Part time EdD student:

  I have recently been thinking a lot about the student-supervisor working relationship and why it is so important. Firstly, my experience of my doctoral studies so far has been a combination of overwhelming and lonely in many aspects as I have gone back to studying after more than ten years away from the classroom.  My first few months felt really alien and I constantly wondered if I was really able to achieve at the level required to succeed. My discussions with my supervisor made me almost feel like a toddler as I felt it quite difficult to openly express where I wanted my research to go and what I hoped it could deliver. This is normal at the start as your academic vocabulary or understanding of the doctoral requirements will not have developed to the standard required to perhaps help you shape your views from an academic perspective.  I felt that my supervisor was able to take my layman's terms and decipher where I wanted to take my research and as time has progresse...

  You may be aware that often, full-time PhD students are encouraged to teach on various programmes, predominantly to undergraduate students. This is an opportunity to both share aspects of their research and their point of view with others, as well as an opportunity to make some additional income on the side.  As a part-time EdD student, the same teaching opportunities don't appear to be as available. But as someone who is keen to build my academic experience as well as have an opportunity to talk about my research and share my thoughts, I wanted to have the option to deliver some sort of teaching.  I am lucky in that I have worked in Higher Education for a number of years, allowing me to build connections with numerous academics. Through these connections, I have openly talked about my interest in perhaps delivering guest lectures from an ethnographic perspective where I am able to bring theoretical concepts to life by using my own commercial work experiences as case st...

As you may have gathered from the posts on here, I love learning the practical aspects of completing a doctorate successfully. I am interested in people and how they experience their PhD journey, the tools, tips and tricks that they employ to get them through each step of the process and succeed. One of the blogs I read to learn about other peoples aspects of PhD life is Pubs and Publications  and I find the posts there a real breath of fresh air. People write about their ups and downs of PhD life in a manner that feels therapeutic, humorous and that makes me want to read more of the posts. I reached out to them earlier this year and offered to contribute a guest post for them. I wasn't too sure if they would agree to my contribution and I was over the moon when they came back and said that they would love for me to write a post for them. So I wrote a post about how I juggle full-time work, part-time PhD, being a parent and all the rest of life and it was published early in May....

The summer has completely flown by and i feel like all i have done is work (my full time job) whilst parenting my 2 year old son and trying to read for my EdD in and around and when I can. We managed a week in Wales by the beach and that was heaven to simply switch off and enjoy a sunny week. Admittedly the laptop did come with me and I read a journal or two per night just to feel like i was keeping on top of things. I had an assignment deadline early September and when i got into writing my assignment I realised that this task had asked a lot more of us than previous assignments. I had a couple of days where I panicked and I scolded myself for leaving things a bit last minute. I had some really insightful and motivating chats with my supervisor and I hunkered down and made my deadline. With Covid and the constant changing rules and the increasing pressures at work, I have really questioned my position as a doctoral student throughout the summer and I have gone from thoughts and feelin...

I was offered the opportunity of presenting my research ideas at the University of Bristol's School of Education  virtual conference that took place on the 5th and 6 the June and even though I didn't feel that aspects of my research were ready to present I took this opportunity to at least attempt a presentation.  My research is looking at the marketisation of the UK higher education system, neoliberalism and the effects that this may be having on the teaching and learning experience. My initial focus was to consider how students are experiencing education but through my job working with academics on research funding opportunities, I am becoming more exposed to how academics are feeling about so many chances, mechanisms and demands on their performance. I am now leaning towards designing my research project in a way that focuses on academic identities but more on that as it unfolds over the coming couple of months, then years.  I presented on Michel Fouc...

