Supervisors' Conceptions of Doctoral Studies

Changes in the content and organization of doctoral studies have provided material for researching different aspects of doctoral studies. Much of the current literature concentrates on identifying the functions that an effective supervisor needs to carry out. Less attention has been paid to how well...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Trames 2013-12, Vol.17 (4), p.401-415
Main Authors: Lepp, Liina, Remmik, Marvi, Karm, Mari, Leijen, Ali
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Data analysis
Graduate students
Graduate studies
Higher education
Learning
Natural sciences
Pragmatics
Qualitative research
R&D
Research & development
Researchers
Science
Skills
Society
Studies
Supervisors
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Changes in the content and organization of doctoral studies have provided material for researching different aspects of doctoral studies. Much of the current literature concentrates on identifying the functions that an effective supervisor needs to carry out. Less attention has been paid to how well supervisors understand the aims of doctoral studies. The aim of this study was to describe the Estonian PhD supervisors' conceptions about doctoral studies. The study is based on semi-structured interviews with 21 PhD supervisors from educational science and exact and natural science disciplines. The data was analyzed using qualitative thematic data analysis techniques. The results show that according to supervisors' conceptions, the aim of a doctoral study is to prepare future researchers and acquire academic writing skills as quickly as possible. Doctoral studies are also seen as an intermediate process in the course of becoming a researcher. Keywords: doctoral education, supervisors' conceptions, qualitative research, Estonia DOI: 10.3176/tr.2013.4.06
ISSN:1736-7514
1406-0922
1736-7514
DOI:10.3176/tr.2013.4.06