Getting Your PhD

A Practical Insider′s Guide

Harriet Churchill, Teela Sanders

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2007
• ISBN:
  9781446228715
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Research in Education

How to get your Ph.D is an original study guide aimed at prospective and current postgraduate students, covering the process of accessing, undertaking and completing doctoral research in the social sciences and the humanities.

The content is unique in incorporating discussion of the less recognised personal, emotional and organisational demands of independent study. Drawing on a variety of student experiences, the authors apply a case study approach to examine the dilemmas and complexities of postgraduate study. The book is organised into four parts covering the research process; writing, publishing and networking; shifting identities and institutions and relationships of support. Each chapter includes an easy to use format including real-life accounts, tips and strategies for problem solving and guidance for additional resources.

The guide includes accessible advice and guidance across a spectrum of methodological, personal, emotional, practical and institutional issues.

SAGE Study Skills are essential study guides for students of all levels. From how to write great essays and succeeding at university, to writing your undergraduate dissertation and doing postgraduate research, SAGE Study Skills help you get the best from your time at university. Visit the SAGE Study Skills hub for tips, resources and videos on study success!

Part I

Negotiating the Research Process

The first part of the book introduces some of the questions that arise at the very early stages of thinking about doing a PhD and the steps necessary to find out about courses, institutions and supervisors. This section really is about ‘negotiation’ as this is at the heart of the induction phase into the PhD process and returning to education, which can be a daunting experience for many. In Chapter 1 we discuss some of the motivations that drive people to take on this task of producing an original piece of work in three years working full-time or six years part-time! Here we explore a range of motivations for doing the PhD and encourage you to choose a topic that will keep you fired up for the whole time. We hope this will clarify some of your own initial thoughts and also make you realise that the decision to do a PhD needs time as it is a significant life commitment. Chapter 2 deals with a question that has confused many students, including the authors, and is something that our own PhD students continually struggle with. It is not a simple process to pin your wide and general interests about a topic down to a research question that is focused and yet feasible. In this chapter we provide some broader understanding about the process of question formulation and offer some techniques for reducing down your ideas into a technical inquiry.

Chapter 3 is the first of two chapters that examines the relationship between the doctoral student and their supervisor (also see Chapter 15). Undoubtedly one of the most important aspects of conducting a PhD and yet sometimes the most anxious, we think about how you are allocated (or perhaps choose) an academic to supervise your work. Unpicking the many facets of the relationship, we acknowledge that changes in supervisors are sometimes inevitable and offer some solutions as to how to manage what can be an unsettling time. No doubt from undergraduate courses you will be aware that research is not conducted in a bubble, but that ethics is intrinsic to the research process. As postgraduates you need to take ethical issues within empirical research seriously, as your own research design will be scrutinised to assess whether it is ethical. In Chapter 4 contributors explain how ethics have affected their research, resulting in complex decisions, personal reflection and in some cases richer findings. At the heart of this chapter we explain more about the process of ethical governance which will affect students as they design and carry out research in the field.

The final chapter in Part I looks a little further into the doctoral process by asking ‘What to do with your data?’ Often students are so proficient at data collection and they amass so much information that they have problems making sense of it. This chapter provides techniques and suggestions for managing both qualitative and quantitative data, from preparing the data, familiarisation, coding and reading the findings. This is often a neglected stage in the data collection phase that is given little credence when students begin the doctorate. We hope we can get you to think about data analysis at an early stage as it is as important as formulating a question.

Chapter 1

Motivations for Doing a PhD

What this Chapter Includes:

• The main motivations for doing a PhD
• Discussion of how topics are chosen
• A PhD as career development
• The personal agenda
• Tips on key questions to ask before applying

From our perusal of other ‘how to’ guides written for PhD students we have noted that not many pay attention to the initial motivations for doing a PhD. The reasons behind and pathways to considering and taking on board this endeavour are ultimately what will get you through the difficult patches. Here we explore some of the varied reasons why a PhD becomes a likely option and how subject topics are chosen. We asked the contributors to this book the following questions, which we urge you to ask yourself:

• What were your motivations for doing a PhD?
• How and why did you choose your topic?

We hope that you will take time to reflect on these questions and explore your own motivations for taking on a significant commitment that will put you in the privileged category of approximately 2% of the population who have achieved the highest qualification in the British education system.

So why bother?

Our contributors have provided us with the evidence to suggest there are five core reasons that motivate a PhD: career development; lack of job satisfaction; research as active engagement in politics; a personal agenda; and (sometimes) drifting into the challenge. These different motivating factors will be described through the narratives of the contributors.

Career development

One of the central motivating factors in taking on a PhD is to enhance career progression and development in existing and new occupations. Career development can be enhanced in several ways. For instance, you can already be in a job and consider this higher qualification as the route to quicker promotion, or specialisation. Or you could have reached a natural point in your career where progression to the next level would be smoother with a higher qualification. Sallyann Halliday describes how her desire to develop more critical skills through a concentrated period of research was identified as beneficial to her day job as a contract researcher:

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I felt that I had hit a ‘turning point’ in the work I was currently involved in as a contract researcher. For me, the motivation for doing a PhD was about being able to explore a topic I was really interested in through in-depth study, to widen my knowledge and develop different skills. I wanted to gain skills in critical thought and writing. Doing a PhD was the path I felt I should take and more importantly one I felt that I needed to go down to develop and progress further in my career (or possibly lead to a change in career focus). I saw it as a form of both personal and professional development.

