While still more common in the sciences, the Thesis by Publication (TBP) is gaining increasing popularity in the social sciences. However, we argue that norms and possibilities around accepted ...possible structures for this thesis form are still very much emergent, with a paucity of research concentrating on this area. As a consequence, doctoral students may lack adequate guidance about structural possibilities; there may be over-dependence on imitation of structural features of the traditional thesis, which could potentially compound issues of repetition; and greater clarity may be needed for the purposes of examination and composition of university policy. To respond to this gap in the research, we subjected 153 theses by publication in the social sciences produced between 2014 and 2017 in Australian universities to text-level structural analysis, in order to identify structures used in the contemporary TBP. Our research highlights 11 structural choices for the contemporary TBP observed in the data, also touching on possible motivations for and benefits of the varying approaches. We also highlight areas in need of further discussion and research that arise from the multiple structural possibilities emerging in the data. Author abstract
The thesis template is a guiding document for higher degree researchers to assist their transition into research. But what happens when the template does not mirror your ways of knowing, being and ...doing? How do we speak back to an
institutionalized structure that advocates support and yet, feels like a Boa constrictor squeezing you into conformity? If Indigenous people are to undertake the challenge of higher degree research for such an extended length of time, it
needs to be a reflection of us, does not it? In this paper, I share a selection of stories and insights to illustrate the struggles with the chasms of identity and dominant social norms. I provide insight to the waves of achievement and
the troughs of isolation as a PhD candidate. This paper aims to encourage Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander HDR students to further take up the challenge to disrupt the thesis and to challenge the institutional structures so that the
thesis can start reflecting our voices rather than making us fit the 'box'. Author abstract
This study identified emergent themes from the interview data of at-risk-for-completion doctoral candidates (N = 13; 59%), from a diverse demographic, who participated in a successful dissertation ...completion intervention program. The findings revealed four major themes including extrinsic factors, socioemotional, formal structures of the program, and personal development. The findings highlight the need for conscious processes used by vital leaders to develop program design in four key areas of leadership within a framework of open vital systems. Vital leadership acts as proxy agents to influence development of formal structures in the university leading to equity in educational opportunity for all students. Conclusions and parsimonious explicit implications are provided for doctoral program redesign focused on improving graduate student retention and completion rates for diverse student populations.
Interoperability between research management systems, especially digital libraries or repositories, has been a central theme in the community for the past years, with the discussion focused on means ...of enriching, linking, and disseminating outputs. This paper considers a frequently overlooked aspect, namely the migration of records across systems, by introducing the Stateful Library Analysis and Migration system (SLAM) and presenting practical experiences with migrating records from DSpace and Digital Commons repositories to Figshare.
The problem of PhD attrition, especially at the dissertation-writing stage, is not solely related to mentoring, departments, or disciplines; it is a problem that affects the entire institution. As ...such, solutions require collaborative efforts for student success. Building on Yeatman's master--apprentice model, which assumes mastering disciplinary writing in singular advisor--student contexts, and Burnett's collaborative cohort model, which introduced doctoral dissertation supervision in a collaborative-learning environment with several faculty mentors in a single discipline, the Dissertation House model (DHM) introduces a model of doctoral dissertation supervision that involves multiple mentors across several disciplines. On the basis of more than 200 students' reflections, we find that challenges in completing the dissertation extend beyond departmental and disciplinary boundaries. The DHM's multidisciplinary approach preserves the traditional master--apprentice relationship between faculty and students within academic departments while providing an additional support mechanism through interdisciplinary collaborative cohorts. Using Thoits's coping assistance theory and data from DH students over a 10-year period, the DHM incorporates Hoadley's concept of knowledge communities to establish a successful dissertation-writing intervention for graduate students across doctoral programs. Using propensity score analysis, we provide in this study an empirical assessment of the benefits and efficacy of the DHM.
This review provides an account of salient research topics in current Swedish research in the field of foreign language (FL) education, with the aim of making locally published work available outside ...Sweden. A corpus of work on English and other FLs published between 2012 and 2021 has been scrutinized. Focus has been placed on research conducted and disseminated in Sweden, in some cases adding international publications, in order to portray the work in a wider context. Research on FL learning, teaching, and assessment is reviewed in light of recent policy changes as well as a changing linguistic situation characterized by a plethora of languages spoken in society, among which Swedish as majority language and English as lingua franca share indisputable sovereignty, but where a newly-born interest in the role of other background languages than Swedish can be discerned. The study ends with a discussion of trends observed in the reviewed material and considerations in view of future research.
The paper explores questions of power arising from feminist facilitators running a doctoral writing group at a UK university. Butler's 2014. Re-thinking Vulnerability and Resistance. Online. Accessed ...September 12, 2017.
http://www.institutofranklin.net/sites/default/files/files/Rethinking%20Vulnerability%20and%20Resistance%20Judith%20Butler.pdf
theorisation of precarity and vulnerability inspired us to re-think normative constructions of research writing and the academic identities and subjectivities this presupposed. Our doctoral writing group was imagined as a space to think collectively and reflexively about the thesis, the multi-faceted power-dynamics at work in its production, and our relations to the text as both writer and audience. This paper antagonises some of the pedagogic consequences of inviting seemingly 'personal' matters into the space of the writing space and, subsequently, the doctoral text itself. We speak back to discourses that position doctoral writing as always and only an individual, and individualising endeavour, that eschews encounters with the personal and relational. Indeed, we recognise that configurations and spaces for research writing are always 'political'.
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