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1 – 10 of 105This paper aims to show how an Academic Literacies lens can contribute to a deeper understanding of writing for a professional doctorate (PD) by focusing both on the language of…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to show how an Academic Literacies lens can contribute to a deeper understanding of writing for a professional doctorate (PD) by focusing both on the language of supervisors’ written feedback and on student and supervisor perspectives on feedback throughout Year 1 (Y1).
Design/methodology/approach
Firstly, written feedback summaries on formative assessments across two Y1 cohorts on a UK PD programme were analysed thematically to identify patterns in feedback practices. Secondly, two longitudinal, detailed student/supervisor case studies were developed, drawing on multiple data sources.
Findings
Supervisors’ written feedback enacted an encouraging dialogue around assessed writing, discursively constructing a sense of solidarity on the doctoral journey, focusing on the “long view”. Case study analysis, however, revealed tensions centred around jarring discontinuities in students’ feedback experience as they transitioned from formative to summative assessment at the end of Y1.
Research limitations/implications
The paper demonstrates that an Academic Literacies approach can offer valuable insights into the specific, situated context of writing for a distance learning PD and makes the case for greater attention to writing in contexts of partly taught doctorates.
Practical implications
Findings suggest that PD programmes should work towards providing continuity of feedback experience, through supervisor and examiner training and through assessment arrangements which support students to navigate challenging transitions between formative and summative phases of assessment.
Originality/value
This paper reports on an innovative research design which combined a textual “snapshot” of supervisory feedback, paying close attention to language, with detailed longitudinal case studies exploring perspectives on feedback over time. It contributes to doctoral writing research by throwing light on the relatively underexplored domain of writing in the taught phase of the PD. It contributes to doctoral education studies by highlighting the central role of feedback on writing in shaping the experience of PD researchers.
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Approaching mentoring from the theoretical tradition of continental pedagogy and contrasting it to the neoliberal organization of the academy, this paper aims to analyze how the…
Abstract
Purpose
Approaching mentoring from the theoretical tradition of continental pedagogy and contrasting it to the neoliberal organization of the academy, this paper aims to analyze how the Croatian higher education document framework constructs mentoring graduate and postgraduate students' research projects.
Design/methodology/approach
The analysis of 50 national- and university-level documents, which were coded using an adapted strategy described by Saldaña (2014), was guided by the following research questions. 1. Which elements of the mentor’s activity in guiding the research projects of graduate and postgraduate students are addressed by the relevant Croatian higher education documents? 2. Which elements of the graduate and postgraduate students’ activity in conducting research projects are addressed? 3. Which structural dimensions of mentoring these research projects are addressed?
Findings
The results point to the construction of mentoring as a pedagogical relationship based on guidance, support and dialog and also signal the processes of quantification of education and responsibilization of individuals.
Practical implications
The results can be used in the critical revision of the documents as well as in supporting mentors in their professional roles.
Originality/value
This is the first analysis of the Croatian higher education document framework focused on mentoring students’ research projects.
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This paper contends that data generated by research on supervision are often taken as authentic data. Through an examination of studies that use audio/visual recordings to…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper contends that data generated by research on supervision are often taken as authentic data. Through an examination of studies that use audio/visual recordings to investigate supervision, the paper both promotes and problematises the recording of supervision meetings as a useful technique for doctoral supervision research. This paper aims to encourage a critical evaluation of methodological choices in research on supervision, and both promotes and problematises the practice of recording supervision meetings to enhance nuance in research on supervision practices.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper reviews how prior studies have adopted different research methods to construct the space of supervision, and how the chosen methods have been justified. The paper draws on data from an empirical study which included interviews with supervisors in China, based on recordings of their supervision meetings.
Findings
Presenting a single case with one participant to explore the recording and interview process in detail, this study demonstrates how hearing the supervision meeting can present a multi-faceted picture of supervision practice. This multi-faceted picture underpins the alternative understanding of authentic data that this study unpacks.
Originality/value
Drawing on the tradition of poststructuralist critiques of traditional research methodology, this study is presented as a methodological paper, with a core aim of interrogating and problematising methodological decisions taken in studies of doctoral supervision. This study reviews research methods that were used in prior studies on supervision, investigating how the chosen methods were justified and how these methods affect the resultant construction of supervision.
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Ali Yaylali, Sarah Albrecht, Kelly Jay Smith and Kate Shea
This paper aims to examine how doctoral students in education and applied linguistics fields successfully navigated graduate writing demands by participating in a support…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine how doctoral students in education and applied linguistics fields successfully navigated graduate writing demands by participating in a support community that catalyzed writing productivity, peer mentoring and feedback. Guiding graduate students’ writing processes based on scholarly interests and providing peer support are vital to scholarly productivity and transition into academia.
Design/methodology/approach
Following a collaborative analytic autoethnographic case study design (Adams et al., 2022; Chang et al., 2013), the authors narrated major events that impacted their writing and publication experiences. The authors visualized their entire doctoral writing experience based on the frequency of writing events that contributed to writing productivity. In data triangulation discussions, the authors reflected on writing experiences.
