As another doctoral student at St Mary’s submits their thesis for examination, postgraduate research lead in the School of Education, Christine Edwards-Leis, shares her thoughts on the contribution that doctoral study makes to us all.
I’ve been supervising doctoral students for some time and, last week, one of the students I supervise submitted her thesis for examination. I was as excited about this - the 12th submission I’ve had the privilege to be part of - as I was for the first: the thrill of completing a strenuous, creative, and life-changing adventure remains palpable regardless of how many times you’ve shared the experience. There are layers to the phenomenon of doctoral study and here I’d like to share some of my thoughts so that they may inspire you to consider how you might make a contribution to educational discourse: how you can be amazing.
Dadirri
Dadirri is a “culturally informed philosophy” emerging from Australian First Nation wisdom which Ungunmerr-Baurmann, et al. (2022, p94) calls “a deep contemplative process”. When we begin to undertake a doctoral journey, the first major step is to understand ourselves: how we view reality and knowledge and how such understanding will shape what we investigate and come to know. Our Western practice is to use terms such as ontology (reality) and epistemology (knowledge), terms which can be quite intimidating for beginning scholars who attempt to get their heads, as well as their tongues, around the words. This necessary self-reflection takes time, sometimes guidance, and often courage in order that what follows in the design of the research stands as an informed and reasoned testament of our individuality and future contribution to the academy. Dadirri speaks of this process as “being present, being still, connecting with yourself and the environment in [...] a profound [...] encourag[ing] cyclical, deep listening and reflection” (Ungunmerr-Baurmann, et al. 2022, p96). The purposeful action to uncover individual beliefs and assumptions are evident in both Indigenous and Western processes; they take us to the same place.
The process of self-reflection that doctoral scholars working in education undertake is guided by tutors and supervisors. I am no longer surprised by the vault face some individuals experience as they delve deeper into their beliefs in order to better understand what shapes their critical selves and their thirst for knowing. A declaration of “all valuable knowledge is objective” in one year of study on the EdD Professional Doctorate in Education, is often followed, in the second by “reality is subjective and knowledge is socially constructed”. Rather than the dreary fate experienced by Gregor in Kafka’s (1915) Metamorphosis the transformation experienced by such scholars is enlightening, energizing, and connectional: they are more in touch with themselves and the community of practice in which they work and research.
Reciprocity
The doctoral journey is not only about the research and learning of the scholar: supervisors experience transformation in the process of working so closely with an individual on a unique project over such a long period of time. Reciprocity, the sharing of ideas and experiences for mutual benefit and growth is an important part of the journey for each party. The benefit and growth of the supervisor/s comes from truly listening to and understanding the words, feelings, and intentions of the scholar rather than only the actions they take to meet the requirements of the doctoral journey. Ensuring the scholar meets doctoral level is essential for the project to contribute to knowledge in the field, but adopting a rubric or ‘tick box’ approach reduces the experience and, I would suggest, the ‘quality’ of the work.
I want scholars I work with to be as proud of their work as is possible. I want to be proud of their work too, as it stands on its own and how it represents who they are as an individual and/or professional in their field. Most individuals who complete doctorates only do the one, although I do know of some who have done two! So, the work has to matter. It has to stand as a testament to who you are, what you believe, and how you learn and know. Therefore, the journey to completion needs to be a mutually beneficial one where pride in effort and satisfaction in result is as important for the scholar as it is for the supervisor.
Call and Response
I continue to research and write with one of the scholars I supervised. Dadirriand Reciprocity paid a significant part in the journey we undertook and enabled us to navigate some challenging episodes along the way. The scholar’s work embraced a Call and Response methodology representative of African oral tradition as seen, in my recreational experience, in folk songs such as sea shanties. Using this approach enabled me to move my focus toward one of equity and away from a dominating lens focused on standardised interpretation of doctoral work. It meant we engaged in dialogue where we called and responded in turn; talked and listened in turn through what we came to know as ‘reciprocal elucidation’ where we could grow and achieve by the constant adjustment of our changing positions. It was a liberating experience for me and one, I hope, that I’ve carried into every supervisory relationship since.
The contribution
So, what is the contribution that doctoral study makes and who benefits from the gift that it most surely is. We know that the supervisor benefits in multiple ways that enriches their academic practice. The scholar through testing themselves to reach the epitome of academic scholarship can benefit in multiple ways too broad, deep, and diverse to name here. But, ultimately, it is all of us, society, communities, humanity, who benefit. As knowledge is continually tested, challenged, sought, critiqued, valued, and lauded, society should raise its goals to better ways of being; we all should continue to applaud the brave individuals who undertake the doctoral journey because they are explorers taking steps into the unknow but followed, very closely and collegially, by their supervisors.
References
- Kafka, F (1915) Metamorphosis. Czech Republic: Kurt Wolff
- Ungunmerr-Baumann, M; Groom, R; Schuberg, E; Atkinson, J; Atkinson, C; Wallace, R; and Morris, G (2022). Dadirri: an Indigenous place-based research methodology, AlterNative, Vol 18(1), pp94-103.
About the author
Christine Edwards-Leis is the programme lead for the EdD Professional Doctorate in Education and the Post-Graduate Research Programme. She is the editor of ReflectED: St Mary’s Journal of Education and leads the Pedagogy Research Special Interest Group.
Email: christine.edwards-leis@stmarys.ac.uk