to the human and nonhuman matter she encounters on her everyday walkings and wanderings, the author senses a shift of herself in relation to the world, generating an imperative to act that can not be ignored. As a tentative exploration of a process that resists the constraints of an externally imposed methodology, this paper works to trouble the prescribed linearity of more normative approaches to doctoral research. This is done in the spirit of encouraging and promoting speculative enquiries with a social conscience for, as Brian Massumi argues, even tiny acts and interventions have the potential to make a difference in the world.

Enhancing the roles of information and communication technologies in doctoral research processes

While information and communication technologies (ICT) are prominent in educational practices at most levels of formal learning, there is relatively little known about the skills and understandings that underlie their effective and efficient use in research higher degree settings. This project aimed to identify doctoral supervisors’ and students’ perceptions of their roles in using ICT. Data were gathered through participative drawing and individual discussion sessions. Participants included 11 students and two supervisors from two New Zealand universities. Focus of the thematic analysis was on the views expressed by students about their ideas, practices and beliefs, in relation to their drawings. The major finding was that individuals hold assumptions and expectations about ICT and their use; they make judgements and take action based on those expectations and assumptions. Knowing about ICT and knowing about research processes separately form only part of the work of doctoral study. Just as supervision cannot be considered independently of the research project and the student involved, ICT skills and the use of ICT cannot be considered in the absence of the people and the project. What is more important in terms of facilitating the doctoral research process is students getting their “flow” right. This indicates a need to provide explicit support to enable students to embed ICT within their own research processes.

Shaping an ethical approach to trans research: Some reflections from my doctoral project

From 2016 to 2019, I conducted my doctoral project research on trans and gender-diverse experiences in Norway, focussing on the impact of a new law on gender recognition through which the previous sterilisation requirement for legal gender change was overturned. Over the course of this research, I have been exploring what it means to be an ethical feminist scholar and working to foster what I feel is a more ethical approach to research on trans individuals. In this article, I outline what I have found to be essential theoretical and methodological considerations to ethical trans research. I apply these to my own doctoral research process to demonstrate the importance of trans-focussed research, reflecting on the challenges I faced when writing my thesis.

From Open Access to Open Science: The Path From Scientific Reality to Open Scientific Communication

Although opening up of research is considered an appropriate and trend-setting model for future scientific communication, it can still be difficult to put open science into practice. How open and transparent can a scientific work be? This article investigates the potential to make all information and the whole work process of a qualification project such as a doctoral thesis comprehensively and freely accessible on the internet with an open free license both in the final form and completely traceable in development. The answer to the initial question, the self-experiment and the associated demand for openness, posed several challenges for a doctoral student, the institution, and the examination regulations, which are still based on the publication of an individually written and completed work that cannot be viewed by the public during the creation process. In the case of data and other documents, publication is usually not planned even after completion. This state of affairs in the use of open science in the humanities will be compared with open science best practices in the physical sciences. The reasons and influencing factors for open developments in science and research are presented, empirically and experimentally tested in the development of the first completely open humanities-based PhD thesis. The results of this two-part study show that it is possible to publish everything related to the doctoral study, qualification, and research process as soon as possible, as comprehensively as possible, and under an open license.

Building knowledge with theory: Unpacking complexity in doctoral writing

The use of theory to analyse and interpret empirical data is a valued practice in much social science doctoral research. A crucial aspect of this practice involves generating sophisticated theoretical understandings and critiques of phenomena in our social world. Despite the importance of theory, however, few concrete explanations of how to ‘theorise’ exist in literature. This paper addresses this gap by demonstrating how a set of conceptual tools can be used to unpack what the craft of theorising looks like in explicit terms, and to reveal how this ability develops over time during the drafting process of dissertation writing. It does this by drawing on select texts from a successful doctoral dissertation, as well as an earlier draft version. In doing so, the paper provides an in-depth explanation of an essential process of doctoral research that is inherently known by many supervisors, yet seldom unpacked in explicit terms.

