Oscillating role identities: the academic experiences of education doctoral students

Abstract

This paper reports initial results from a larger qualitative study on doctoral student experiences in the PhD process. The social‐psychological notion of ‘role identities’ is introduced as a complimentary framework for gaining insights into doctoral experiences. Findings from qualitative thematic analyses of questionnaire and interview data highlight doctoral student agency in the PhD process and oscillations between student and academic role‐identities.

Keywords:

• doctoral education
• role identity
• doctoral student identity
• academic identity