Reflections on writing and identity: exploring the role of qualifying exams in the sociocultural development of doctoral students

ABSTRACT

This qualitative study focuses on critical incidents identified by three U.S. PhD students as they reflected on the process of writing qualifying examinations. This study is couched in sociocultural conceptions of literacy, which view the qualifying exam as a social practice. Extending previous research of doctoral student writing and utilising a form of critical incident analysis, we found that navigating (1) the writing process, (2) claims to authority, and (3) relationships with mediational agents were important factors in participants’ successful academic writing and advanced disciplinary belonging. Practical implications suggested by this study include exploring the genres that lead to and support qualifying exams, providing conversational workshops with doctoral students and faculty about the academic writing process, and explicitly supporting students’ identity development through the writing process. This project also supports the value of critical incident analysis as a tool for studying conceptual transformations in academic writers as they transition from doctoral students to candidates to professionals in higher education.

KEYWORDS:

• Qualifying examination
• doctoral experience
• PhD students
• critical incident
• writing

Acknowledgments

For this research there is no grant or other funding information to report.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 As a note of clarification: Our program uses the term ‘comprehensive’ rather than ‘qualifying’ exam; in an effort to make this study more accessible to international audiences we adopt the term ‘qualifying’ examination throughout this manuscript, except in quotes from participants.