Identity and agency: pleasures and collegiality among the challenges of the doctoral journey |
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| Authors: | Lynn McAlpine Cheryl Amundsen |
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| Institution: | 1. McGill University , Canada lynn.mcalpine@mcgill.ca;3. Simon Fraser University , Canada |
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| Abstract: | How do doctoral students develop their identities as academics? In this analysis, we explore identity from the perspective of agency – humans as active agents. The analysis was based on the collective data from three earlier studies in different contexts. Embedded in the data were expressions of agency linked to affect – both positive and negative – in which doctoral students were acting to shape and not just be shaped by their experiences. Key findings were evidence of collective student identity as well as supervisors modeling and affirming student agency. Both these findings are pertinent in rethinking doctoral pedagogies: the latter provides a model for supervisors to explicitly model student agency, and the former suggests the value of creating opportunities for collective identity in which students act as positive agents in improving their own doctoral experiences. |
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| Keywords: | identity doctoral student agency affect |
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