Becoming a scholar

This dissertation focused on exploring doctoral students’ conceptions of the scholarly community and research, and further, on analysing the relation between these conceptions and wellbeing as well as study persistence in the doctoral process. The first two studies concentrated on analysing students’ conceptions of the scholarly community and their meaning with respect to one’s own thesis process. The last two studies focused on students’ conceptions of the personal meaning of the thesis work and conceptions of research in the context of their own doctoral journeys. The data were collected by surveys and interviews. Altogether 669 students from different disciplines participated in the surveys and 32 in the interviews. The analysis was conducted by combining both qualitative and quantitative methods. Study I examined how doctoral students perceived their own role in the scholarly community and their experiences of their learning environment. The relation between their experienced role in the community and well-being as well as study persistence was also analysed. The results indicated that the experienced role in the community varied from a sense of belonging to feeling like an outsider and perceiving one’s own role as incoherent or contradictory. Students who experienced a sense of being part of the academic community also reported experiencing their learning environment in a more positive way. These students also reported less stress, anxiety, and exhaustion and greater interest in their own doctoral projects. Moreover, students who felt themselves to be part of the community had considered interrupting their studies less often than others. Their conceptions were also related to the faculties in question. Study II took a more in-depth look at students’ experienced socio-psychological well-being by focusing on how they saw the scholarly community in terms of one’s own doctoral process. The results suggested that experiences of the community varied from perceiving it as empowering to experiencing it as a burden. Seeing one’s own scholarly community as empowering was related to lower levels of reported stress, anxiety, and exhaustion and higher levels of interest in one’s own doctoral project. The students who experienced empowerment had also considered interrupting their studies less often. Study III explored the thesis work’s personal meaning for the doctoral students and its relation to the experienced well-being as well as study persistence. The relations between the personal meaning of the thesis work and discipline were also looked at. The results suggested that personal meaning varied between emphasizing the process, the product, or both. Highlighting the meaning of the process was related to lower levels of reported stress, anxiety, and exhaustion, but to higher levels of interest. Students who emphasized the meaning of the process had considered interrupting their doctoral studies less often than other students. Differences were also apparent between faculties: students in medicine emphasized the meaning of the end-product more often than students in other faculties. Study IV analysed doctoral students’ conceptions of research and whether these were discipline-related. The results indicated that research was most often seen as a personal journey. Rather typical was also seeing it as a “job to do”, as answering certain demands. Research was also seen as a means to qualify oneself or as making a difference by contributing to the discipline or to society. The students’ conceptions were found to be related to the discipline: students in medicine most often described research as a job to do while those in natural science and behavioural sciences emphasized research as a personal journey. The results suggested that doctoral students experienced the meaning of research and the academic community very differently. Their conceptions were related to well-being and study persistence during the Ph.D. process, and were found to be discipline-related. The results encourage viewing the doctoral process not only as a cognitive effort but also as a process that is mediated by experiencing a sense of belonging and meaningfulness.