The Doctoral Experience: Student Stories from the Creative Arts and Humanities

© The Author(s) 2019

D. L. Brien et al. (eds.)The Doctoral Experiencehttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18199-4_1

1. Introduction

Donna Lee Brien¹  , Craig Batty²  , Elizabeth Ellison¹   and Alison Owens³  

(1)

School of Education and the Arts, Central Queensland University, Noosaville, QLD, Australia

(2)

School of Communication, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

(3)

Learning and Teaching Centre, Australian Catholic University, North Sydney, NSW, Australia

Donna Lee Brien (Corresponding author)

Email: [email protected]

Craig Batty

Email: [email protected]

Elizabeth Ellison

Email: [email protected]

Alison Owens

Email: [email protected]

The doctorate represents the most advanced form of adult education and qualification . Although considerable effort, research and training has been expended on the process of completing a doctorate , there has been far less interest or focus on the lived experience of doing one—the human, and often relatively veiled dimension that underpins the highest level of formal learning achievable. With this is mind , this book offers a wide variety of personal insights from creative arts and humanities research students into the challenging yet rewarding journey of undertaking a doctorate . Recognising that the doctoral journey is simultaneously cognitive , emotional , spiritual, ethical and transformational , the book presents a range of chapters written by current or very recently completed doctoral students (as well as one intending candidate ) that capture the essence of what it means to undertake a doctorate in the twenty first century. Unlike other books that focus on the degree milestones that completing doctoral level study entails, this book is uniquely organised around the themes and concerns that students themselves have identified as centrally important to successfully completing their research degrees —the invisible work of the doctorate . From assessing the self to working with others, from building resilience to developing networks, and considering how ethical conduct permeates a researcher’s practice , this book takes its readers—both students and supervisors —on a journey towards successful doctoral learning . Each section is framed by ideas and concepts suggested by the editors, who are experienced doctoral supervisors , but the core content of the book is purposely student-driven and authored. This, we hope, will provide an authentic and user-friendly account of the doctoral experience .

On Doctoral Learning

In the students’ accounts of their experiences and journeys , it is not surprising to see them demonstrating sophisticated levels of conceptual, procedural, declarative and metacognitive knowledge , as defined in Benjamin Bloom’s Taxonomy (Anderson and Krathwohl 2001). Constructivist accounts of adult learning emphasise the sequential and developmental process of assimilating new knowledge with existing knowledge , and then applying this newly assimilated knowledge to practice . In his model of the Experiential Learning Cycle , David Kolb (1981) emphasises the cyclical process of theorising abstract conceptualisations, testing these theories through application to concrete experiences , and then reflecting on outcomes to generate further and more refined theorisations. This cyclical process applies very clearly to doctoral study, which aims to develop new knowledge (and/or theories) supported by evidence drawn from real-world investigations through research, and implying further research through a process of reflective analysis, evaluation and further theorisation. As the students in this book discuss, the challenges and complexities of undertaking a doctorate have been embraced and overcome to produce resilient learners who are not only able to complete research projects , but who are also able to understand the journey they have undergone and fold it back into their ongoing practice —as researchers, practitioners , teachers , and so on.

Other constructivist models of learning organise the development of cognitive complexity as a hierarchical process , for example, Bloom’s Taxonomy (Anderson and Krathwohl 2001), John Biggs’ SOLO (Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes) (Biggs and Tang 2011), and Matthew Perry’s ‘nine positions’. Perry’s model (1975) progresses from a dualistic—right or wrong—approach, to acquiring knowledge through a multiplistic understanding of knowledge as context -dependent and uncertain, to a sophisticated response to relative values and contingent knowledge through a process of commitment to a reasoned position. The doctoral journey represents an engagement with knowledge and reality that is necessarily performed at the higher end of the hierarchy of cognitive complexity . Doctoral students ‘theorise the unknown’, performing what Biggs (Biggs and Tang 2011) has defined as ‘extended abstract’ thinking in a sustained and structured process , engaging with the higher order cognitive processes of evaluative and creative thinking (Anderson and Krathwohl 2001). With many of the doctoral projects described in this book drawn from students of the creative arts , creative thinking is particularly evident. In this context , each chapter provides an evaluative account of an aspect of doctoral study that has challenged the student-author , whose reflective assessment and subsequent ‘breakthrough’ can help inform and support others undertaking their own research journeys.

