Shining a light on doctoral reading: implications for doctoral identities and pedagogies

While writing in doctoral education is increasingly visible as a focus for research and pedagogy, what remains less visible is the role of reading in the doctoral journey. This paper draws on data from two parallel research programmes in which doctoral student day-to-day experience was documented longitudinally, initially in the social sciences and more recently in the sciences. The analysis shines a light on the essential role of reading in the development of student thinking, writing and academic identity; pedagogical implications are explored.

[1]  M. Cargill Intercultural postgraduate supervision meetings: An exploratory discourse study , 2008 .

[2]  Huiling Ding,et al.  The Use of Cognitive and Social Apprenticeship to Teach a Disciplinary Genre Initiation of Graduate Students Into NIH Grant Writing , 2008 .

[3]  Becky Kwan,et al.  The nexus of reading, writing and researching in the doctoral undertaking of humanities and social sciences: Implications for literature reviewing , 2008 .

[4]  Christina Haas,et al.  Learning to Read Biology , 1994 .

[5]  S. Leshem,et al.  Overlooking the conceptual framework , 2007 .

[6]  Rosemary Deem,et al.  Doctoral Students' Access to Research Cultures-are some more unequal than others? , 2000 .

[7]  C. Bond,et al.  Becoming an academic: international perspectives , 2011 .

[8]  A. Sfard,et al.  Telling Identities: In Search of an Analytic Tool for Investigating Learning as a Culturally Shaped Activity , 2005 .

[9]  Pat Thomson,et al.  Helping Doctoral Students Write: Pedagogies for supervision , 2006 .

[10]  Robert E. Stake,et al.  Multiple Case Study Analysis , 2005 .

[11]  T. Lillis,et al.  Student Writing in Higher Education: Contemporary confusion, traditional concerns , 2001 .

[12]  B. Kwan Reading in preparation for writing a PhD thesis: Case studies of experiences , 2009 .

[13]  Stephen P. Norris,et al.  How literacy in its fundamental sense is central to scientific literacy , 2003 .

[14]  Johanna Hakala,et al.  Socialization of junior researchers in new academic research environments: two case studies from Finland , 2009 .

[15]  M. Smith,et al.  The Construction Zone , 2009 .

[16]  Christine Pearson Casanave,et al.  Writing Games: Multicultural Case Studies of Academic Literacy Practices in Higher Education , 2002 .

[17]  Lynn McAlpine,et al.  Living and Imagining Academic Identities , 2010 .

[18]  L. McAlpine,et al.  Supervision – the most variable of variables1: student perspectives , 2013 .

[19]  Claire Aitchison,et al.  Research writing: problems and pedagogies , 2006 .

[20]  Chris M. Golde The Role of the Department and Discipline in Doctoral Student Attrition: Lessons from Four Departments , 2005 .

[21]  David Saltmarsh,et al.  Has anyone read the reading? Using assessment to promote academic literacies and learning cultures , 2008 .

[22]  L. McAlpine,et al.  Tracking the Doctoral Student Experience over Time: Cultivating Agency in Diverse Spaces , 2011 .

[23]  Argument in Reading: what does it involve and how can students become better critical readers? , 1999 .