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Richly illustrated with case studies and interviews, this book identifies key themes pervading academic life: the nature of research and research supervision; key social processes and problems; distinct and contrasting sub-cultures of departments and disciplines in universities; mentorship and sponsorship; and apprenticeship and rites of passage for postgraduate students. Anyone developing policy and practice in Higher Education, or wishing to understand their own position within the wider picture will benefit from reading this book.
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The Doctoral Experience The Doctoral Experience presents a vivid picture of the experiences of PhD students and their academic mentors in a variety of different disciplines. It shows how younger academics are socialized into the distinctive sub-culture of their chosen academic discipline, displaying how different disciplines and departments reproduce their specialized ways of conducting research. The book is based on research involving in-depth interviews with over 200 postgraduate students and academics across the United Kingdom. The issues explored include: how the students deal with the uncertainties of their own research; how they cope with frustration, failure and the intellectual isolation they experience; how research groups can act as socializing environments; and how academic supervisors handle the tensions between the intellectual autonomy of the research student and their responsibilities as intellectual mentors. Sara Delamont is Reader in Sociology at Cardiff University. She has published extensively on social interaction in schools and classrooms, women’s education, women intellectuals, and the anthropology of contemporary Europe. Paul Atkinson is Professor of Sociology at Cardiff University. His research and publications include work on medical knowledge, genetic science and educational knowledge. Odette Parry is Senior Research Fellow in the Research Unit in Health and Behavioural Change at the University of Edinburgh. She has extensive research experience in a number of fields, including health and illness, the body, and education in the UK and the Caribbean. The Doctoral Experience Success and Failure in Graduate School Sara Delamont, Paul Atkinson and Odette Parry London and New York First published 2000 by Falmer Press 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Falmer Press Garland Inc., 19 Union Square West, New York, NY 10003 This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” Falmer Press is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group © 2000 Sara Delamont, Paul Atkinson and Odette Parry All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN 0-203-45140-6 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-45814-1 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0-750-70927-8 (Print Edition) Contents Acknowledgements v 1 Cultures of the Academy 1 2 Researching our Peers 18 3 The Nature of the Quest 34 4 The Appliance of Science: Laboratory Scientists in the Making 53 5 Fieldwork 72 6 Modelling Rea