When contemplating applying for a PhD I was pretty set on the fact that my research would have to be quantitive in terms of data-heavy, or qualitative where I only considered interviews as a source of data. Without being either of these, how could my research possibly contribute to existing knowledge and be of any value to both the academic and wider societies? Having been on my EdD course for almost two years I have been exposed to a wide range of methods for data collection and this has really inspired my thinking as I develop my own plans for my research. I am also in a lucky position to be working at a university where I interact with academics on a regular basis and I hear a lot about their research and the methods that they use in data collection and this, combined with my studies has really opened my eyes to vast opportunities available in conducting research. My most recent study-block on the EdD course introduced a number of methods for data collection and all of these methods...

I get weirdly hung up on aspects of my experience of my PhD and one thing that continuously worries me and pops into my head making me evaluate how I am progressing is how I organise my literature and ensure that it is easily found again when it comes to writing up my thesis. Now I wouldn't say there is one key way of doing this as there isn't. It will very much depend on you as a person and your preference for your working methods. Before settling on my current method of working, I tried to find a number of options that other academics had used successfully and I found that no two people seem to do this the same way and this frustrated me as I was hoping for maybe 3 or 4 good options for doing this. In a previous post all about reference management software , I talk about Zotero  and I also give some useful tips on using this programme.  I would say it's not important what reference management software you use but it is important to learn the functions and limita...

For me, practical skills, as well as tips and techniques for succeeding, are vital for me to feel comfortable doing something properly. This is one area where I have scoured the internet looking for blog posts, articles or even Youtube videos (many of which have helped) with clear tips in progressing through a doctoral degree. I understand that a PhD journey is supposed to be experienced through being neck-deep in literature and in throwing yourself into various theoretical perspectives but I don't feel comfortable in doing that unless I have a process for achieving that successfully. I need a step 1, step 2, step 3 kind of process to follow in order for work to become habit-forming. that's what makes me comfortable and what helps me to succeed. The problem with providing this information is that everyone does things differently and depending on the focus of your research, tips and tricks may not suit every area of expertise. The first few months of my doctorate I felt re...

so I haven't posted for a couple of weeks as I have just been up to my ears in deadlines for both work and study and in order to make these deadlines something had to be dropped and the blog got it. this morning I was reading through some blog posts on Pubs and Publications  and I came across a post that was focused on the journey of the PhD and that all-encompassing feeling of being overwhelmed and perhaps out of your depth? I signed up to my EdD  in 2018 and the initial feeling of excitement was quickly replaced with a feeling of inferiority, inexperience and incapability and I sat down one night to read and wondered whether I had made the right choice in actually going through with my plans to gain my doctorate. My free time was being taken up with reading papers that felt above my reading levels and the intellectual discussions that were taking place on various subject areas really just made me feel even more isolated from the doctoral journey. it was over coffe...

At the moment Covid 19 is spreading globally with many people working from home as countries go into lockdown. This pandemic is horrific and the news in the UK feels like its scaremongering rather than delivering facts. Many are feeling fed up, bored and pissed off with being housebound and unable to get on with their normal lives. I totally get all of these feelings. But at the same time, I am feeling more productive when it comes to my studies as there isn't much else to do.  Many TV channels have stopped filming new episodes of programmes and channels are either filled with repeats or news updates that are needed but also really depressing. So I have got myself into a really good routine that is helping distract my brain from this terrible pandemic but is also progressing my research and planning for my research project.  During the day I am working from home in the living room while my two-year-old is in the room watching tv, playing and enjoying taking ce...

Follow my blog with Bloglovin A massive part of being a doctoral student is independent study, research and the learning of study skills and tips to make things easier. It's not all handed to you on a plate.  Not to worry though as there are plenty of blogs, websites, twitter feeds etc to offer quick and easy solutions to make you feel like you're winning. One key tool you'll need is reference management software and there are a few different options to consider. Your university may recommend a particular software but it doesn't mean you have to use that or stick to that one. My university recommends  RefWorks , but I tried it for a few weeks and just couldn't get into using it successfully. So I googled and found other options   EndNote ,  Mendeley , and  Zotero . a lot of the information I was finding was leading me to believe that Zotero was probably going to be most suitable for me as its compatible with mac and I use apple products. I r...

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...