Special Issue: The Doctoral Journey: Perspectives

• Main Authors: Denise Batchelor, Roberto Di Napoli
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: University College London 2006-06-01
• Series: Educate~
• Online Access: http://www.educatejournal.org/index.php?journal=educate&page=article&op=view&path%5B%5D=90

Abstract: 
 A journey entails endings and beginnings, loss and retrieval. It offers a chance
 of change and renewal, but also a risk of disorientation and displacement. Researchers-
 as-voyagers, travel from familiar inner and outer landscapes into unknown territories with
 new horizons. They progress through an itinerary of developing meanings, both
 epistemological and ontological. Researchers-as-voyagers are engaged in a process of
 becoming, and of discovering a voice. The ‘voyage’ tenders experimental possibilities for
 alternative understandings of who they are, who they could be and what they know. It
 opens up transitional spaces for the formation of a new sense of identity. However,
 certain educational practices underpinning contemporary doctoral studies programmes
 may impede the process of self-authorship that is fundamental to research.