Doctoral students as journal editors: non‐formal learning through academic work

Abstract

Much attention has been paid to formal pedagogic elements of the doctorate – supervision and other structured institutional provisions – but we know less about the role played by non‐formal practices in doctoral students’ learning. This paper explores the experiences of eight doctoral students involved in editing student‐run journals. Editorship and reviewing manuscripts are presented as part of academic service – important yet overlooked aspects of academic work, which may be opaque to doctoral students. The analysis draws on concepts relating to workplace learning to understand what these student editors learned and how they learned it. It also pays explicit attention to learners’ prior learning and experiences and the role these played in their editorial work.

Keywords:

• doctoral education
• journal editing
• non‐formal learning
• workplace learning

Acknowledgements

The research reported here was funded by a grant from the Centre for Excellence in Work‐Based Learning for Education Professionals, hosted by the Institute of Education, University of London. The author wishes to thank Clare Brooks for her role as critical friend, members of the Oxford Learning Institute’s writing group for the feedback on early drafts and the reviewers of Higher Education Research & Development for their helpful suggestions. At the time this research was carried out, the author was a Research officer at the Centre for Excellence in Preparing for Academic Practice, and thus wishes to acknowledge the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE).