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“Feeling more academic now”: Doctoral stories of becoming an academic

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Abstract

It is commonly believed that the doctorate prepares students for academic careers. While there is wide ranging literature about the development of doctoral students as researchers, preparation for the other aspects of academic careers, e.g. teaching, is mostly absent from the discussion. This qualitative longitudinal study investigated the shift from doctoral identities to academic identities using narrative inquiry. It examined the narratives of 15 doctoral students from two large Australian universities, who were approaching thesis submission and who aspired to academic employment. Two contrasting stories illuminated in-depth accounts of how academic identities were developed and experienced. Students defined their identities and assessed their academic development in relation to their perceived ‘market value’ in academia. To increase their employability, they engaged in university teaching and focused on strategic networking. Students regarded researcher development as the main focus of the doctorate as being insufficient for an academic career. This paper argues that doctoral education needs to facilitate student agency, encourage synergies between teaching and research, and support non-academic work experiences to strengthen researcher identity development.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Macquarie University Research Excellence Scholarship. My supervisors Dr Agnes Bosanquet, Prof Robyn Dowling and Dr Theresa Winchester-Seeto deserve special thanks. Agnes, in particular, provided generous feedback on the earlier drafts. I am also grateful to my research participants and the anonymous reviewers who provided valuable comments in the writing process.

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  1. The University of Sydney Business School, The University of Sydney, Room 5154, Abercrombie Building (H70), Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia

    Lilia Mantai

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  1. Lilia Mantai
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Correspondence to Lilia Mantai.

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Mantai, L. “Feeling more academic now”: Doctoral stories of becoming an academic. Aust. Educ. Res. 46, 137–153 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-018-0283-x

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