This book thus celebrates the lived experience of undertaking a doctorate —the human dimension of high-level learning—and taps into some of the common personal challenges that students face and, ideally, learn how to overcome. Chapter authors are each at different stages of their doctoral journey (with some just completed), and their stories reflect on key aspects of the journey that had such an effect as to ‘stop them in their tracks’ and encourage them to think more widely than their specific research project . The book therefore does not follow what many other doctoral study guides would consider to be the ‘standard’ journey of candidature . Rather than taking readers through stages related to the project itself—for example, developing a literature review , selecting and enacting a methodology , conducting pilot work—this book centres on the often non-linear, iterative and sometimes messy cognitive journey , which we characterise as a transformation that comprises challenges , breakthroughs and reflections on the process . In editing this book , we found that it was sometimes more useful to place chapters by students further along the journey alongside those who were just beginning, because early insights were useful segues into the very issues that the latter students were then writing about. We hope the structure presented is rich and rewarding, and encourages an interactive relationship with the stories presented, rather than simply following them in a preconceived order.

On Doctoral Transformation

The doctoral learning experience is also strongly transformational in both the personal and the social sense (Mezirow and Taylor 2009), in that new knowledge created from an original research enquiry informs and progresses the understandings of a specialist community of practice (discipline ), and also transforms the individual through self-critique of deeply-held assumptions which leads to greater personal awareness in relationship to others (Taylor in Mezirow and Taylor 2009, p. 5). This process is evident in Alison Vincent’s chapter , which positions identity at the centre of doctoral learning and emphasises self-discovery in what is firmly framed as a process of life-centred learning . It also provides the focus of the chapters from Leanne Dodd, Justine Newport, Alison Owens and Charmaine O’Brien, which explore the personal and interpersonal implications , benefits and risks involved in telling your own and other people’s stories .

A strong theme of self-care and self-awareness emerges also from the student stories . Further evidence of the life-oriented nature of adult learning , and the centrality of formal and informal relationships , is provided in chapters by Peter McKenzie, Susannah Oddi and Colleen Ryan, for example. Empowering experience -based guidance is drawn from chapters by AK Milroy and Carmen Grey, which speak to tactics for achieving university approvals, recognising and realising the role of creativity in doctoral research, and developing personal resilience for unplanned outcomes. Gail Pittaway and Bernadette Ryan further demonstrate the personal, professional and intellectual transformations that are a direct flow-on from doctoral study. Transformation, therefore, permeates the entirety of the book’s content, as well as its structure .

On the Creative Arts and Humanities Doctorate

Despite the variousparadigms ofdoctoral degrees that exist internationally (with such features as coursework, numbers of milestone review points, the viva voce and the ways examiners are asked to report varying from location to location, and sometimes even within individual universities ), the human experience of doctoral study—our research, and this book , suggests—is much more universal. As such, while the focus of this book is on PhD students from the creative arts and humanities, we suggest that all of the aspects written about by the students—personal and cognitive —are applicable across disciplines and doctorate types (for example, PhD, Doctor of Creative Arts, Professional Doctorate, Doctor of Education). The fact that this book concentrates on the creative arts and humanities is a testament of sorts to its focus on unearthing the personal and human facets of doctoral study, given that many creative arts and humanities research topics relate to people, cultures and personal processes .

The Development of This Book

The foundations for this book emerged via a two-day workshop with current or newly completed research students as facilitated by the editors. Throughout the two days, the students were invited to share their experiences of doctoral study in a collective setting. Specifically, they were asked to prepare responses in advance to three questions :

What were the main challenges encountered in your doctoral study?

What were the breakthroughs you experienced in your doctoral study?

If you could start again, what questions would you ask yourself, your supervisor , and your university , before beginning?

Students shared their responses about their challenges and breakthroughs throughout the first day, and the editors used large whiteboards in the room to record and collate the key themes that emerged as the conversation progressed. At the conclusion of the first day, students were asked to map their research journey overnight, identifying cognitive (learning) and emotional (personal) obstacles or milestones . On the second day, students shared their responses to the third question , sharing insights about what information they wished they had received earlier in their candidatures . Specific findings from the workshop and the data generated have been reported separately in journal publications . The final part of the workshop was the collective planning of the book’s structure , in which students and the editors worked together to identify thematic trends —in particular, the journey metaphor—and volunteered topics for chapters . Each student chapter is sole-authored but students worked collaboratively in small groups , and then pairs, in order to refine this work, and respond to comments from the book’s editors. Although there have been some expected changes to this initial plan through this writing and editing process , many of these original ideas remain and speak to the co-created approach the editors and authors took for the development of this book. In devising this process , we were inspired by such research as that by Jazvac-Martek, Chen and McAlpine which suggests that student agency emerges strongly in negotiating with others in order to achieve intentions (2011, p. 18), and our own belief that doctoral students are the experts when it comes to the doctoral experience .

