ABSTRACT
Over the past quarter of a century, not only higher education, but also the education of future researchers, principally through doctoral education, has moved from its seclusion within the disciplines at universities and into the political and institutional limelight. However, despite increased policy focus on the wider societal relevance of researcher education, it has so far proved difficult to fully integrate societal contexts and domains into the highly disciplinary specialized doctoral education programmes. This chapter discusses the meaning and purpose of an ecological curriculum for doctoral education and the PhD degree. I shall start out by presenting and discuss the understanding of ‘third spaces’ learning within doctoral education, where doctoral students may find their own voice and academic identity in what are typically seen as extra-curricular and extra-institutional learning spaces. Secondly, I shall focus on how doctoral students activate and engage this newfound academic identity into societal arenas through their ‘academic citizenship’. Finally, I shall discuss the implications for not only doctoral engagement but also a wider form of cultural leadership dimension to the ecological curriculum within researcher education.