Letter from the Guest Editor

Thank you for your interest in this special issue of the Journal of Transformative Leadership and Policy Studies Special Issue-Mentoring Students of Color in Educational Leadership Doctoral Programs. This special issue of JTLPS explores insights into mentoring practices that effectively support doctoral students of color in attaining their degrees and in moving into positions in academia as faculty members, into K-20 leadership as practitioners. Socialization into doctoral education supports student retention and completion. Such socialization practices include mentoring relationships that provide opportunities for doctoral students of color to navigate the process of doctoral study and research.

La experiencia de investigación educativa de nivel doctoral en la región de Cuyo, Argentina

<p>En este trabajo se informan los resultados de una investigación exploratorio-analítica de carácter cualitativo, cuyo propósito es acercarnos a la comprensión de las experiencias, sus particularidades y problemáticas, de una muestra de alumnos y egresados de los tres doctorados en Educación existentes en la región de Cuyo, Argentina, los que –si bien alcanzan una cierta madurez– también muestran en estos años algunas dificultades específicas, entre las cuales la más relevante es la baja tasa de finalización (cercana al 20%).</p><p>El cuestionario que se administra, elaborado ad hoc, mediante preguntas abiertas, indaga sobre tres dimensiones que pueden explicar la experiencia del doctorando: 1) formación en metodología de la investigación educativa, 2) práctica en investigación científica y 3) proceso de investigación doctoral.</p><p>Los resultados muestran que los trayectos curriculares de metodología de la investigación del doctorado, en dependencia de su enfoque, desempeñan un papel relevante en el proceso de tesis, en sinergia con otros factores: la inserción en un equipo de investigación, una combinación de motivos intrínsecos y extrínsecos en la elección del tema, una conceptualización más elaborada de investigación educativa, cambios conceptuales de mayor envergadura. Entre las peculiaridades, se advierte la primacía de la experiencia y/o desempeño docente en decisiones relativas a la investigación doctoral; entre las dificultades, destaca la falta de tiempo y la mayor frecuencia de dificultades intrínsecas a la tesis en los estudiantes demorados.</p><p> </p>

Working with refugees in a research context

This paper is a reflective piece on conducting research with refugees from the Middle East. It focuses on the process of doctoral research, and engagement of refugees with services.

Visualising the Doctoral Research Process: An Exploration into Empirical Research Processes of Emerging Researchers

The completion of a doctoral programme requires a fundamental knowledge of the research process. It is assumed and expected by academic staff that PhD students are aware of the research process prior to undertaking doctoral research. This study addresses the degree to which these assumptions are valid, by investigating doctoral students’ understanding and practices of doctoral research. Nine doctoral students, at various phases of their dissertation and from different discipline backgrounds, were asked to illustrate, through diagrams, the processes involved in their doctoral research. They were invited to discuss their illustrated ideas and explain in more detail the processes and practices they employed, including the role of technology. The findings revealed a variety of processes characterised as: a) Linear vs. Non-linear; b) Traditional vs. Non-traditional; c) Simple vs. Complicated. In addition, the students exhibited diverse styles of presenting the research process through: 1) the way they started their research; 2) the language they used to describe the process; and 3) the linearity and complexity of their doctoral research. The paper concludes with a number of important insights with regard to the student’s perceptions and practices of undertaking doctoral research. Confusion in these areas is a matter that directly affects the outcome of the dissertation as well as the PhD student’s future research practices. https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.16.9.4

La herencia de Rufino José Cuervo para los “coproductores” de su obra intelectual

Desarrollé un proceso de investigación doctoral en antropología durante el periodo 2011-2015, el proyecto se tituló “Relaciones de producción en las artes gráficas en Bogotá: Vida cotidiana, trabajo flexible y concentración mercantil en el siglo XXI”. En el curso de la investigación apareció la figura de Rufino José Cuervo (1844-1911) de forma inesperada. Un tipógrafo con más de 60 años de edad me contó que había una herencia de este personaje para los tipógrafos de Bogotá. Luego de conocer este asunto me vi en la necesidad de establecer las conexiones entre este personaje letrado del siglo XIX y el objeto de mi investigación.

