ABSTRACT
It is exciting to pursue ideas, experiment, share perceptions and become a member of a community of knowledge-makers.
(Skillen and Purser, 2003: 17)
The theme of the doctoral student joining a new community, contributing to knowledge and learning new skills like an apprentice, permeates much of the literature on the PhD process. As Skillen and Purser (2003: 17) suggest, however, ‘the thrill of research seems to end when it comes to writing’ as the student is faced with the challenges discussed in my previous chapter around meeting the academic writing expectations of the institution. Many students and supervisors understandably view a doctoral thesis as the end product of a course of study, and the emphasis becomes how to learn and reproduce the genre successfully. We can, however, take a broader perspective by looking at the PhD as one step on a research journey, not just in terms of career progression, but also as intensive engagement in a process of learning how to interact with, challenge and inuence wider research communities. Those students who have the option to publish journal articles instead of writing a thesis for their PhD – as in the case of some Icelandic students quoted in this book – may have already engaged intensively with editors, reviewers and publishers in addition to their supervision committee. Whilst supervisors and examiners may tend to emphasise the ‘future contribution’ of a PhD thesis or student’s work, I suggest that the doctoral experience in itself can contribute in the here and now – particularly through doctoral supervision meetings – to innovative developments around researching across languages and cultures. The strategies described by doctoral students in this book are not just
around how to conduct research in multilingual and intercultural situations, but also about how to communicate and share their learning from those experiences with colleagues, particularly their supervisors.
