[Refereed Articles]
The Whisperings of a Doctor of Philosophy Student's Phenomenography
Mark A. Tyler
pp. 6-14
"Yes, I'm going to enrol in a PhD". There are those who relish the proclamation, and others who shiver at its mere
whisper. From the position of the whisperer, this paper traces my doctoral journey from the budding concept through
the public announcement and resting to taking a breath at the position of attaining full candidature. In this article
I capture and express what I have used to sustain me thus far against the conceptual challenges that I have
experienced along the way. This journey through my inner terrain depicts a kaleidoscope of decisions and emotions
that have produced a diversity of ideas, some of which have flourished and others of which have died. Yet it is those
ideas, seeded from past experience, which have sustained and been partly kind. These have a strong emotional
component, and it appears that they have fuelled my progress, yet also fuelled degrees of doubt, a paradox that
facilitates and restricts. Phenomenography is used to make sense of this experience. This is my struggle for
conceptual ground and workspace. This paper describes the resources that I bring to bear in reflecting and reflexing
around my choice of topic, my sense of identity as an academic, my doctoral progress and my collaborative alliances,
as I make guesses as to 'what might be' and stand to take another step forward.
A Practitioner's Journey Exploring Transformative Approaches to the Professional Development of Online Educators
Shirley Reushle
pp. 15-28
In this study, the principles of transformative learning theory, a subset of constructivism within adult education,
were applied to the design of professional development experiences for educators in online settings. This study
of transformation focused on change existing in two forms: the transforming of perspective (how people view the
world and their work); and the transforming of action (how this translates to their practice). Using an action
research framework, I investigated how best to prepare tertiary educators to teach (and learn) in online environments.
Located at an Australian regional university, I collaborated with teachers from a polytechnic in Singapore to build
the professional capacity of the group in online learning and teaching. The challenge for a collaborative practitioner
planning and conducting research that enabled informed decisions to be made about action and practice was balanced by
the opportunity to trace transformative learning processes through the highly visible online environment. In this paper,
I employ the notion of learning as a journey to describe, reflect upon and interrogate my doctoral research design.
Writing Issues in Designing Doctoral Research: Interpretation, Representation, Legitimation and Desiring in
Investigating the Education of Australian Show People
Patrick Alan Danaher
pp. 29-42
This paper deploys Denzin’s (1994) four "Writing Issues" as an interrogative lens for evaluating the
appropriateness and utility of the design of a recent doctoral study of the educational aspirations and
opportunities of Australian mobile show people (Danaher, 2001a). The deployment of that lens highlights a
number of dilemmas and tensions that the researcher encountered in writing about a community traditionally
subject to exoticisation and marginalisation in ways that were as 'true' as possible to the participants and that
also fulfilled the taken-for-granted assumptions about doctoral research. The paper presents the argument that
Denzin's "Writing Issues" constitute one among several potentially useful frameworks for reflecting on
the planning and conduct of an educational research project, as well as for navigating the specific challenges
and opportunities involved in designing doctoral educational research.
A Research Approach to Investigating Curriculum Innovation: Negotiating the Stakeholders and Gatekeepers of
Korean English Language Teaching
Michel N. Trottier
pp. 43-58
This paper discusses the challenges and opportunities of framing educational research around the politics of
curricular innovation in South Korea. The innovation in question concerns the reconstruction of traditional
classroom-based English as a foreign language in the form of more communicative, experiential programs. In
response to the urgent need for more alternative sources of quality English immersion, so-called 'English villages'
have articulated a bold new approach. At the same time, however, the combination of media hype and political
controversy surrounding English villages has effectively blurred their mandate, leading many to question their
overall legitimacy. Markee (2002) states that all innovation is risky, and that curricular reform is bound to be
political and controversial. Thus, for a graduate student in the initial design stages of doctoral research, the
task of trying to distinguish legitimate curricular innovation from the "business of English" (Finch & Shin, 2005)
in Korea means having to anticipate the interests of multiple and sometimes competing stakeholders. Accordingly,
this paper explores the challenges and opportunities of planning my doctoral research around the more controversial
(political and ethical) aspects of curricular innovation.
A Rationale for Employing Mixed Methods Design in Doctoral Research about Female Students' Academic Achievement in
Secondary Schools in Papua New Guinea
Dinah R. Dovona-Ope
pp. 59-67
Contextual features and research problems are among some of the important factors that must be considered in making
decisions about the most appropriate research design to employ in designing and undertaking doctoral research. In my
doctoral research project, I was significantly influenced by a number of such issues in determining an appropriate
research design. As the study focused on a problem confronting an under-represented group – female students – in a unique
and complex context, mixed methods research design informed by the pragmatic and transformative-emancipatory theoretical
positions (Creswell & Plano-Clark, 2007; Mertens, 2005a; Tashakkorri & Teddlie, 2003) were considered as providing the most
appropriate design for my doctoral research project. Mixed methods research as a methodology was considered for its direct
engagement in the complexity encountered by researchers in culturally diverse communities when work is focused on a social
justice agenda (Creswell & Plano-Clark, 2007; Mertens, 2005a). It was also identified as embracing three underlying issues
which were important to this study. These were: a focus on research outcome through emphasis on the importance of the questions
asked rather than the methods of data collection; a need to collect different voices from those living the experiences with an
intention for advocacy; and a dedication to promoting social change as an outcome of the research. As a research design, mixed
methods research was considered for its ability to incorporate both quantitative and qualitative data collection techniques.
Thus two highly structured numerical survey questionnaires for data collection and analysis were used with a larger sample
(de Vaus, 1995; Johnson & Christensen, 2004). Additionally, two sets of interview schedules and focus group schedules were used
for data collection and analysis with smaller samples. These were set up for refinement, extension and explanation of specific
quantitative findings such as statistical relationships and differences among groups, or unexpected results in the participants'
own words (Creswell, 2002; Krueger, 2000; Silverman, 2006).
