Helping Doctoral Students of Education to Face Writing and Emotional Challenges in Identity Transition

Abstract

This chapter analyses a 20-months writing seminar, iterated with 5 cohorts of part-time Education doctoral students. The seminar was designed to help them deal with some of the writing and emotional challenges involved in the identity transition process associated with becoming a PhD. The workshop intertwined scientific with reflective writing, non-threatening peer review with authentic high-stakes audiences, and genre awareness with process approach. Students received plenty of support to write a dissertation abstract and a paper to present in a conference within their field, and also wrote about themselves (an initial autobiography as writers, a letter telling their experience as postgraduate students, and two reflective and evaluative accounts about their work in the seminar). The analysis of these reflective writings revealed some of the deep emotions posgraduates face when trying to take part in the disciplinary community they aspire to enter (insecurity, doubts, incompetence, anxiety, fear of rejection, achievement, agency, and empowerment, among others). The seminar gave them the chance to learn about writing, as well as to develop the necessary social and emotional tools while participating in authentic practices and genres. It also opened a space for students to express their feelings, which led them to start a long-term reflection on whom they were and whom they wanted to become. The chapter shows how some neglected aspects of postgraduates’ enculturation can be integrated into doctoral education, contributing to the debate about which “contents”, activities, and time frames should be considered. This could underpin institutional decisions and impact educational practices. Ayudar a doctorandos en Educacion a enfrentar algunos desafios escriturales y emocionales que les plantea su transicion identitaria