Self-portrait with mortar board: a study of academic identity using the map, the novel and the grid

King, Virginia

doi:10.1080/07294360.2012.751525

Cited by 22 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Her third map includes plans as well as current activities, commitments and attributes. Her identity has become interlinked through this process which she has likened to development from adolescence to adulthood, echoing King (2013).…”

Section: Discussion: Visualisation Reflection and Emerging Themes Ofmentioning

confidence: 99%

Collaborative reflections on using island maps to express new lecturers’ academic identity

King

García-Pérez

Graham

et al. 2014

Reflective Practice

Self Cite

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Section: Discussion: Visualisation Reflection and Emerging Themes Ofmentioning

confidence: 99%

Collaborative reflections on using island maps to express new lecturers’ academic identity

King

García-Pérez

Graham

et al. 2014

Reflective Practice

Self Cite

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“…Developing an academic identity can, therefore, be chaotic, particularly for diverse academics who carry the burden of reimagining who an academic can be. Academics' frequent use of metaphors when trying to understand and describe their identities illustrates the difficulty of the task (see, e.g., Billot & King, 2015;King, 2013). This is also true for doctoral students, who often story their academic identity formation through their writing using metaphors such as journeys, valleys, or mountains (see, e.g., Macaulay & Davies, 2019;Moharami, 2019;Wilson & Cutri, 2019).…”

Section: Doctoral Writing Groups Encourage Academic Identity Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pastoral Care in Doctoral Education: A Collaborative Autoethnography of Belonging and Academic Identity

Hradsky

Soyoof

Zeng

et al. 2022

IJDS

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Aim/Purpose: It is increasingly recognized that doctoral education programs should better support doctoral students. In particular, it has been noted that students experience significant isolation during their PhD, which negatively affects their educational experiences and their personal wellbeing. Doctoral writing groups are collaborative learning communities that have in recent years received increasing attention to address this issue. This collaborative autoethnography explores the affective benefits (i.e., benefits associated with emotions and feelings) of these doctoral writing groups, particularly focused on the pastorally supportive nature of these learning communities. Background: Writing groups have been shown to promote academic writing skills and build reflective practice, personal epistemology, and academic identity. We have found that a much more significant benefit of our writing groups has been the pastoral care we have experienced, particularly in relation to the turbulent emotions often associated with academic writing. This should, perhaps, not be surprising since it is clear that academic writing is a form of identity work. There is, therefore, a clear need to better support doctoral students, particularly with regard to the more affective components of academic writing. This prompted us to write this collaborative autoethnography to showcase what we consider to be the primary role of doctoral writing groups: pastoral care. Methodology: We employ a collaborative autoethnographic methodology to integrate our personal reflections into the existing literature in the field. Contribution: We argue that doctoral writing groups are vehicles of pastoral care as they promote wellbeing, foster resilience, provide academic care, and build social capital. Findings: We demonstrate that doctoral writing groups foster students’ sense of belonging through self-reflection and the sharing of experiences in a safe space, which builds perceived self-efficacy and self-awareness. Furthermore, through the self-reflection and discussion that is inherent in doctoral writing groups, students also develop a better understanding of themselves and their place within the academy. Recommendations for Practitioners: Our research highlights that writing groups may be designed to teach academic communication skills, but they provide an affective benefit that cannot yet be quantified and which should not be underestimated. Incorporating writing groups into doctoral education programs can, therefore, have a positive influence on the educational experiences of PhD students and improve their overall wellbeing. This paper concludes by providing practical suggestions to help practitioners implement writing groups into doctoral education programs, particularly focused on how these groups can be made more pastorally supportive. Recommendation for Researchers: This paper also extends the theoretical understanding of pastoral care by providing a framework for pastoral care within the doctoral writing group environment. We show how pastoral care can be conceptualized as the promotion of self-awareness, self-efficacy, reflection, and empowerment of doctoral students through nurturing communities where all members are valued, encouraged, guided, and supported. Our experiences, which we have integrated throughout this paper, also highlight the importance of relationship-building within the educational community, particularly when these relationships are characterized by mutual respect and shared responsibility. Impact on Society: The poor well-being of doctoral students has now been well-established across the world, but strategies to improve the academic environment for these students are still lacking. This paper provides evidence that implementing writing groups as a strategy to embed pastoral care in a doctoral education environment helps doctoral students flourish. Ultimately, this can lead to an improved academic research culture into the future. Future Research: Future research should explore other methods of better integrating pastoral care interventions into doctoral education programs in order to reduce isolation and promote student wellbeing.

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“…This approach is adopted by Winkler (2013) to draw attention to the micro-processes of identity work that help maintain a coherent sense of self within a changing institutional environment, while Empson (2013) examines how the tensions created by conflicting identities may be reconciled. For King (2013) academic identity work is a personal project focused on reconciling individual (internal) and broader externalcontextual factors of (global) higher education. Fitzmaurice 2103…”

Section: Research Into Academic Identitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Chronotopes and timespace contexts: academic identity work revealed in narrative fiction

Pick

Symons

Teo

2015

Studies in Higher Education

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Self-portrait with mortar board: a study of academic identity using the map, the novel and the grid

Cited by 22 publications

References 20 publications

Collaborative reflections on using island maps to express new lecturers’ academic identity

Collaborative reflections on using island maps to express new lecturers’ academic identity

Pastoral Care in Doctoral Education: A Collaborative Autoethnography of Belonging and Academic Identity

Chronotopes and timespace contexts: academic identity work revealed in narrative fiction

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