This paper is about transformations from knowing to not-knowing and from doing to becoming. The paper’s focus is an ongoing research project on a new Doctorate program in Modern Languages studies (DML) and the process that the students in this program undergo when transitioning from being practitioners to becoming novice scholars. This program is part of a conscious effort to create an academic field whereby scholarly and professional types of knowledge are organically co-produced and this interlaced knowledge is expected to fertilize practitioners’ professional practices. The program’s graduate students are mostly in their mid-career and are motivated to pursue their DML studies for multiple reasons. The necessity of developing a study plan that can foster their transition from practitioners to scholars and help them develop a researcher identity became evident early on. Students were expected to quickly re-adjust their self-image as future theorizers who could carry out independent research and produce original scholarship. While the challenges mentioned above are not unique to this specific doctorate program and are well documented in the extensive scholarship on doctorate students’ education, fewer studies have addressed the particular challenges faculty and students face as part of the latter’s transition from practitioners to graduate students and novice researchers. Therefore, we ask, what accounts for a successful process of supporting language teachers in becoming novice researchers? Our aim is twofold: first, to detail our pedagogical rationale, dilemmas we faced, and the solutions we carved out; and secondly, to contribute to a nascent discussion on doctorate students’ training and academic socialization in applied disciplines. Using Mezirow’s adult learning theory of Transformative Learning, we describe the challenge of designing a process of academic socialization that can support adult learners’ development and shift in perceptions, skills, and actions. During the first four cohorts of the program, in an introductory course, “Research Foundations,” we faced dilemmas regarding reading materials and teaching activities, and collected students' reflections and communications with us, the course professors. Accordingly, the paper explicitly emphasizes our efforts to actively foster a culture of independent learning and a productive learning community by introducing new knowledge and skills. The paper can benefit instructors who design and lead graduate programs for practitioners in any field of practice.
Transitional Writing and "Third Space" Learning: Professional Writing Students and the Work Experience