Lost in translation: Reconsidering reflective practice and design studio pedagogy

Drawing on empirical research done in the early 1980s, Donald Schon developed the theory of 'reflective practice', putting forward the idea that the design studio teacher is a 'coach' who helps students align with disciplinary norms and start to 'think like an architect'. Drawing on actor-network theory as a tool of analysis and way of thinking, this article outlines an alternative, 'performative' account of design pedagogy which both challenges and adds to Scho¨ n's explanations of design teaching and learning. Close examination of teachers and students in action shows the teacher to be but one of a host of human and non-human actors, all of whom work to assemble what we call a design studio. Learning to 'think like an architect' is but one possible outcome of this assembling process

Troubling talk: assembling the PhD candidate

When PhD students complain it is assumed there are problems and that troubles talk is evidence of a 'sick' research candidature or culture. This paper argues that such a one-dimensional reading fails to attend closely to the academic identity work that is done when students talk together. Identity work has become a useful way of thinking about the nature of PhD study in the production of thesis texts, the development of PhD students as scholars and in the practices of everyday doctoral life. This paper extends this work by analysing various instances of PhD student 'troubles talk' in everyday interactions between peers and in online spaces where PhD students congregate. Attention to troubles talk allows us to explore how doctoral students might do academic identity work in the 'hinterlands' where academic subjectivity and other forms of subjectivity (wife, husband, parent, son, daughter etc.) start to blur into each other

An economy of knowledge: research, architectural practice and knowledge (in) translation

How does new knowledge 'flow' within an organisation? In this paper we report upon a case study in which ethnography is employed to render visible the 'knowledge transfer' (strategically redefined as 'knowledge translation') occurring between a PhD researcher and the members of the organisation in which he is 'embedded'. In this case the PhD student is located within an architectural firm and an industry context that is not accustomed to housing researchers in its midst. The path of knowledge flow, or rather its translation, is not found to be smooth. Knowledge 'flow' happens only in leaks and trickles through the organisation. We discuss the implications of this case for how ethnographic research in a business context might be communicated to an audience who do not necessarily value scrutiny of this nature

Experiencing the progress report: an analysis of gender and administration in doctoral candidature

Most universities around the world put in place administrative processes and systems to manage student progress. These processes usually involve filling out standardised forms and instruments: managerial tools intended to increase transparency, promote efficiency and ensure fairness by applying the same standards to all. The progress report is a widely used management tool in doctoral candidature in Australia and in other countries which look to the United Kingdom for degree structure and format. This reporting mechanism requires students and supervisors to make a retrospective account of the research done in a given period. The intention of the progress report is to provide a mechanism for recording feedback and an opportunity to clarify communication between supervisors, students and the institution itself on the progress of the research. However, whether these managerial tools achieve these aims in doctoral candidature is questionable. In this paper, we report on findings from a study of progress reporting in doctoral studies in one middle-band university in Australia. We found that men and women reported qualitative differences in their encounters with the progress reporting mechanisms, which called into question the idea that these management tools are gender neutral and fair in their effects or application

'These are issues that should not be raised in black and white': the culture of progress reporting and the doctorate

This paper reports findings from Australian research into student, academic and administrative staff understandings of the role and efficacy of periodic progress reports designed to monitor the progress of higher-degree-by-research candidates. Major findings are that confusion of the purpose and ultimate audience of these reports is linked to less than effective reporting by all parties; countersigning and report dependency requirements inhibit the frank reporting of progress and 'social learning' impacts on the way candidates and sometimes supervisors approach reporting obligations, running counter to institutional imperatives. We conclude that no ready or transparent nexus between the progress report and progress may be assumed. Fundamentally, this calls into question the usefulness of this process as currently implemented. Arising from this is the recommendation that progress reporting be linked to substantive reviews of progress and embedded in the pedagogy and curriculum of higher-degree-by-research programmes

Confirmation of candidature: an autoethnographic reflection from the dual identities of student and research administrator

The confirmation of candidature is a significant milestone in Higher Degree by Research programs. As research administrators, and as doctoral candidates ourselves, we have observed and experienced many different approaches to the confirmation of candidature process. In this chapter we describe the confirmation of candidature process at the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) with a brief comparison to other institutions’ processes. We use an autoethnographic approach to discuss the positive aspects of the confirmation of candidature process for research candidates with the aim of providing a rationale for the process and to answer the ‘why do I have to do this?’ question we are often asked in our research administrator roles. The chapter includes a set of useful and practical strategies that will assist research students to successfully complete the confirmation of candidature milestone. It is hoped that this information will be useful to research students, supervisors of research students, and the academic and administrative staff that are involved in the confirmation of candidature process

Resisting Matter: Creating an Armature for Future Digital Practice

Until recently it was assumed that the 'digital stuff' of three dimensional digital models, although bound by the rigid co-ordinates of Cartesian space, was infinitely malleable. Now software tools can imbue digital models with simulated physical properties, making form through the relations between virtual forces. The forms generated by this process, resulting from the relations between mathematical algorithms have a bizzare birthing proces. Often 'blobby' or amorphous, they are startling - and strangely alluring - to a profession steeped in a history of design technique through representation which is dedicated to the idea of progressive refinement of form. Of particular interest are recent experiments with a program called 'Evolver', an interactive software tool for the study of surfaces shaped by energies and constraints. Three dimensional digital models that are able to hold the qualities of active force and material resistance suggest the possibility of a new kind of 'hand crafted' approach to digital design

Unfaithful mirrors: new animate architectures and the haunting of the surface

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Constructing bodies: gesture use in the design studio

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Learning networks and the journey of 'becoming doctor'

Scholars such as Kamler and Thompson argue that identity formation has a key role to play in doctoral learning, particularly the process of thesis writing. This article builds on these insights to address other sites in which scholarly identity is performed within doctoral candidature. Drawing on actor-network theory, the authors examine the role of material things, what Latour calls 'the missing masses', in the process of 'becoming doctor', with the aim of unpacking the implications of this for doctoral learning and the journey of becoming a researcher or scholar. Through this approach the authors demonstrate that scholarly identity is distributed and comes to be performed through both traditional and non-traditional sites of learning. The article concludes by addressing the implications of this for efforts to support candidates in the process of becoming researchers