Vol 6, Number 1, 2008
pp: 34-59 index
Home
index

dotpoint

Blogging PhD Candidature: Revealing the Pedagogyy

Authors: Mary-Helen Ward and Sandra West

Abstract

The pedagogy of the Australian PhD has not been well theorised to date. Most published material has focussed on managing the supervision process rather than on the learning of candidates. The transmission of knowledge is essentially textual, but while attention has been focussed on the processes of text production necessary for the completion of of the disciplinary project (the thesis), candidates generally do not report or often write reflections on their development as scholars/researchers - a key aspect of doctoral development. This paper explores current discussion of PhD pedagogy and proposes the use of blogs to enhance scholar/researcher development, through the foregrounding they make possible of the pedagogical relationship implicit in the PhD process and consequent revelation of some of the hidden pedagogical practices that underpin it.


Keywords: Doctoral; PhD; supervision; postgraduate; blogging
dotpoint

Download Complete Article - PDF Format

About the Authors

Mary-Helen Ward is a PhD Candidate in the Faculty of Education at the University of Sydney. She has previously obtained a BA, a MA(Hons) and a MPhil. The subject of her PhD is the process of doing a PhD. Her data is being created by a closed blogging community of PhD candidates. She also follows as many public PhD blogs as she can find.
Contact: mhward@usyd.edu.au

Sandra West is an Associate Professor in Clinical Nursing at the University of Sydney. She is a Registered Nurse, and received a BSc and a PhD from Macquarie University. She has been using private blogging as a reflective tool with her PhD students for two years.
Contact: s.west@usyd.edu.au

 

International Journal of Emerging Techologies and Society © 2008 Faculty of Life and Social Sciences, Swinburne University of Technology spacer