My Doctoral Research to Date

As I am focused on writing down the fundamental elements for my doctoral thesis proposal, I thought it may be helpful to summarize the five separate pieces of research I have done during the content portion of my studies at Lancaster University.   

So, here is a summary of the past 2 years of my research:

Paper Title

 Focus

Methodology
1. Educational Explorations of Autoethnographic Inquiry: A Case Study There is limited research around why autoethnographers engage in this method, especially in the context of trying to better understand their goals and intentions for their own work, as well as what is hoped for within the audience. This exploratory case study research will explore the researcher’s learning goals for his or her readers, as well as how the researcher’s own learning develops through the process of conducting the autoethnographic research. Case Study

Partipants were globally located, and were identified through a variety of means; they were not previously linked.

  
2. Autoethnographer Communities of Practice Using Wenger’s Community of Practice theoretical framework, 3 researchers are interviewed about their levels of doctoral support, and in the spirit of their telling their own stories, narrative inquiry is used to share and analyze their perspectives. Narrative Inquiry

Partipants were globally located, and were identified through a variety of means; they were not previously linked.

  
3. Public Transformations: Adult Learners Who Use Social Media to Express and Understand Their Identities as Developing Researchers It is a relatively new phenomenon for learners to publically and transparently engage in their research while also exploring how their identities develop. The purpose of this exploratory ethnographic study is to understand the experiences of adult learners who use social media to express and understand their identities as developing researchers. Exploratory ethnography

Partipants were globally located, and were identified through a variety of means; they were not previously linked.

  
4. Faculty Support: Doctoral Students, Threshold Concepts, and Technology Enhanced Learning Acknowledging the reality of threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge within disciplines, this study is intended to explore and potentially inform academic inquiry for those who seek to improve higher education learning-design by supporting learners who experience shifts in conceiving concepts that were previously uncomplicated. This grounded theory study seeks to better understand the experiences of faculty members who work with doctoral students via distance or technology-enhanced learning who have identified threshold concepts (or trouble spots, breakthrough areas, or defining moments of epistemological or ontological shift that may be pivotal in one’s identity development) for their students and who have found success with helping these learners through this troublesome knowledge. Findings reveal that threshold concepts in doctoral education are more academic-process related, rather than disciplinary content oriented. Grounded theory

Partipants were globally located, and were identified through a variety of means; they were not previously linked.

  
5. Diversity and Aha Moments in Doctoral Student Identity Development This research seeks to explore the connections between four content areas of study that have engaged much of my doctoral work thus far—threshold concepts, transformational learning, identity development, and technology enhanced learning. While these are often considered separately from one another, I have experienced connections between them that I want to explore more fully, with an eye toward my upcoming thesis proposal. Knowing enough about them that they can each be studied independently or as integrated into the study of other phenomena, I will bound them into another area that has captivated my curiosity, doctoral study itself—namely the developing researcher, or more specifically doctoral identity formation or the formation of a research-laden identity. Literature Review

What a useful exercise; I already see some juicy areas for further research . . .