Guiding doctoral writing: Making the process visible – experiences of the narrative inquirer

Guiding doctoral writing: Making the process visible – experiences of the narrative inquirer

In this episode, our guest, Professor Sheila Trahar invites us to explore what narrative inquiry as an approach to knowledge creation and writing can teach us about the nourishing doctoral supervision practices and about writing itself. She offers crucial reminders about the importance of building a trusting, transparent supervisor-supervisee relationship; the relationship in which creativity is supported rather than constrained by academic conventions, deeply rooted assumptions, or individual insecurities. This conversation is particularly relevant in English as foreign language academic contexts, where finding one’s own voice often means thinking and writing in one’s second or third language. Join us as we hear about supervising experiences from such contexts and many other inspirations for (guiding) doctoral writing, including the imaginary conversation with Trinh Minh Ha… Sheila Trahar is Professor Emerita of International Higher Education at the University of Bristol.  The interdependent concepts of internationalisation of higher education and of social justice in higher education have long been the focus of her intellectual scholarship and her work is innovative for its use of narrative inquiry and autoethnography.    Latest  publications explore the relationship between internationalisation and decolonisation, including critiques of ‘whiteness’ in the Academy and the potential of Ubuntu to address racism in UK higher education.  A recent book chapter focuses on autoethnography as a methodology.   Sheila has supervised more than 50 doctoral researchers to successful conclusion, in the UK, Hong Kong, Finland and the USA. Sheila has participated in several research projects including one funded by the EU that focused on internationalisation of higher education in Israel and that involved Palestinian Arab and Israeli partners. More recently, she was a co-investigator on the ESRC/Newton Fund Southern African Rurality into Higher Education (SARiHE) project that investigated, with three South African universities, the transition of students from rural areas of South Africa into higher education. The collaboratively written SARiHE book Rural Transitions to Higher Education in South Africa: Decolonial Perspectives was published by Routledge in 2022. Despite being ‘retired’, Sheila worked  with colleagues in  the University of Bristol’s School of Electrical, Electronic and Mechanical Engineering from  2021 - 2024, exploring student learning experiences.  Her role was  to advise on and conduct qualitative research.  She is also involved with the University of Bristol CREATE programme, the programme that supports academic staff in their practice as educators and leaders, leading to Advance HE’s Fellowship awards  as a mentor and assessor and is a mentor in the Bristol Women’s Mentoring Network.   She is the External Examiner for the MA in International Higher Education at the University of Nottingham, Ningbo and a member  of the UKRI Peer Review College and the ESRC Assessor College. Sheila is an Associate Editor of Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) and was a co-editor of Compare from 2016 – 2022.

Guiding Doctoral Writing: “Huolehtii että ei jää yksin.”

