The Routledge Doctoral Student's Companion: Getting to Grips with Research in Education and the Social Sciences (Companions for PhD and DPhil Research)

444 Pages·2010·6.09 MB·English

by  Pat Thomson

The Routledge Doctoral
’
Student s Companion
It is clear that, in the contemporary world, a wide range of practitioners in diverse pro-
fessional settings, need to study beyond master level. Students across the world are
choosing doctorates not only to become career academics, but also to go beyond the
academic arena, in order to make a personal and educational, as well as an economic
investment, in their workplace careers and their lives. However, for many doctoral stu-
dents, both full-time and part-time, navigating the literature and key issues surrounding
doctoral research can often be a challenge.
Bringing together contributions from key names in the international education arena,
The Routledge Doctoral Student’s Companion is a comprehensive guide to the literature
surrounding doctorates, bringing together questions, challenges and solutions normally
scattered over a wide range of texts. Accessible and wide-ranging, it covers all doctoral
students need to know about:
(cid:1) What doctoral education means in contemporary practice
(cid:1) Forming an identity and knowledge as a doctoral student
(cid:1) The big questions that run throughout doctoral practice
(cid:1) Becoming a researcher
(cid:1) The skills needed to conduc t research
(cid:1) Integrating oneself into a scholarly community.
Offering an extensive and rounded guide to undertaking doctoral research in a single
volume, this book is essential reading for all full-time and part-time doctoral students in
education and related disciplines.
Pat Thomson is Professor of Education at the University of Nottingham, and an
Adjunct Professor at the University of South Australia and a Visiting Professor at Deakin
University, Victoria, Australia.
Melanie Walker is Professor of Higher Education at the University of Nottingham, and
is also Extraordinary Professor at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa.

The Routledge Doctoral
’
Student s Companion
Getting to grips with research
in Education and the Social Sciences
Edited by
Pat Thomson and Melanie Walker
Thisfirst editionpublished2010
byRoutledge
2ParkSquare, MiltonPark, Abingdon,Oxon,OX144RN
Simultaneously publishedin theUSA andCanada
byRoutledge
270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2010.
To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.
©2010PatThomson andMelanieWalkerforselection andeditorial material. Individualchapters, the
contributors.
Allrights reserved. Nopartofthisbookmaybereprinted orreproduced orutilisedinany formorby
anyelectronic,mechanical,orothermeans,nowknownorhereafterinvented,includingphotocopying
andrecording,orinanyinformationstorageorretrievalsystem,withoutpermissioninwritingfromthe
publishers.
BritishLibrary Cataloguing inPublication Data
Acataloguerecord forthisbookisavailable from theBritishLibrary
Library ofCongressCataloging inPublication Data
TheRoutledgedoctoralstudent’scompanion:gettingtogripswithresearchineducationandthesocial
sciences/edited byPatThomsonand MelanieWalker. –1sted.
p.cm.
1.Education–Study andteaching(G raduate)–Handbooks, manuals, etc.2.Education–Research–
Handbooks, manuals, etc.3.Socialsciences–Research–Handbooks, manuals, etc.4.Socialsciences–
Study and teaching (Secondary) –Handbooks, manuals, etc. 5. Doctoral students–Handbooks, manuals,
etc.I.Thomson, Pat,1948-II.Walker, Melanie.III.Title:Doctoralstudent’scompanion.
LB2372.E3R682010
370.7’2–dc22
2009044881
ISBN 0-203-85224-9 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN10:0-415-48411-1 (hbk)
ISBN10:0-415-48412-X (pbk)
ISBN10:0-203-85224-9 (ebk)
ISBN13:978-0-415-48411-4 (hbk)
ISBN13:978-0-415-48412-1 (pbk)
ISBN13:978-0-203-85224-8 (ebk)
Contents
List of figures ix
List of tables x
Notes on contributors xi
PART 1
Introduction 1
Why The Doctoral Companions?
P. Thomson and M. Walker
1 Doctoral education in context 9
The changing nature of the doctorate and doctoral students
P. Thomson and M. Walker

PART 2
Becoming and being a doctoral student 27
M. Walker and P. Thomson
2 Ignorance in educational research 31
How not knowing shapes new knowledge
J. Wagner
3 When qualitative meets quantitative 43
Conversations about the nature of knowledge
E. McWilliam and J. Tan
4 Interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity 52
Diverse purposes of research: theory-oriented, situation-oriented,
policy-oriented
D. Gasper
v
CONTENTS
5 The necessity and violence of theory 68
S. J. Ball
6 Bringing theory to doctoral research 76
K. N. Gulson and R. J. Parkes
7 Seeking the single thread 85
The Conceptual Quest
F. Su, J. Nixon and B. Adamson
8 Theory and narrative in the production of knowledge 96
J. Barr
9 Making sense of supervision 107
Deciphering feedback
A. Paré
10 Entering the gates of the elect 116
Obtaining the doctorate in education in South Africa
C. Soudien
11 Weaving the threads of doctoral research journeys 128
J. Wellington
PART 3
Coming to terms with research practice 143
M. Walker and P. Thomson
12 It’s been said before and we’ll say it again – research is writing 149
P. Thomson and B. Kamler

13 Constructing research questions: focus, methodology and theorisation 161
J. Pryor
14 Research questions 172
What’s worth asking and why?
A. Brown
15 ‘There is no golden key’ 183
Overcoming problems with data analysis in qualitative research
H. Colley
16 Dealing with data analysis 200
A.-M. Bathmaker
17 Researching with large datasets: learning to think big when small is beautiful 213
A. Noyes
vi
CONTENTS
18 Doing data analysis 221
S. Gorard
19 Argumentation and the doctoral thesis: theory and practice 231
M. McLean
20 Writing research 244
M. Piantanida and N. B. Garman
21 ‘Guilty knowledge’ 256
The (im)possibility of ethical security in social science research
K. Williams
22 Dangerous reflexivity 270
Rigour, responsibility and reflexivity in qualitative research
W. S. Pillow
23 Emotions and being a doctoral student 283
C. Herman
PART 4
Making a contribution to knowledge 295
M. Walker and P. Thomson
24 Quality agendas and doctoral work 299
The tacit, the new agendas, the changing contexts
L. Yates
25 Generating practitioner knowledge through practitioner action research 311
Moving from local to publ ic knowledge
G. L. Anderson and K. Herr
26 Coyote and Raven talk about equivalency of other/ed knowledges in research 323
P. Cole and P. O’Riley
27 Knowledge in context 335
Whose knowledge and for what context?
Q. Gu
28 Open access and the ongoing transformation of scholarly publishing 344
A guide for doctoral students
R. Lucas and J. Willinsky
29 Inner university, knowledge workers and liminality 356
T. Szkudlarek
vii
CONTENTS
30 Global students for global education research? 368
I. Menter, J. Da Silveira Duarte and R. Gorur
31 The impact of research on education policy 377
The relevance for doctoral researchers
B. Lingard
32 Last words 390
Why doctoral study?
P. Thomson and M. Walker
Index 403

viii
fi
List of gures
7.1 Contexts of the study 90
7.2 Chinese socio-cultural contexts of origin 91
7.3 British socio-cultural contexts of destination 92
7.4 Institutional contexts 92
11.1 Difficult and interconnected decisions in educational research 131
13.1 Methodology 164
13.2 Focus diagram 167
16.1 Chapters in Ecclestone (2002) 203
16.2 Chapters in Colley (2003) 206
18.1 Teacher vacancies in maintained secondary schools, England, 1985–2002 227
20.1 A call to conscience: problematising educational inclusion 252

ix