Using qualitative case study as a method, the researchers collected data from four PhD returnees specializing in teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and inquired about their experiences of teacher identity (re)construction after their return to Chinese universities. The collected data demonstrate that these participants have encountered…

This paper makes a novel contribution to international doctoral education scholarship by offering a detailed examination of pre-application doctoral communications (PADC) between prospective applicants and various university staff members. While PADC is currently an under-considered phenomenon within extant research literature, the paper argues…

A significant feature of contemporary doctoral education is the continuing trend for research and research education to migrate beyond discipline-based institutional teaching and research structures. The result is a more diverse array of settings and arrangements for doctoral education linked to an increasingly global research enterprise.…

Threshold concepts have been widely utilized to understand learning in academic disciplines and student experiences in a disciplinary curriculum. This study considered how threshold concepts might operate within an interdisciplinary setting. Data were collected through interviews with 40 doctoral students enrolled in an interdisciplinary program…

Ethics, and its application in academe and society, is a subject of tremendous importance. Ethics education and courses of study are the foundations for developing ethical public servants, educators, researchers, and leaders. Ethics, while universally recognized as important, is not universally integrated into college curricula, few colleges take…

This article describes a phenomenological approach to doing educational inquiry and understanding learning. Working within the qualitative tradition, the research is conceived as 'narrow and deep', intimate research that focuses definitively on internality and on first-hand experiences of learning. The theoretical background for doing…

This account of practice explores the benefits and challenges of using Action Learning (AL) with junior researchers. Findings are grounded in an AL set of six doctoral students, organised and convened by the author. The case study reveals the range of emotional and structural hurdles that Ph.D. candidates typically face in completing their…

Since the early 21st century the number of doctoral students leaving their own country to study abroad has risen significantly adding to swelling numbers of domestic students. The process of doctoral studies has been acknowledged as identity transformation, a process of "becoming" for domestic students and international students. What…

Despite gains in baccalaureate and master's degree attainment, women continue to earn lower shares of doctor of philosophy degrees (PhDs) in many fields, a pattern that is often pronounced in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). This article uses comparative case study to understand organizational trajectories toward gender parity…

The purpose of this study was to examine the ways in which literacy histories and present literacy experiences of doctoral students shaped their literacy identities. Data were collected through surveys, interviews, and visual identity representations. This paper focuses on the literacy stories of two doctoral students with positive literacy…

This study describes research examining the expectations and experiences of PhD students undertaking a PhD in off-campus research institutes and hospitals that are affiliated with an Australian research-intensive university. Much of our knowledge of the expectations and experiences of PhD students in Australia stem from those that undertake…

In this case study, the results and recommendation following the redesign process of an advanced engineering course for Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) students is presented. Three Ph.D. students from the college of electrical engineering in United Arab Emirates university enrolled in the course during one academic semester. The Ph.D. supervisor for…

Examining the role of humanities graduate preparation programs in facilitating underrepresented undergraduate students' socialization to the field (social context) of graduate education, this critical multisite case study finds that these programs are crucial to bidirectional anticipatory socialization for graduate education, where one gains new…

The purpose of this article is to examine student retention rates and graduation among a doctoral program at a Mid-Atlantic institution. This qualitative study found that faculty encouragement, self-motivation, the cohort model, and the structure of this program contributed to its success. The authors recommend a universal model of retention, as…

The learning sciences, as an academic community investigating human learning, emerged more than 30 years ago. Since then, graduate learning sciences programs have been established worldwide. Little is currently known, however, about their disciplinary backgrounds and the topics and research methods they address. In this document analysis of the…