The workshop was developed as an action learning event in recognition of the fact that collaborative learning through cyclic processes of questioning and reflecting is appropriate to a group of cognitively advanced, adult learners with developing research experience and expertise. Action learning is one form of action research, which also includes critical action research , participatory action research and collaborative inquiry (Kemmis and McTaggart 2005; McTaggart et al. 2017). Action learning entails real people resolving and taking action on real problems in real time , and learning through questioning and reflection while doing so (Marquardt and Waddill 2010, p. 186). The workshop was envisaged as a tool to support students to develop both an individual , and a collaborative, capacity to identify, recognise and negotiate problems that are frequently encountered in the research journey ; to empower these students through collaborative problem solving ; and to generate research outcomes and reportage that could be used to assist research degree students and supervisors .

We acknowledge that there are some limitations to the collective authorship of this book. For example, the workshop participants were representative of a predominantly female, older demographic, with only one younger male participant and one male editor. This is reflective of the demographics in Australia in the broad Field of Education areas of Society and Culture , and Creative Arts (Department of Education and Training 2017). There was also limited cultural and linguistic diversity in this group : all students were enrolled as domestic students (that is, Australian or New Zealand citizens or permanent residents). Again, this is not dissimilar to the national demographic of this type of cohort which usually has less international enrolments. Participants were representative of a number of institutions , although a majority were from Central Queensland University, the host organisation for the workshop . Within the group , the students represent both on-campus and distance, and full-time and part-time study modes.

Using This Book for Doctoral Success

Considering the human dimension within doctoral research has largely been lacking, it is our hope that this book will inspire others to also focus on this important aspect. While presenting the journey, and voices of students undertaking their doctorates , was a key motivation for this book, it was also produced with doctoral supervisors in mind . Although experienced doctoral supervisors and thesis examiners ourselves, we were still surprised, enthralled and moved by the stories that emerged, and what these revealed of the students’ aspirations , struggles, resilience and achievements—and we have taken these learnings back into our own supervisory practices . As such, we hope that other supervisors reading this book will share the same sentiments and use the stories presented to assist them with their development as successful supervisors of their own doctoral students.

The book is structured with a framing commentary introducing each thematic part in order to situate and contextualise these parts in terms of the broader ecology of doctoral study and supervision , and to tease out some of the more general nuances that we, as editors and supervisors , can see in these individual narratives . As a result, this book can be read from beginning to end, or used for ‘just-in-time’ learning to meet the challenges and issues that arise during every candidature . Chapters and parts of chapters can be visited and revisited by students and supervisors as various needs arise, including the personal, italicised vignettes that bring the challenges and breakthroughs to life . This will assist in meeting problems , not only in a timely manner, but crucially, before they are compounded. The book has been purposely structured to include personal perspectives, case studies, scholarly signposts, and key take-away points that are relevant in all doctoral settings—regardless of geography—and to all students, at any stage of their own research journeys .

The centrality of experience to learning has long been acknowledged by influential theorists in education including John Dewey, Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky. In adult learning , defined by Malcolm Knowles (1984) as ‘andragogy’, experience plays an even more critical role in learning as adults have a greater breadth of experience than children and adolescents, and resource their learning by drawing on their past and present life experiences . The doctoral stories collected in this book are thus supplied to engage the reader with the lived experiences of these students, including study, work and home life , and are intended to implicitly recognise the convolution of learning experience and life experience . As such, it is our hope that this book provides both interesting and helpful information as well as personally engaging stories that can be of use to students and supervisors currently working on a doctorate , as well as interested potential students wanting to learn more about what a successful and enjoyable doctoral journey might look like.

References

Anderson, L. W., and D. Krathwohl, eds. 2001. A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. New York: Longman.

Biggs, J. B., and C. Tang. 2011. Teaching for Quality Learning. 4th ed. Open University Press.

Department of Education and Training. 2017. Higher Education Statistics Data Cube (uCube): Enrolment Count by Mode of Attendance by Type of Attendance by Gender by Course Level by Field of Education. http://​highereducations​tatistics.​education.​gov.​au.

Jazvac-Martek, M., S. Chen, and L. McAlpine. 2011. Tracking the doctoral student experience over time: Cultivating agency in diverse spaces. In Doctoral Education: Research-Based Strategies for Doctoral Students, Supervisors and Administrators, edited by L. McAlpine and C. Amundsen, 17–36. Dordrecht: Springer.Crossref

Kemmis, S., and R. McTaggart. 2005. Participatory action research: Communicative action and the public sphere. In The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research, edited by N. Denzin and Y. Lincoln, 3rd ed., 559–603. London: SAGE.

Knowles, M. 1984. The Adult Learner: A Neglected Species. 3rd ed. Houston: Gulf.

Kolb, D. A. 1981. Learning styles and disciplinary differences. In The Modern American College, edited by A. W. Chickering and Associates, 232–255. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.

