Reflections of a ‘late-career’ early-career researcher: an account of practice

ABSTRACT

This account of practice describes the journey of an ‘accidental academic’ through the Doctoral programme in Business Administration (DBA). It reflects on her experience of action learning and lessons learned to better embed action learning in future DBA teaching and assessment. The account is told from the perspective of a mature student straddling business and academic interests. DBA students represent a mature cohort with significant business experience and responsibility. As such, they have an implicit understanding of action learning. Action learning for these individuals should be re-activated rather than re-learned for their doctoral studies. Suggestions are made for improving the utility of action learning for DBA students and their willing engagement in the action learning process.

KEYWORDS:

• Action learning
• mature students
• critical reflection
• metaphor

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Catherine Groves is a recent DBA graduate from Liverpool Business School. Her research is focussed on the role of the individual within entrepreneurship. She is a senior lecturer and business psychologist with extensive experience in business coaching and management consultancy.