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For others, the desire to ‘be an academic’ meant that the PhD was an inevitable step into becoming a lecturer. Joseph Burridge speaks of how his desire to work in the university setting was the motivation for continually pursuing funding for a PhD:

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From the age of about fifteen I was sure that I wanted to pursue a career in academia, largely because of my love of reading and learning. A PhD was always going to be on the agenda, since it is no longer realistic to hope to begin such a career without one. I attempted to get funding immediately after finishing my first degree, but was unsuccessful and had to self-fund a masters degree as a means to demonstrate my seriousness for the next round of funding competitions. Fortunately it seemed to work and I was successful the second time around!

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Self-funding a one-year postgraduate course is a popular method of finding out whether further study is the right route. Although this is a financial cost, part-time study is always an option before making a big life change by fully committing to a PhD. However, it is not always the case that a PhD ‘was on the cards’ in a person’s life pathway. Sometimes wider dissatisfaction or a desire for another challenge can prompt enrolment onto a PhD programme.

Lack of job satisfaction

While taking on board a PhD can be born out of developing a career path, at the same time a lack of job satisfaction in current employment can be a motivating factor to seek an alternative enterprise. Melanie Shearn describes how dissatisfaction in her employment, coupled with some wider life goals, naturally led her to consider a PhD:

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I had worked in a number of different jobs in related industries and found that I lacked job satisfaction. I wanted to do something that made, in my view, a contribution to society. But so did other people and competition for these jobs was fierce. It seemed to me that the only way to make up for a lack of particular life experiences was to have substantive knowledge and expertise of a topic area. I also really enjoyed querying things and providing answers or direction. I thought that a PhD could combine my substantive interests with research skills.

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BOX 1.1 Don’t enter into a PhD lightly

Make sure you understand the commitment, and try to determine whether you need the PhD to fulfil your career objectives. Also, be honest with yourself – are you really interested in the subject? Do you really have a burning curiosity to find out the answers to your questions?
[Martin Smith]

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Personal agenda

Often it is personal motivations that inspire people to investigate a specific topic or gives them the desire to take on the job of giving voice to marginalised groups, or in some way they want to set the record straight against tides of stereotypes and misinformation that can spuriously inform our understanding of the world. Personal insights or close contact with certain groups, lifestyles or experiences are familiar reasons for pursuing further studies in the social sciences and humanities. Below, Sonali Shah reflects on how her own experiences as an Asian woman living with a physical impairment led her to study for a PhD:

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I applied for a journalism course, passed the entrance exam and was also given a bursary. However, I was not given a place because the employers thought that my disability would prevent me from achieving and coping with the work required. This was seen as a significant turning point in my future professional orientation. It was this and previous experiences of disability discrimination, coupled with the Asian achievement-oriented culture within which I was brought up, that influenced my decision to pursue academic research to investigate what makes a disabled high-flyer.

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No doubt you will meet people with interesting personal connections to their PhD topic and fieldwork site. This can often be an inspirational motivation to take the PhD forward and manage those difficult barriers to getting the job done.

Research as politics

Closely tied to personal experiences, political principles and everyday politics that influence policy and shape our lives, as well as world events, can also be triggers for pursuing further studies. Joseph Burridge describes how his wider interest in political controversies shaped his motivations and ideas for a PhD:

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I had always been interested in controversy and argumentation since it seems to me that they are fairly fundamental to the way in which we relate to one another as human beings socially and politically. I had planned to undertake a more extensive and detailed analysis of the political debate over the repeal of Section 28 – a piece of legislation which has now been repealed but is usually described as having banned the ‘promotion of homosexuality’ – which had been the topic of my masters thesis. However, as I was finishing the thesis, the events of 11th September 2001 took place, and the aftermath seemed to be a location in which I could pursue some similar themes to those that had interested me about Section 28.

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PhDs are not isolated events that exist between the individual, the supervisor and the research subjects. Real life events, political change and the localised and globalised setting of the topic have bearing on motivations as well as the trajectory of the content of the research.

Drifting In

The final factor is not as consciously driven as some of the above reasons for pursuing PhD study. Several contributors described how they drifted into a PhD after undergraduate or postgraduate studies. This notion of drift is not necessarily something we would discourage, as, after all, none of us knows what opportunities are around the corner and we cannot all have clearly thought-out plans from the start. Yet we would add a cautionary tale to those scenarios that lead to individuals drifting into a PhD without giving very careful consideration to the entity that is being taken on. Martin Smith spent several years working towards his doctorate but in the end discontinued his studies as the need to ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• List of Contributors
• Introduction
• Part I: Negotiating the Research Process
• Final Thoughts
• References
• Appendices
• Index