A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä
Doctoral studies as a precarious identity process : deviance and the rational ideal of the doctoral process
Tekijät: Blomberg, Annika
Kustantaja: Taylor & Francis
Kustannuspaikka: ABINGDON
Julkaisuvuosi: 2024
Journal: Studies in Higher Education
Tietokannassa oleva lehden nimi: STUDIES IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Lehden akronyymi: STUD HIGH EDUC
Sivujen määrä: 15
ISSN: 0307-5079
eISSN: 1470-174X
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2024.2420205
Verkko-osoite: https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2024.2420205
Tiivistelmä
Based on narrative interviews with late-phase doctoral candidates and early postdoctoral researchers, complemented by an autoethnographic diary, this study analyses the experiences of junior academics. A rational ideal of the doctoral process is identified, and its implications for doctoral students' identity work are discussed. While the rational ideal of the doctoral process has its uses, it prescribes the preferred conduct of doctoral studies and regulates doctoral identities through preferred conceptions of the self. Consequently, doctoral identity work often involves the construction of one's self in ways that seek to conform to the rational ideal while continuously failing to do so, making deviance from expectations a prevailing feature of it. These experiences of deviance from the elusive ideal both increase the precariousness of doctoral identities and reproduce the regimes of power in which doctoral students are embedded. Thus, this paper challenges the rational ideal and provides a more nuanced understanding of doctoral studies as a precarious, emotional and embodied identity construction process.
Based on narrative interviews with late-phase doctoral candidates and early postdoctoral researchers, complemented by an autoethnographic diary, this study analyses the experiences of junior academics. A rational ideal of the doctoral process is identified, and its implications for doctoral students' identity work are discussed. While the rational ideal of the doctoral process has its uses, it prescribes the preferred conduct of doctoral studies and regulates doctoral identities through preferred conceptions of the self. Consequently, doctoral identity work often involves the construction of one's self in ways that seek to conform to the rational ideal while continuously failing to do so, making deviance from expectations a prevailing feature of it. These experiences of deviance from the elusive ideal both increase the precariousness of doctoral identities and reproduce the regimes of power in which doctoral students are embedded. Thus, this paper challenges the rational ideal and provides a more nuanced understanding of doctoral studies as a precarious, emotional and embodied identity construction process.
Turun yliopiston Tutkimustietojärjestelmän portaali