Feeling like a researcher: experiences of early doctoral students in Australia

Abstract

Becoming a researcher is one of the roads travelled in the emotional, social, and intellectual process of PhD journeys. As such, developing a researcher identity during doctoral study is a social undertaking. This paper explores instances and practices where doctoral students identify as becoming researchers. Based on interviews with 30 PhD students from two Australian metropolitan universities, this paper presents students' experiences of moments when they feel like researchers. The paper finds identification as a researcher occurs early on in the PhD, and such instances are underpinned by external and internal validation of the student as a researcher. Validation is gained through research outputs (mainly publications), doing research, and talking about research. Such experiences are often mundane, occur daily, and constitute personal, social, informal, and formal learning opportunities for researcher development. Supervisors are largely absent as students draw on multiple individuals on and off campus in assuming a researcher identity.

Keywords:

• researcher identity
• researcher development
• doctoral education
• doctoral experience
• social support in PhD
• becoming a researcher

Acknowledgements

I thank Macquarie University for the support that allows me to undertake this research. My Principal Supervisor Prof Robyn Dowling deserves special thanks in providing guidance and continuous feedback in this research. I thank my Associate Supervisor Dr Theresa Winchester-Seeto, my colleagues Dr Agnes Bosanquet and Dr Kerry-Ann O'Sullivan, and my Writing Group for their valuable comments and feedback on the early drafts. Finally, I thank all my participants for sharing their stories and wish them a successful journey to becoming researchers.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Doctoral ‘students’ and ‘candidates’ are used interchangeably in this paper.