Ethnography, Liminality and the PhD in Australia Mary-Helen Ward CoCo, November 2008

Briefly… I am investigating the experience of doing a PhD at a research intensive university in Australia My thesis will be a reflexive ethnography

What’s been done? Quality in Postgraduate Research conferences Alison Lee (identity; writing process) Angela Brew; Margot Pearson (supervision) Barbara Kamler; Pat Thomson (writing process; supervision) Ruth Neumann – report to government in 2003 on student experience ARC linkage project between Deakin, ANU and three postgraduate student associations (student experience) 2005

My data sources Government documents and reports Theoretical perspectives on the doctorate University documents University staff (interviews) PhD candidates (blogs) My own experience

Blogging project Aim Blog (technical details) How the blogs worked My position in the project

Issues relating to ethnographic theory My status as a ‘full-member participant’ The mediation of the method I used to collect personal data (blogs) The politically charged nature of my material (i.e. the ‘sub-versions’ my participants could potentially construct)

Nature of ethnography… Norman Denzin points out that “Ethnography, like art, is always political.”

My Thesis Overarching metaphor of liminality (Turner) ◦ Communitas Candidates’ stories from their blogs, and my story as it happened will create a counterpoint to both official and theoretical accounts (sub-versions) My reflections from a current perspective may also create, intrude into, trouble, obstruct or confirm these accounts

References Kamler, B., & Thomson, P. (2006). Helping Doctoral Students Write: Pedagogies for supervision. New York: Routledge. Lee, A., & Williams, C. (1999). “'Forged in Fire': Narratives of trauma in PhD supervision pedagogy”. Southern Review, 32(1),

Aitchison, C., & Lee, A. (2006). Research writing: problems and pedagogies. Teaching in Higher Education, 11(3), Boud, D., & Lee, A. (2005). "Peer learning" as pedagogic discourse for research education. Studies in Higher Education, 30(5), Boud, D., & Lee, A. (2009). Changing practices of doctoral education. Oxford: Routledge. Cerwonka, A., & Malkki, L. (2007). Improvising Theory: Process and Temporality in Ethnographic Fieldwork. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Cumming, J., & Ryland, P. (2004). Working Doctoral Students: Challenges and Opportunities. Paper presented at the AARE National Conference. Denzin, N. K. (1999). Interpretive ethnography for the next century. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 28(5), Hine, C. (Ed.). (2005). Virtual Methods: Issues in Social Research on the Internet. Oxford: Berg. Hine, C. (2000). Virtual ethnography. London: Sage. Kamler, B., & Thomson, P. (2006). Helping Doctoral Students Write: Pedagogies for supervision. New York: Routledge. Lee, A., & Williams, C. (1999). 'Forged in Fire': Narratives of trauma in PhD supervision pedagogy. Southern Review, 32(1), Markham, A. (1998). Life Online: Researching real experience in virtual space. Walnut Creek: AltaMira Press. Markham, A., & Baym, N. (2009). Internet Inquiry: Conversations about method. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Pearson, M., & Brew, A. (2002). Research training and supervision development. Studies in Higher Education, 27(2), Turner, V. W. (1974). Dramas, fields, and metaphors: symbolic action in human society. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.