Marquardt, M., and D. Waddill. 2010. The power of learning in action learning: A conceptual analysis of how the five schools of adult learning theories are incorporated within the practice of action learning. Action Learning: Research and Practice 1 (2): 185–202.Crossref

McTaggart, R., R. Nixon, and S. Kemmis. 2017. Critical participatory action research. In The Palgrave International Handbook of Action Research, edited by L. Rowell, C. Bruce, J. Shosh, and M. Riel, 21–35. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Crossref

Mezirow, J., and E. W. Taylor. 2009. Transformative Learning in Practice: Insights from Community, Workplace, and Higher Education. Jossey Bass.

Perry, W. G. 1975. Intellectual and ethical development in the college years. In How Students Learn, edited by N. Entwistle, and D. Hounsell, 139–148. Lancaster: University of Lancaster.

Part I

Orienting Towards the Doctoral Journey: Introduction to Part

In this section, students outline the very personal nature of undertaking a doctorate . They discuss the importance of the research project itself to each candidature , and how this strongly intersects with the personal and professional development of the researcher (in-training). This is intended to encourage readers to take themselves on a journey along with the student-authors . The various chapters in this section also offer strategies for effective self-reflection that will assist both existing and intending students on their journey as they read the various student stories in this volume. Citing Kandiko and Kinchin (2012), who argue that doctoral education is a process of development and learning that is much broader than the production of a research outcome, Holbrook et al. (2013, p. 3) highlight the need to develop a model for doctoral education and supervision that incorporates learning, intellectual practice , scholarly expertise, technique and contextual expertise as well as attitudinal and personal change . In their chapters , these students argue the same point.

AK Milroy explicitly discusses how the doctoral journey often requires a revision of previously held paradigms . As she identifies, students have ontological , epistemological , methodological and axiological paradigms that need to be addressed and rethought, because new thought creates new knowledge . What is so valuable about this discussion is Milroy’s focus on how this active re-visioning functioned in her own PhD. Alison Vincent makes a case that, while undertaking this reorientation, students should also be doing everything they can to ensure they enjoy the experience of their doctoral studies—an aspect which is often lost in the focus on reaching the desired goal —explaining that the two are not mutually exclusive. Like Milroy, Vincent stresses the importance of planning as a key part of the process engaged with before commencing a doctorate . Both these chapters underscore the importance of completing some deep thinking on personal goals , strengths and weaknesses , and ways of working, before commencing a doctorate.

The next chapters develop this line of thought , but add how students also need to envision how they will operate in the larger academic system. Irene Rogers charts the evolution of the academy since Classical times to provide a context for her argument that, as well as their own processes , it is important for students to understand the nature of the transformations the academy has undergone in order to find their place in it. This knowledge is also essential so that students can align their personal expectations with the contemporary academy and what it does, and can, provide for—and to—them, both while studying and after the completing of their doctorates . Margaret Cook underscores this thinking , reflecting on her own just-completed doctorate . Cook explains that while many research students may think they know the skills they need to develop to complete a doctoral degree , these are often—following many of the guides available—focused on what she describes as the mechanics of the process . This includes honing the essential research and writing skills that are necessary to produce a thesis . Yet, in her experience , as Cook explains, many students are not aware of the less tangible skills and knowledge that a research student must acquire in order to be successful, in terms of an awareness of, and adherence to, the academic culture that Rogers outlines. By recasting the steps of the research process in these terms, Cook outlines the transformative steps and transferable skills that are required to achieve a doctorate . These are in line with some previous research (Kroll and Brien 2006), but—importantly in this context —expressed in terms of the reality of the student experience.

Each of these students are all well aware of what contemplating, beginning, working through and completing a doctorate entails, and the planning that is involved in successfully reconfiguring their persona to that of a doctoral student operating in the contemporary academy . This can be amplified when a student comes to this from a professional or creative practice background. From their study of fine arts doctoral students, Holbrook et al. (2013, p. 5) argue quite rightly that A practice-based research paradigm requires candidates to engage in a dialogue between their art-making practices and their conceptual thinking about art as research, and yet candidates tend to be more familiar with the expectations of art-making and less with the academic expectations associated with doctoral study. Simmons and Holbrook (2013, p. 205) also discuss how Strongly held creative identities , unrealistic expectations about candidature , and underestimation of the requirements of research, can all serve to destabilise the experience of research for the newcomer in fine art research. We suggest this mismatch can also operate in both professionally-experienced students and those from other disciplines . As well as potential frustrations, this can result in academic mismatch—an incongruity between what doctoral students want from a program, and what the program is preparing them to do, and be in the world , after they graduate (Hoskins and Goldberg 2005, cited by Holbrook et al. 2013, p. 4)—and if students and supervisors do not orient themselves accordingly early on in the process , it can lead to dissatisfaction and, worse, a tumultuous journey that might never be completed. We are, however, inspired by Holbrook et al.’s study that found many fine arts doctoral students viewing the research degree "as an excellent opportunity to improve