Findings
Findings show that the support community alleviated individual struggles associated with writing a dissertation and high-quality papers. Key factors contributing to scholarly growth included nonevaluative peer support, feedback and shared academic resources. Writing within the periphery of faculty research and predominantly focusing on doctoral milestones led to individual scholarly interests being overshadowed. Without structured guidance, doctoral writers may develop initiatives to alleviate individual struggles and meet academic writing demands in the disciplines.
Research limitations/implications
The authors recommend including structured guidance on developing writing productivity and a personal research agenda in the early stages of the doctorate.
Originality/value
This study offers unique examples of how a student group supported writing productivity and socialization into the academic community. It illustrates the multifaceted nature of academic writing influenced by faculty–student relationships, peers and individual initiatives. This paper provides doctoral writers and graduate programs with examples of accomplishing academic publishing goals.
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While higher education has been encouraging interdisciplinary research, few studies have been conducted to understand how interdisciplinarity shapes the identity construction of…
Abstract
Purpose
While higher education has been encouraging interdisciplinary research, few studies have been conducted to understand how interdisciplinarity shapes the identity construction of scholars, especially doctoral students who may already strive to socialize into academia.
Design/methodology/approach
Therefore, this study adopts the approach of autoethnography to analyze my lived experience of developing disciplinary literacy and constructing interdisciplinary identity as a Chinese international doctoral student at a North American university. Communication theory of identity (CTI) is the theoretical framework through which I understand the negotiation among my personal, enacted, relational and communal identities while communicating my research through diverse literacy practices.
Findings
This autoethnography reveals that interdisciplinary doctoral students can flexibly use discursive resources from different disciplines and literacy practices in both English and their first language to dynamically create interdisciplinary identities communicable to different discourse communities. Their identities in different disciplines can develop simultaneously, rather than suppressing one for the development of the other as they do interdisciplinary research.
Originality/value
This study first extends current scholarly discussion of disciplinary literacy to a less-investigated setting, i.e. doctoral education in higher education. Second, it adds an additive and current layer of interdisciplinarity to the existing understanding of international doctoral students’ identity construction. Third, it helps to understand how the development of disciplinary literacy can facilitate disciplinary identity construction and how disciplinary identity construction can facilitate the development of disciplinary literacy.
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This article discusses the underlying teaching framework of relational cultural theory (RCT), as well as additional teaching practices used within a doctoral-level…
Abstract
Purpose
This article discusses the underlying teaching framework of relational cultural theory (RCT), as well as additional teaching practices used within a doctoral-level, interdisciplinary social studies course on critical social justice. Areas for future development are identified.
Design/methodology/approach
A research-engaged, conceptual report on practice was used to identify and integrate relevant scholarship for the purpose of formulating and analyzing teaching practices for this type of course, and to iteratively identify possible directions for future development.
Findings
RCT is a generative, underlying teaching framework for the interdisciplinary social study of critical social justice. Additional teaching practices including a community agreement to guide challenging discussions; participant-led presencing activities at the outset of classes; and, co-creation by participants of the content topics can be fruitfully embedded within RCT. Potential future development could include team-based, community-engaged, experiential term projects aimed at further deepening interdisciplinarity and civic engagement skills.
Practical implications
Practical guidance is provided on the use of RCT, community agreements, co-creation, presencing activities and Indigenous land acknowledgments or contemplations on Indigenous works.
Social implications
RCT can be used across different educational levels or contexts. Practices of co-creation, presencing and contemplation of Indigenous works are receiving increased consideration in diverse contexts. However, conventional grading procedures can be inconsistent with critical social justice, suggesting the need for research-engaged policy review.
Originality/value
This article responds to recent scholarly calls for discussion of teaching practices in the interdisciplinary, social study of critical social justice in post-secondary education.
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Michelle de Andrade Souza Diniz Salles, Fernando Victor Cavalcante, Beatriz Quiroz Villardi and Camila de Sousa Pereira-Guizzo
This paper primarily aims to identify the multilevel learning processes emerging from abrupt telework implementation in a public knowledge-intensive organization (KIO) amid the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper primarily aims to identify the multilevel learning processes emerging from abrupt telework implementation in a public knowledge-intensive organization (KIO) amid the COVID-19 crisis.
Design/methodology/approach
This single-case process research was guided by interpretivist epistemology. Empirical data from documentary research and 41 interviewed managers were processed by inductive qualitative analysis using the multilevel learning theoretical model.
Findings
Eight types and three modes of learning processes during the COVID-19 pandemic were identified in a public KIO, iteratively emerging in multilevel learning dynamics during the compulsory adoption of telework and replacing the face-to-face work mode conducted since its foundation.
Research limitations/implications
As insider researchers, while daily and privileged access to the field was obtained, it also demanded their continuous effort to maintain transparency and scientific distancing; conceptual results are restricted to process theorisation studies, specifically the 4Is theoretical model in the scope of crisis learning process studies concerning KIOs.
