Part time EdD student:

Throughout my studies so far there have been plenty of times where I feel lost, feel like nothing is progressing and even feel like the literature I am looking for just isn't out there. in my last post , I talked about feeling overwhelmed and how it was an irrational feeling that I could resolve.  When I have felt stuck in my research I have always tried to talk this through with friends or family and most of the time, if they haven't done in-depth research then they don't really understand the angst and frustration that comes with feeling lost. They are always encouraging and try to motivate me to continue and I try my best not to lose patience with them as I know that they are only trying to help. Reaching out to academic connections to vent about being stuck or lost or confused or all of the above, they often listen and nod as they understand my current situation and then they always offer the same advice. KEEP READING! and then I feel pissed off. as at that m...

At the moment my studies are getting to me as I am in a spiral of constantly second-guessing myself and I want to write about it here to try and undo some of the harsh feelings I am going through. Now anyone that knows me will know that I am not someone to give in easily but my latest assignment has really played with my head. Assignment: This assignment came in two parts - part 1 was a ten-minute presentation looking at a particular situation through the lenses of two theoretical perspectives. The second part of the assignment is an opportunity to take the same presentation and expand on it in a written assignment. I think where my struggles come from is that I perhaps don't fully understand the two theories that I have chosen and that I haven't read enough. For the presentation, I scored 66% which is a fantastic mark here in the UK, so I am obviously doing something right. In preparing for the presentation I was never fully happy with the content of the presentatio...

Article by McMillan and Cheney really interested me. How society uses metaphors to create images that they want us to see.

When I started my course I wasn’t too worried about my area of research as I knew this was something I had a real interest in and that I would enjoy reading about and expanding my knowledge. I spent years working in university student recruitment and marketing. I knew a lot about the subject area and I had plenty of connections to reach out to for further information and insight. I was quite worried about my ability to succeed as a student again. Would I have the will power and self-motivation to ensure that I did well on the course? Saying yes to this was easy, but actually ensuring that it happened has not been easy at all. Typical study skills that a student should have made me apprehensive. Academic writing is an area I wasn’t strong in and a comment from an academic during my masters and the quality of my writing has always stuck with me. It’s both hindered and speared me on. I was clearly told my one of the lecturers in my masters that she didn’t feel my writing was of su...

I talked a little about the Doctor of Education (EdD) in my previous post but I wanted to go into a bit more detail as to why I have found this method of studying for a doctorate part-time to be something that I have enjoyed and also found manageable.  As someone who had been away from studying for a significant amount of time, I felt both excited and apprehensive about signing up to a major research project that I would design carry out and then write up. Would I be able to do it? Do I have the personal drive to complete? Is my area of research fitting for such a huge study? Did I and could I master the skills required to complete? Just some of the questions that went round in my head and sometimes still go round in my head. I felt comfortable that the first part of the EdD is taught for various reasons. Firstly, rather than simply being told to get on with researching, you are in a class where there is a structure to what is being taught and that provides a ...

A lot of people tell me I'm mad to be juggling a full-time job, part-time study alongside being a new parent to a little boy we adopted less than one year ago, plus still have time to socialize, see friends and do other things I enjoy such as cooking, reading and watching tv. The truth is, I've always kept myself busy doing stuff. It just so happens that the stuff I am busy doing now could be seen to be more important than the stuff I did before I gained all these responsibilities. Before I bought a house, found a demanding job and started studying, I would have regularly gone out to see friends, traveled around at the weekend and I partied too much. I enjoyed all of that and don't regret anything. But there comes a time in your life when you just cant stay up late and party then get up to work and have a responsible life. It was like a switch where I suddenly had a complete change in what I wanted to do and how I wanted to spend my time. Getting accepted onto a doct...

In my last post , I mentioned that I am interested in perceptions of higher education marketing. This stemmed from having worked in higher education marketing and recruitment for many years and I experienced the good and the bad of how universities market themselves.  One of my frustrations when working in university marketing and student recruitment was that marketing campaigns and activities were being decided for international markets, by people who had never been to those markets and who had little to no cultural awareness and understanding of what would work or not work in those markets. I often gave feedback on ideas that would not work and this often fell on deaf ears. The investment in recruitment and marketing in UK universities has increased tenfold since the 21st century started and universities are operating more and more like a business than they ever did. Over the last ten years or so the UK higher education sector has gone through dramatic marketization and...

So this is a question I am often asked by people and I can understand that this must be confusing, as I was confused initially too. I inquired about a traditional part-time Ph.D. through the business school at UWE and I was excited to be having conversations with potential supervisors that were helping to shape my research focus. I then met with the graduate school in the business school to find out more about the application process since I thought I had found a strong potential supervisor. My meeting with the graduate school was fine but it didn't leave me feeling that I would be a suitable candidate. If anything, it made me feel that I wasn't making the right choice in applying. So I parked the Ph.D. idea again, although the niggle was still there. Through my job I had a meeting with an academic in a different faculty about a work-related possible research project and while we chatted this academic mentioned that he decided against the traditional Ph.D. route and wa...

read the book and put some comments

So you may be sat reading this, I hope, and wondering why I have decided to blog while working on my Ph.D.? You may also be thinking that a Ph.D. should be enough work without managing a blog and having to deal with post ideas and comments etc. 1. A major part of doing a Ph.D. is having a concept, an idea and a bit of a vision that may not be quite clear yet. Writing about it, sharing these ideas and receiving feedback is a fantastic way to think more and to narrow down the idea into something workable and realistically achievable. 2. Another major part of a Ph.D. is writing a thesis and writing that many words well takes time but also a lot of practice. My thesis is to be 60,000 words, which is no mean feat, and so getting in some practice early, getting used to thinking, planning writing and then editing will all hopefully help in the long term. Confidence is another issue relating to writing. Academic writing is a genre all of its own and it can be daunting presenting profess...

Hello and thank you for stopping by my blog. My name is Craig and I am always busy. I work full time in higher education working in research business and innovation, I'm a part-time doctoral student working on my doctor of education qualification, I have a 2-year-old son who is amazing plus I work as a copywriter for small businesses. I have worked in higher education marketing and student recruitment for a number of years and as the landscape of marketing and recruitment changes rapidly I am fascinated with the marketization of the UK higher education sector and the challenges that this brings. More recently there has been a wave of interest in looking at students as consumers and how this focus is changing the learning landscape, the identities of students, academics and professional services staff at universities is really interesting.  Students don't seem to be attending university and accepting courses as they are designed and delivered, working towards meeting the s...