Doctoral student experience in Education:Activities and difficulties influencing identity development

This paper explores variation in the events or activities Education doctoral students describe as contributing to their feeling of being an academic or belonging to an academic community as well as difficulties they experience. The results (drawing principally on students in a Canadian research-intensive university though with some in a UK university) demonstrate a rich variation in multiple formative activities that are experienced as contributing to a developing identity as an academic, with many lying outside formal and semi-formal aspects of the doctorate. Yet, at the same time students report tensions in the very sorts of activities they often find significant and positive in the development of their identity. We see this analysis as offering much-needed insights into the formative role of cumulative day-to-day activities in the development of academic identity

Refining virtual cross-national research collaboration : drivers, affordances and constraints

Publisher Copyright: © 2022, Irina A. Lokhtina, Laura Colombo, Citra Amelia, Erika Löfström, Anu Tammeleht, Anna Sala-Bubare, Marian Jazvac-Martek, Montserrat Castelló and Lynn McAlpine.Purpose: The study aims to explore and explain the affordances and constraints of two-mode virtual collaboration as experienced by a newly forming international research team. Design/methodology/approach: This is self-reflective and action-oriented research on the affordances and constraints of two-mode virtual collaboration. In the spirit of professional development, the authors (nine researchers at different career stages and from various counties) engaged in a joint endeavour to evaluate the affordances and constraints of virtual collaborations in light of the recent literature while also researching the authors' own virtual collaboration during this evaluative task (mid-January–April 2021). The authors used two modes: synchronous (Zoom) and asynchronous (emails) to communicate on the literature exploration and recorded reactions and emotional responses towards existing affordances and constraints through a collective journal. Findings: The results suggest both affordances in terms of communication being negotiable and evolving and constraints, particularly in forming new relations given tools that may not be equally accessible to all. Journaling during collaborations could be a valuable tool, especially for virtual collective work, because it can be used to structure the team supported negotiation and discussion processes, especially often hidden processes. It is evident that the role of a leader can contribute to an alignment in the assumptions and experiences of trust and consequently foster greater mutual understanding of the circumstances for productive team collaborations. Originality/value: The findings of this study can inform academics and practitioners on how to create and facilitate better opportunities for collaboration in virtual teams as a rapidly emerging form of technology-supported working.Peer reviewe

Refining virtual cross-national research collaboration : drivers, affordances and constraints

Publisher Copyright: © 2022, Irina A. Lokhtina, Laura Colombo, Citra Amelia, Erika Löfström, Anu Tammeleht, Anna Sala-Bubare, Marian Jazvac-Martek, Montserrat Castelló and Lynn McAlpine.Purpose: The study aims to explore and explain the affordances and constraints of two-mode virtual collaboration as experienced by a newly forming international research team. Design/methodology/approach: This is self-reflective and action-oriented research on the affordances and constraints of two-mode virtual collaboration. In the spirit of professional development, the authors (nine researchers at different career stages and from various counties) engaged in a joint endeavour to evaluate the affordances and constraints of virtual collaborations in light of the recent literature while also researching the authors' own virtual collaboration during this evaluative task (mid-January–April 2021). The authors used two modes: synchronous (Zoom) and asynchronous (emails) to communicate on the literature exploration and recorded reactions and emotional responses towards existing affordances and constraints through a collective journal. Findings: The results suggest both affordances in terms of communication being negotiable and evolving and constraints, particularly in forming new relations given tools that may not be equally accessible to all. Journaling during collaborations could be a valuable tool, especially for virtual collective work, because it can be used to structure the team supported negotiation and discussion processes, especially often hidden processes. It is evident that the role of a leader can contribute to an alignment in the assumptions and experiences of trust and consequently foster greater mutual understanding of the circumstances for productive team collaborations. Originality/value: The findings of this study can inform academics and practitioners on how to create and facilitate better opportunities for collaboration in virtual teams as a rapidly emerging form of technology-supported working.Peer reviewe

Emerging academic identities : how education PhD students experience the doctorate

The purpose ofthis qualitative, multi-case, and longitudinal study was to examine how doctoral students’ experiences of the doctorate influence their emerging academic identities. The development of academic identities is often alluded to in higher education research as the heart of the doctoral pursuit. There is, however, little information on how the activities of the doctorate, particularly everyday student experiences, contribute to the emergence of academic identities. The guiding framework for this study was a social-psychological role identity perspective, blended with elements of Activity Theory. Through this combined view, identity is constructed through and embedded in interpersonal relationships, with identity emerging as a property of interactions with others. Data for the study were collected over a two year period. Nine Education doctoral students participated by tracking their experiences for a particular week every month across four academic semesters (15 months) and then discussed these in interviews at the end of each year. These students were selected from a larger sample based on their explicit aim to pursue academic careers upon completion of their degrees. [...]Cette étude de cas multiples, à la fois qualitative et longitudinale, a permis d’examiner chez des doctorants comment l’expérience au quotidien de leur programme d’études influençait l’émergence d’une identité universitaire. Dans le domaine des recherches portant sur l’enseignement supérieur, on réfère souvent au développement d’une identité universitaire comme étant au coeur même de l’expérience doctorale. Il existe toutefois peu d’informations qui précisent comment les activités inhérentes au doctorat, notamment les expériences vécues au quotidien par les doctorants, contribuent à l’émergence de cette identité universitaire. Le cadre d’analyse de cette recherche s’est élaboré autour d’une perspective socio-psychologique du rôle identitaire amalgamée avec des éléments de la théorie de l’activité humaine. Examinée de ce double point de vue, l’identité se construit au fil des relations interpersonnelles et s’y intègre. L’identité se révèle ainsi comme une propriété des relations avec les autres personnes. Les données de cette étude ont été amassées sur une période de deux ans. Chaque mois, l’expérience quotidienne de neuf doctorants en éducation était documentée pendant une semaine complète. À la fin de chaque année scolaire, ces expériences ont été discutées dans le cadre d’entrevues. Ces doctorants ont été sélectionnés à partir d’un échantillon plus large d’étudiants au doctorat en raison de leur intention explicite de s’engager dans une carrière universitaire à la fin de leur programme d’études. [...