Unapologetically Indigenous: Understanding the Doctoral Process through Self-Reflexivity

As a K’awaika & Diné, I revisit my writings to answer a life-informing question, as opposed to just a research question, of how relationships inform and disrupt my meaning-making of being unapologetically Indigenous in the academy. To answer this question, I offer a series of personal stories and relatives to reconnect to what it means to navigate the doctoral process. Through relationality as a methodology, I connect two sets of stories to disrupt the linear and forward-moving underpinnings of the doctoral process. I connect stories to highlight three dimensions, i.e., authenticity, vulnerability, and intentionality, to develop what it means to be unapologetically Indigenous in the academy.

The Impact of Gender on Researchers’ Assessment: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Women remain underrepresented in Dentistry in academia, and this gap is widened whenever each career step is progressed. It is of utmost importance to investigate underlying associated factors to predict researchers’ assessment of their gender in Dentistry and the overall STEM (Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields. Thus, we developed a randomized controlled trial to test whether women or men would be preferred with identical curriculum vitae (CV); and the impact of the career stage in the evaluators’ choice. To this, a simulated post-doctoral process was carried forward to be assessed for judgment. Level 1 and 2 Brazilian fellow researchers in the field of Dentistry were invited to act as external reviewers in a post-doctoral process and were randomly assigned to receive a female or male CV. They were required to rate the CV from 0 to 10 in scientific contribution, leadership potential, ability to work in groups, and international experience. For all categories of CVs evaluated, men received higher scores compared to the CVs from women. Robust variance Poisson regressions demonstrated that men were more likely to receive higher scores in all categories, despite applicants’ career stage. For example, CVs from men had nearly three quarters more likely to be seen as having leadership potential than equivalent CVs from women. Gender bias is powerfully prevalent in academia in the dentistry field, despite researchers' career stage. Actions like implicit bias training must be urgently implemented to avoid (or at least decrease) that more women are harmed.

Evolving, Transforming, and Making Meaning in the Doctoral Journey

Utilizing theoretical foundations from culture, spirituality, and emotions in education, this chapter will uniquely and collectively aim to go beyond a single pedagogy to encompass a broad and diverse territory. It will explore more deeply and systematically the significance of understanding the complexity of the phenomena of discovering pedagogical influences on the doctoral process, as well as cognitive and emotional outcomes within and outside of the classroom. What are the roles of meaning and purpose in the doctoral program process? How important is future work and professionalism associated with career placement? Are there connections to professionalism and individual doctoral research? These questions will be explored in this chapter.

Trajetórias de mulheres campesinas: a luta pela educação

This article is a reinterpretation of the research implemented in the doctoral process in which the social representations of ‘writing’ of undergraduate students in the rural education was studied. Curso Linguagens e Códigos da Universidade Federal dos Vales do Jequitinhonha e Mucuri (UFVJM). In the thesis, narrative interviews were conducted with a group of 15 undergraduates in order to understand their relationships/conceptions of writing. Then, it was possible to notice the importance of the female figure in the fight for a free, high quality rural education. Mothers, wives, girlfriends, were widely mentioned as having decisive roles in students entering as well as their remaining in the undergraduate course. Thus, it was from the narrative interviews that a question has been posed, and has, in the space of this article, an opportunity for reflection. If women are the ones encouraging their partners, children, brothers, to further their studies, how do such women organize themselves so that they too can study? What is the necessary support so that such women can ‘leave home’? From a methodological point of view, two testimonies from young women coming from different backgrounds were selected.

Be All In

Doctoral programs can be intimidating, and despite the rumors and expectations, potential candidates will never know what the process is until he/she begins his/her journey because the journey is different for each individual. This chapter addresses the lived experiences of how one can finish a doctoral program by combining the correct amount of focus, attitude, and grit. Existing research about completing doctoral programs tend to focus on finding out how completing a program is based on theoretical frameworks, conceptual frameworks, literature reviews, discipline-specific methodological designs, and data analyses. However, there may be limited evidence that researchers who have been recent graduates are currently persisting candidates have approached the issue of starting and completing a program. Consequently, this chapter purports through the lived experiences of a recent completer to problematize the intent of building a cohesive understanding of the four quarters of the relationships that can exist between players make up the team needed to “be all in” the doctoral process.

Networked in or Networked Out? What Can We Learn from Diverse Learners’ Experiences of Progressing with and Completing Doctoral Studies?

Socialisation of the doctoral candidate into a community of researchers has been identified as an important aspect of the doctoral process and key to the production of original and innovative research. Yet, access to research communities and learning networks can be difficult for non-traditional students, for example part-time, international and non-science-based doctoral candidates, compared to their full-time and science-based peers. Drawing on Actor-Network Theory and Psychosocial theories of Agency, the current Ph.D. research proposes a methodology (questionnaire and interview) to explore doctoral candidates’ experiences of interacting with the academic institution (face-to-face and online) and developing support networks as influencing doctoral progression and completion. This article will discuss the preliminary findings from the study, drawing on the experiences of a diverse body of participants (e.g. full-time, part-time and international students) within the university sector in Ireland. The findings from this study can provide insights to policymakers and practitioners on supporting learners within Higher Education in Europe, not just within the doctoral process, but at different stages within the Bologna Qualifications Framework.

Creating a Warmth Against the Chill: Poetry for the Doctoral Body

Using a series of poetry conversations, the authors give voice to their experiences of the doctoral process to illuminate the emotional and affective-political experience, and engage with the neo-liberal powers of the doctoral journey. They write poems to remember the body, and bring justice to the many bodies that have experienced the chill inside the “ivory tower.”