More than meets the eye: The use of videonarratives to facilitate doctoral students' reflexivity on their doctoral journeys

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Abstract

This article discusses findings from a UK Higher Education Academy project, which used digital video to promote doctoral students' reflexivity. The project aimed to facilitate doctoral students' research skills through the making of videonarratives; create spaces for reflexivity on the relations between research, narrative and identity; and consider the opportunities and problems offered by the use of digital video as a research method. In its focus on the relations between reflexivity, doctoral research and the use of digital video the project sought to make a contribution to a currently under-researched and theoretically under-elaborated aspect of doctoral education. The article discusses findings from the project, identifies the key role played by narrative in emerging doctoral researcher identities, and argues that these findings provide a stimulus for a more critical interrogation of recent and increasingly performative constructions of doctoral study.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)441-458
Number of pages18
JournalStudies in Higher Education
Volume36
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jun 2011

Funding

This article presents findings from a recent project which used digital video as a method to promote doctoral students’ reflexivity on their research experiences. The project was funded by ESCalate, the Education Subject Centre of the Higher Education Academy, in the form of a student grant to the author while she was completing her doctoral studies. The overall aim of the project was to use digital video to facilitate doctoral students’ development of their research biographies, and to promote students’ reflexivity on their doctoral journey. The project provided the occasion for students to identify critical incidents, key events, significant learnings and their self-production as becoming-researchers arising from their research journeys. Each student produced a videonarrative which was used as a basis for reflection during interviews. The videonarrative could then be used through its integration into a digital curriculum vitae (CV), or as a component in the construction of an online academic identity. The practical element of the project equipped students with basic skills in the use of digital video and video editing.

Keywords

  • Doctoral journey
  • Doctoral students
  • Reflexivity
  • Videonarratives

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Education

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