Practical implications
This study provides evidence for managers to adopt interactive dynamics among eight multilevel types and three learning modes of emergent learning, developed during the COVID-19 pandemic, and support learning practices’ implementation and routinisation across three organizational levels in crisis situations. In addition, evidencing emergent types of learning enables organizational learning (OL) researchers to examine how organizational structures and work practices either promote or inhibit different learning types and impact multilevel learning when adopting teleworking during a crisis.
Originality/value
This research has theoretical value in two ways: (i) Providing empirically supported knowledge: This involves understanding multilevel learning processes resulting from emergent learning in a public KIO that abruptly adopted teleworking during a crisis context; (ii) deepening process theorization studies on OL: To achieve this, we enhance the 4I model by incorporating eight types and two modes of learning processes. These processes iteratively emerge from the individual and group levels towards the institutional level in a public KIO.
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Sanchari Bhattacharyya and Reena Sanasam
The visible ill-effects of the developmental enterprises in the ex-colonies and the tendency towards technocratic totalitarianism, in many ways, have altered the way modern humans…
Abstract
Purpose
The visible ill-effects of the developmental enterprises in the ex-colonies and the tendency towards technocratic totalitarianism, in many ways, have altered the way modern humans perceived the idea of “progress” and “development” historically since the Cold War. This paper presents a deconstructive-transdisciplinary critique of the pervasive ideology by focusing on three nodal points in the stages of “development”: (1) the rise of technocratic modern science; (2) the making of the Third World; and (3) de-legitimisation of its indigenous knowledge paradigms.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on the first-hand accounts of the researchers, social scientists, activists and environmentalists, this paper presents an extensive critique of the violence involved in the development enterprises and recommends possible ways to move beyond the developmental hegemony. This paper is a theoretical investigation that adopts an interpretative, pluralistic, transdisciplinary approach, in order to deconstruct the development ideology and analyse the ramifications of the developmental propaganda and practice as they unfolded in the Global South.
Findings
This paper highlights the need to decondition the social imaginary from the hegemony of developmentalism and its by-product scientism and “technological rationality” for an inclusive, pluralistic, democratic social order.
Research limitations/implications
The focal area of this work is India in particular and Global South in general. It studies the era between the 1950s and 1980s when the major development enterprises took place and studies the consequences they entailed.
Social implications
The scope of this paper encompasses every socio-economic, ecological and epistemological domain affected by the detrimental effects of the developmental enterprises in the Global South.
Originality/value
The originality of this work lies in its transdisciplinary approach. The scope of this paper is extensive and covers nearly every domain of human existence that has been affected by the development debacle and technocratic totalitarianism in the post-War era.
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The purpose of this paper is to outline the contributions of Smiths legacy in Indigenous methodologies and to show how her interventions encourage and facilitate meaningful…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to outline the contributions of Smiths legacy in Indigenous methodologies and to show how her interventions encourage and facilitate meaningful research relationships with Indigenous communities. It is also a practical guide for future Indigenous researchers who aim to work with their communities.
Design/methodology/approach
This article outlines the legacy and interventions from Linda Smith that have influenced my research and pedagogy work with my community—the Navajo Nation. I weave together a Kejnrj story and theory to show how Smith’s predominant legacy has taught me how to create, maintain and safeguard relationships with horses, humans and knowledge while working within a Western institution.
Findings
I discuss the navigation of research relationships before, during and after official research and the implications this has for increasing indigenous sovereignty in partnership with research. It also describes the process of researcher reflexivity required for Indigenous methodological work.
Originality/value
This paper outlines one Navajo researcher’s individual story with research on community. This adds value to researchers who intend to do research/pedagogy work with Native communities.
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This paper aims to explore the adaptive experiences of first-year international graduate students at a US university. It aims to understand the challenges they encounter…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the adaptive experiences of first-year international graduate students at a US university. It aims to understand the challenges they encounter, strategies they adopt with social media to navigate these challenges and tensions that emerge in their social media interactions.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses a qualitative multiple-case research design to collect data from 22 semistructured interviews with 11 participants. Additionally, 110 social media artifacts were collected, focusing on international students’ use of social media in everyday and academic contexts.
Findings
This paper offers empirical insights into social media’s role in helping international students address practical challenges and fulfill learning needs in academic studies, assistantships, cultural understanding and the constructions of ethnic and peer groups for emotional and social support. Additionally, it identifies tensions such as addiction, distractions, emotional distress and the creation of filter bubbles.
Research limitations/implications
Given the qualitative approach of this paper, the generalizability of study findings is limited. Future studies can focus on different sites to explore context-related issues, students across different years or use a longitudinal research design to further explore international students’ experiences in relation to social media use and its role in their adaptation over time.
Practical implications
This paper proposes implementing social media curricula in universities to educate students on media literacy and digital competence and create peer groups to support international students beyond classrooms.
Originality/value
This paper adds value to informal learning literature focusing on international students.
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