Dosentti, oikomishoidon erikoishammaslääkäri Anna-Sofia Silvola Väestöterveyden tutkimusyksiköstä sekä dosentti, yliopistotutkija Tuija Huuki Kasvatustieteiden ja psykologian tiedekunnasta keskustelevat kahden erilaisen tieteenalan kirjoittamisen traditioista ja niiden eroista. Esille nousevat tyhjän paperin kammoon vastaaminen, artikkelin kirjoittamisessa toistuva resepti, rahoituksen vaikutus väitöskirjatutkijan julkaisupaineisiin sekä kirjoittamisen prosessista nauttiminen. Kokeneen ohjaajan ajankäyttösuunnitelma on, että aina ohjaus vie enemmän aikaa kuin on suunnitellut! Ohjaajan kannattaa valjastaa toinen ohjaaja työpariksi, jolta saa tukea myös haasteellisiin tilanteisiin. Mutta mitä tehdään, kun aloitteleva väitöskirjatutkija kuulee ensimmäisessä konferessissaan alan gurulta kommentin ”Don’t publish rubbish!”?  Tuija Huuki  Kasvatustieteen tohtori, dosentti Tuija Huuki työskentelee yliopistotutkijana Oulun yliopistossa Kasvatustieteiden ja psykologian tiedekunnassa. Hän tutkii häirintää, väkivaltaa, syrjimistä ja kiusaamista lasten ja nuorten välisissä suhteissa sekä luovan toiminnan mahdollisuuksia valtasuhteiden käsittelemiseksi ja turvallisuuden lisäämiseksi koulussa. Hän johtaa näihin aihepiireihin liittyen tutkimushankkeita, julkaisee aktiivisesti ja kouluttaa säännöllisesti kasvatus- ja opetusalojen ammattilaisia ja opiskelijoita näistä aihepiireistä. Hän on ohjannut väitöstutkimuksia pian kymmenen vuoden ajan kasvatustieteiden ja sosiologian aloilta, sekä toiminut esitarkastajana ja vastaväittäjänä. Hänelle ohjaamisessa tärkeää ovat toimiva kommunikaatio sekä luottamus ja yhteistyö.  Dr. Docent Tuija Huuki works as a university researcher at the Faculty of Education and Psychology at the University of Oulu. Her research focuses on harassment, violence, discrimination, and bullying in children's and young people's peer cultures, as well as the affordances of creative methods and activities to address power dynamics and enhance safety in schools. She leads research projects related to these topics, actively publishes, and regularly trains education and teaching professionals and students on these issues. She has supervised doctoral research in education, sociology and gender studies for nearly ten years and has served as a pre-examiner and opponent in doctoral defenses. For her, effective communication, trust, and collaboration are essential in supervision.  https://www.suomi.tuijahuuki.com/taustaa [https://www.suomi.tuijahuuki.com/taustaa]   Anna-Sofia Silvola  Anna-Sofia Silvola on dosentti ja oikomishoidon erikoishammaslääkäri, jolla on monipuolinen kokemus väitöskirjaohjauksesta ja tieteellisestä kirjoittamisesta. Hänelle ohjaamisessa tärkeää on tutkimuskysymyksen kirkastaminen, kirjoituksen looginen rakenne ja lukijaystävällisyys. Hänen tutkimusaiheensa liittyvät pääasiassa purennan yhteyksistä elämänlaatuun ja toimintaan, mutta mukana on myös kliinisiä tutkimuksia ja monitieteisiä projekteja.  Anna-Sofia Silvola is a docent and specialist in orthodontics with diverse experience in doctoral supervision and academic writing. In supervision, she emphasizes the importance of clarifying the research question, ensuring a logical structure in the writing, and maintaining readability. Her research mainly focuses on the connections between occlusion, quality of life, and function, but also includes clinical studies and interdisciplinary projects.  https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Anna-Sofia-Silvola [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Anna-Sofia-Silvola]

Guiding Doctoral Writing: (Writing) stories from the wireless 6G world.

This episode takes us on a thoughtful journey into mentoring, writing, and the future of ICT engineering communication. Together with Professor Nandana Rajatheva from the 6G Flagship research program at the University of Oulu, we explore the joys and challenges of guiding writing ICT engineers. We talk about writing for publication—moving from identifying solvable problems to solving them—and how novelty drives impactful research. We touch on the influence of internationalization and English as the scientific lingua franca, the importance of evaluating writing skills during recruitment, and why reading—both technical literature and fiction, for work and for fun—matters deeply for doctoral development. We also consider how cooperation between industry and academia shapes doctoral education. https://sites.google.com/view/profnandanarajatheva [https://sites.google.com/view/profnandanarajatheva]

Guiding Doctoral Writing: “It’s all about exciting the researcher”

We invite you to join the vibrant conversation with Associate Professor Anna Krzywoszyńska – interdisciplinary environmental social scientist from the University of Oulu. Together we unpack the idea of writing as practice and reflect on the meaning of the writer’s voice. We talk about the importance of care and clear expectations for building a nurturing supervisor-researcher relationship. We consider the danger of exteeeeensive literature reviews as a way of hiding oneself, all while remembering the role of coffee and occasional chocolate.    Disclaimer: At the time of the conversation, the University of Oulu guidelines on AI use in teaching and research were under reevaluation.  Anna Krzywoszyńska is an Associate Professor of Transdisciplinary Human-Environment Relations, and she is placed at the unit of Anthropology at the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Oulu. She is an interdisciplinary environmental social scientist with expertise in agricultural and environmental knowledge, more-than-human research, and public participation in science. Her overarching research t lies in investigating and transforming knowledge-cultures in different settings in order to strengthen sustainable and just relationships between humans and their environments. She is currently supervising three PhD students (two as primary supervisor). Before moving to Oulu, Anna worked in the UK, where she co-supervised four PhD students (all have successfully graduated). Three of those students were co-supervised between natural and social sciences. Anna has also examined PhD theses in Finland, Sweden, and the UK.  https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Anna-Krzywoszynska [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Anna-Krzywoszynska]