Exploring PhD Students’ Concerns Regarding Doctoral Programs in Economics and Business Administration

Abstract Tertiary education involves specific perceived issues among PhD candidates that lead to several self-destructive behaviors regarding the research process and the quality of the doctoral thesis. Studying the emotional mechanisms behind the process of doctoral research offers useful insights for both PhD candidates and PhD supervisors. A qualitative approach involving a concept analysis method was used to investigate the concerns about the doctoral process of a group of PhD candidates enrolled in the first year at the Doctoral School of Economics and Business Administration of Iași, Romania. Both spontaneous and induced responses were considered. The order of concerns and the fact that some of them were mentioned together were also taken into account. Most of the concerns are related to time-management. Results are discussed and several recommendations are made.

Thoughts about the research process. A proposal from decolonial feminism

In this paper, I share some concerns and decisions arisen during my doctoral research process which seeks to integrate decolonial feminist theory as epistemic key for analysis on sexual and reproductive health public policy in Chile, between years 2000 and 2015, based on Coloniality of Gender concept proposed by Maria Lugones. Here I present the most significant aspects in the research process —including theoretical framework and methodological design— that led to the approach of my current research project.

Interdisciplinary doctoral research supervision: A scoping review

This scoping literature review examines the topic of interdisciplinary doctoral research supervision. Interdisciplinary doctoral research programs are expanding in response to encouragement from funding agencies and enthusiasm from faculty and students. In an acknowledgement that the search for creative and innovative solutions to complex problems is best addressed through interdisciplinary collaborations, research-intensive universities are increasingly encouraging interdisciplinary projects and programs. The expansion of interdisciplinary research to the context of doctoral research may impact several core components of the doctorate: the enactment of the student–supervisor relationship, the process of forming and working with a supervisory committee, and the process and outcomes of doctoral research. In order to ensure that interdisciplinary doctoral supervision occurs in a positive and effective way, it is necessary to understand the distinct needs and challenges of interdisciplinary students and their supervisors, through scholarship about this phenomenon.

The Intergenerational Transmission of Trauma as a Disruption of the Dialogical Self

This article is framed as a statement of conclusions derived from a doctoral research process I conducted. The research involved an exploration of the intergenerational transmission of trauma in the lives of mothers and their adult children. The impact of trauma on families can be seen in the various ways in which disruptions in the mother's emotional experience, and in her capacity to contain her child, influence the child's internal world (K. Lyons-Ruth & D. Jacobvitz, 1999; M. Main & E. Hesse, 1990). Working from a relational psychoanalytic and attachment theoretic conceptual framework, I consider the intergenerational transmission of trauma in terms of dissociation as the primary psychic defense that manifests in the inner and relational lives of survivors of trauma and their children. Dissociation is framed as a simultaneously intrapsychic and intersubjective process and is defined as a disruption of internal dialogue between conflicting self-states. I explore the disruption of dialogue with reference to G. Dimaggio's (2006) dominant and impoverished narrative trends, identifying these as primary indicators of an intergenerationally manifested dissociative and avoidant process.

Conceptual frameworks in the doctoral research process: a pedagogical model

This paper contributes to consideration of the role of conceptual frameworks in the doctoral research process. Through reflection on the two authors’ own conceptual frameworks for their doctoral studies, a pedagogical model has been developed. The model posits the development of a conceptual framework as a core element of the doctoral research process that will support the extended abstract thinking (SOLO Taxonomy) essential at this level of postgraduate research. The model articulates the need for alignment between the ontology, methodology and epistemology of doctoral research, with specific articulation of aspects of each dimension. The use of the model involves construction of an explicit conceptual framework, which will ensure a conceptually valid research project and will focus the social and cultural activity of the process, supporting the student learning, the research project and the supervisory relationships.