Challenging the taken-for-granted: how research analysis might inform pedagogical practices and institutional policies related to doctoral education

Abstract

Taken-for-granted pedagogical practices and institutional policies are often built without evidence of effectiveness, or can result from external calls for accountability that are often accepted given the lack of evidence to challenge them. We argue the need for evidence-based perspectives to support the rethinking of such practices and policies related to doctoral education and potentially to challenge external drivers that are placing increasing demands on academics. We have been particularly attentive to using our research findings for this purpose, and in this article we describe two examples of how we have drawn evidence from our research that challenges the taken-for-granted. We hope that describing our approach may stimulate other researchers to emphasize the specific implications of their research findings as regards influencing change towards more research-informed institutional practices and policies.

Keywords:

• doctoral education
• academic practice
• doctoral supervision
• doctoral writing
• policy making

Acknowledgements

We thank the research team whose work has contributed to the ideas underpinning the development of this paper: Shuhua Chen, Barbara Edwards, Allison Gonsalves, Marian Jazvac-Martek, Anthony Pare, Doreen Starke-Meyerring and Larissa Yousoubova. This research was supported in part by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.