TY - JOUR
T1 - Illuminating the liminality of the doctoral journey
T2 - precarity, agency and COVID-19
AU - Atkinson, Michael
AU - Brodie, Adrienne
AU - Kafcaloudes, Phillip
AU - McCarthy, Sidrah
AU - Monson, Ebony A.
AU - Sefa-Nyarko, Clement
AU - Omond, Shauni
AU - O’Toole, Michelle
AU - Pavich, Nicole
AU - See, Justin
AU - Ty, Andrew Albert
AU - Yu, Wenjing
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 HERDSA.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - There is an academic acceptance that doctoral studies are a complex, multifaceted endeavour bound with the differing, emerging and contrasting identities of the students who undertake them. This article explores such journeys in the context of one of the most disruptive events to hit the higher educational sector worldwide: COVID-19. The study utilises data collected via an online forum established to collectively explore the challenges, the opportunities and the tensions in the lives of 12 students enrolled in a doctoral degree in an Australian higher education institution. Results indicate that the journey of such students pre-COVID-19 was characterised by a sense of liminality, agency and journey. COVID-19 exacerbated such feelings. The conclusion points to a need to enhance spaces of agency in the graduate research experience to reflect the multidimensionality of students’ lives.
AB - There is an academic acceptance that doctoral studies are a complex, multifaceted endeavour bound with the differing, emerging and contrasting identities of the students who undertake them. This article explores such journeys in the context of one of the most disruptive events to hit the higher educational sector worldwide: COVID-19. The study utilises data collected via an online forum established to collectively explore the challenges, the opportunities and the tensions in the lives of 12 students enrolled in a doctoral degree in an Australian higher education institution. Results indicate that the journey of such students pre-COVID-19 was characterised by a sense of liminality, agency and journey. COVID-19 exacerbated such feelings. The conclusion points to a need to enhance spaces of agency in the graduate research experience to reflect the multidimensionality of students’ lives.
KW - agency
KW - coronavirus
KW - COVID-19
KW - Doctoral identity
KW - doctoral studies
KW - liminality
KW - online participative research
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85116769207&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/07294360.2021.1968354
DO - 10.1080/07294360.2021.1968354
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85116769207
SN - 0729-4360
VL - 41
SP - 1790
EP - 1804
JO - Higher Education Research and Development
JF - Higher Education Research and Development
IS - 6
ER -