The BELMAS editorial team are delighted to introduce this insightful and thought-provoking blog, ‘The Long and Winding Road of an Educational Leadership Doctoral Journey’.
In this piece, the authors draw on both academic perspectives and personal experiences to reflect on the evolving nature of identity throughout the doctoral journey in educational leadership. Together, they explore the emotional, social, and intellectual demands of navigating multiple roles while undertaking doctoral study. Adopting an insider–outsider lens, the authors offer a powerful account of the shifting identities, tensions, and transformative moments that shape the path towards becoming educational researchers.
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Introduction: Who Do We Think We Are?
Identity development is a crucial element of a student’s doctoral experience (Lesham, 2020). This can often include the fulfilment of many roles simultaneously which can have social, emotional, and cognitive impacts on the student due to engaging in a “constant ‘dance of identities’” (Lesham, 2016, p. 135). Taking an insider-outsider perspective on engaging in education or leadership while studying educational leadership at a doctoral level has significant implications for researcher identity development.
The Process of Becoming Through Doctoral Study
Completing a doctoral degree may be the first step in becoming an academic (McAlpine and Amundsen, 2009) but the authors of this blog found it to be a challenging developmental process. Both authors quickly became aware of the tension between being a simultaneous novice (Dreyfus, 2004) and expert in different personal and professional capacities. However, there are nuances to this as the first author identified as an insider to their research from an educational leadership perspective, while the other author straddled the line between insider and outsider as an educator who did not yet have experience of educational leadership. Their professional educational and leadership skills did not immediately ‘come in handy’ when they were learning the ropes as doctoral researchers. Despite their hugely supportive supervisory team telling them at the beginning of their studies that by the time they complete, they would be the expert of their own research, that felt beyond the realms of possibility and yet it happened. There was no one moment, when either author remembers thinking “I have done it”, rather they experienced an extended journey of learning and growth.
Over time the authors came to view the terms novice and expert as subjective terms, owing to valuable knowledge (Kelly at al., 2021) being located in theory through their student researcher activity, while also located in practice in their professional education and leadership activity. Through a cycle of learning, applying, practicing and reflecting (fig. 1), these doctoral researchers found themselves progressing from a novice, learning about a wide range of research methodologies, to building up experience and competence that gave them confidence to craft and conduct their research study that would ultimately produce data that enhanced their own and other educators and leaders’ professional practice.
Figure 1- Cycle of becoming through doctoral study
Transition Away from Novice and Becoming an Expert
Throughout their doctoral studies the authors experienced several changes in identity, or constructions of self (Dann et al. 2019). Each identity having their respective and combined pressures meant they were in a constant or elongated state of transition involving several revolutions of what the authors refer to as a cycle of becoming (fig. 1). The criticality honed through doctoral study became a useful tool for becoming a reflective (Densten et al., 2001) and reflexive (Hibbert et al., 2014) practitioner.
Educational leadership research at a doctoral level opened their eyes to a more in-depth appreciation for critical reflection as a lens for developing research and professional practice. For the first author, this provided insight into evaluating leadership activity such as the power relations allied with influence when implementing policy. For the second author, one of the key moments of development stemmed from a developed understanding of the space between insider-outsider research (Dwyer and Buckle, 2009) learning to view their identity as far from binary in this respect. Furthermore, their reflexive skills developed through doctoral research enhancing their ability to move into a transformational space in their connections with research participants and colleagues, where assumptions are challenged, and connectedness is appreciated. This ultimately underpinned their ethical and values-driven approach to research and practice (Wilson, 2014), which for doctoral students who may also be in education or educational leadership roles could be quite significant. The experience of becoming an expert has, for these authors, been a process of gradual and ongoing transformation of multiple levels.
Embracing the Change
The transitions experienced through doctoral study, as outlined in this blog, have been hugely valuable to the authors as they move deeper into early career researcher status, where new challenges await, like the process of adaptive leadership (Randall et al., 2007). They will continue to develop skills and knowledge that will equip them for the academic adventures that lie ahead – publications, conference presentations, keynotes, larger research bids, doctoral supervision and hopefully much more.
To current doctoral students, the authors invite you embrace the change and take time to notice the many expressions of becoming. This may be seen or experienced in small ways, but it is all part of the process. Who you are as a researcher and or as a professional and a person is likely to be in a state of flux throughout your doctoral journey but if it is seen as a dance rather than a battle, it is a truly transformative journey.
Dann, R., Basford, J., Booth, C., O’Sullivan, R., Scanlon, J., Woodfine, C. and Wright, P.(2019) ‘The impact of doctoral study on university lecturers’ construction of self within a changing higher education policy context’, Studies in higher education (Dorchester-on-Thames), 44(7), pp. 1166–1182. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2017.1421155.
Densten, I.L. and Gray, J.H. (2001) ‘Leadership development and reflection: what is the connection?’, International journal of educational management, 15(3), pp. 119–124. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1108/09513540110384466.
Dreyfus, S.E. (2004) ‘The Five-Stage Model of Adult Skill Acquisition’, Bulletin of science, technology & society, 24(3), pp. 177–181. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/0270467604264992.
Kelly, S., Nicholson, J., Johnston, P., Duty, D. and Brennan, R. (2021) ‘Experienced professionals and doctoral study: A performative agenda’, Industrial marketing management, 92, pp. 232–243. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2020.02.018.
Hibbert, P., Sillince, J., Diefenbach, T., & Cunliffe, A. L. (2014). Relationally Reflexive Practice: A Generative Approach to Theory Development in Qualitative Research. Organizational Research Methods, 17(3), 278-298. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428114524829
Leshem, S. (2016). Doctoral students identity: Does it matter? In L. Frick, V. Trafford & M. Fourie-Malherbe (Eds.), Being scholarly: Festschrift in honour of the work of Eli M Bitzer (pp.135-143). Stellenbosch: SUN MeDIA.
Leshem, S. (2020). Identity formations of doctoral students on the route to achieving their doctorate. Issues in Educational Research, 30(1), 169-186.
McAlpine, L., & Amundsen, C. (2009). Identity and agency: Pleasures and collegiality among the challenges of the doctoral journey. Studies in Continuing Education, 31(2), 109-125.
Randall, L.M. and Coakley, L.A., 2007. Applying adaptive leadership to successful change initiatives in academia. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 28(4), pp.325-335.
Wilson, M. (2014) ‘Critical reflection on authentic leadership and school leader development from a virtue ethical perspective’, Educational review (Birmingham), 66(4), pp. 482–496. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2013.812062.
