title: Academic identity development: Insights of doctoral students from Pakistan

authors: Khalil , Muhammad Atif

subjects: Doctoral socialisation

abstract: The development of doctoral students’ academic identity is an emerging area of research.  However, there is limited research that has investigated the roles and activities which contribute to the transitions students undergo in the journey towards the formation of an academic identity. Research of this nature has become especially relevant as a number of countries, especially developing countries, are seeking ways to engage and socialise doctoral students into a professional or academic identity during their studies. 
Pakistan is an example of a country which is trying to address these concerns. There has been an increase in doctoral enrolments in Pakistan, the site of this study, and the resulting growth in the number of those with PhDs has intensified competition for academic positions. The Higher Education Commission is struggling to provide sufficient support and resources to ensure doctoral programmes prepare graduates for professional roles and develop their academic identities. Recent reports indicate that doctoral students are facing numerous challenges which hinder their successful socialisation and academic identity development. 
This narrative study aimed to scope doctoral students’ expectations and experiences during their doctoral journey and transition towards an academic identity. The research focused on doctoral students in the field of Education. Six students from a prestigious Pakistan university were recruited through purposive sampling. All the participants were near to completing their PhD; they were working on their data analysis or waiting for their examination reports. All the participants intended to pursue academic careers upon completion of their studies. Each participant completed two online narrative interviews. Thematic analysis of the narrative interviews was completed using a guiding framework which integrated a doctoral socialisation perspective, a stage approach of doctoral education, and role identity theory. This framework provided rich opportunities to examine the role identity development of each of the students.
The analysis of each case revealed that students’ academic identity development happened through shifts in their prominent role identities across three key institutional milestone stages. The students outlined different socialisation experiences and identification based on the prominent roles in each milestone stage. These prominent roles were consistent with their increasing competence, confidence, and independence to perform a range of academic activities. The first coursework stage developed students’ prominent role identity as that of a learner. They developed a prominent role identity as an emerging researcher in stage two when crafting and presenting their research proposal. In the final stage, when they were writing their dissertation, students developed a prominent role identity as an emerging academic. In this stage students continued and expanded the researcher role and engaged in a range of academic activities (teaching, writing research papers, attending research conferences, managing research journals and research projects) beyond those involved in their dissertation work. The combination and dynamic development of multiple role identities (learner, emerging researcher, and emerging academic) served to prepare these doctoral students for an academic and professional identity. Importantly, while students had a learner role identity in all stages, the focus of their learning moved from mastering prescribed content to application and then production of knowledge.
Cross case analysis identified that social interaction, personal motivation and the nature of academic writing were the dominant aspects in the composition and development of students’ role identities. Social interaction was the key means through which students could gain support and validation from others for their different role identities. Motivation was a personal dimension which drove students’ courage and persistence to engage in academic activities and seek to meet the expectations of each role identity. The writing aspect provided students with evidence for self-evaluation and evaluation by others in relation to their progress within the different role identities. 
The study contributes to understanding of the complex socialisation processes doctoral students experience and the various roles they perform as they progress through their doctoral journey. Findings suggest that creating more opportunities for doctoral students to engage in learning activities and extend their interactions with teachers, peers, supervisors, and experts within an academic community would assist them to gain the competence, confidence, and the independence needed to perform relevant academic activities.

text: Academic identity development: Insights of doctoral students from Pakistan The development of doctoral students’ academic identity is an emerging area of research.  However, there is limited research that has investigated the roles and activities which contribute to the transitions students undergo in the journey towards the formation of an academic identity. Research of this nature has become especially relevant as a number of countries, especially developing countries, are seeking ways to engage and socialise doctoral students into a professional or academic identity during their studies. 
Pakistan is an example of a country which is trying to address these concerns. There has been an increase in doctoral enrolments in Pakistan, the site of this study, and the resulting growth in the number of those with PhDs has intensified competition for academic positions. The Higher Education Commission is struggling to provide sufficient support and resources to ensure doctoral programmes prepare graduates for professional roles and develop their academic identities. Recent reports indicate that doctoral students are facing numerous challenges which hinder their successful socialisation and academic identity development. 
This narrative study aimed to scope doctoral students’ expectations and experiences during their doctoral journey and transition towards an academic identity. The research focused on doctoral students in the field of Education. Six students from a prestigious Pakistan university were recruited through purposive sampling. All the participants were near to completing their PhD; they were working on their data analysis or waiting for their examination reports. All the participants intended to pursue academic careers upon completion of their studies. Each participant completed two online narrative interviews. Thematic analysis of the narrative interviews was completed using a guiding framework which integrated a doctoral socialisation perspective, a stage approach of doctoral education, and role identity theory. This framework provided rich opportunities to examine the role identity development of each of the students.
The analysis of each case revealed that students’ academic identity development happened through shifts in their prominent role identities across three key institutional milestone stages. The students outlined different socialisation experiences and identification based on the prominent roles in each milestone stage. These prominent roles were consistent with their increasing competence, confidence, and independence to perform a range of academic activities. The first coursework stage developed students’ prominent role identity as that of a learner. They developed a prominent role identity as an emerging researcher in stage two when crafting and presenting their research proposal. In the final stage, when they were writing their dissertation, students developed a prominent role identity as an emerging academic. In this stage students continued and expanded the researcher role and engaged in a range of academic activities (teaching, writing research papers, attending research conferences, managing research journals and research projects) beyond those involved in their dissertation work. The combination and dynamic development of multiple role identities (learner, emerging researcher, and emerging academic) served to prepare these doctoral students for an academic and professional identity. Importantly, while students had a learner role identity in all stages, the focus of their learning moved from mastering prescribed content to application and then production of knowledge.
Cross case analysis identified that social interaction, personal motivation and the nature of academic writing were the dominant aspects in the composition and development of students’ role identities. Social interaction was the key means through which students could gain support and validation from others for their different role identities. Motivation was a personal dimension which drove students’ courage and persistence to engage in academic activities and seek to meet the expectations of each role identity. The writing aspect provided students with evidence for self-evaluation and evaluation by others in relation to their progress within the different role identities. 
The study contributes to understanding of the complex socialisation processes doctoral students experience and the various roles they perform as they progress through their doctoral journey. Findings suggest that creating more opportunities for doctoral students to engage in learning activities and extend their interactions with teachers, peers, supervisors, and experts within an academic community would assist them to gain the competence, confidence, and the independence needed to perform relevant academic activities.

year: 2024

title: Sociolinguistic variation at the grammatical/discourse level Demonstrative clefts in spoken British English

authors: Calude, Andreea S.

subjects: Social Sciences

abstract: This paper brings together the study of sociolinguistic variation and the area of grammatical analysis by investigating demonstrative cleft constructions in spoken British English such as That’s what I wanted to talk about and This is where I saw him. Using the Spoken BNC2014S, I ask whether speaker characteristics, including gender, age, education and occupation, might be correlated with the use of demonstrative clefts and with various aspects of their structure (preference for the distal or proximal demonstrative pronoun, use of negative polarity, and use of stance adverbs). Findings suggest that in British English, demonstrative cleft use is more likely to be present in the speech of males compared to females, working adults in higherskilled occupations compared to semi-skilled adults, and in adults of middle age compared to younger adults. This work shows that even highly abstract grammatical constructions can be sensitive to speaker preferences and linguistic communicative style.

text: Sociolinguistic variation at the grammatical/discourse level Demonstrative clefts in spoken British English This paper brings together the study of sociolinguistic variation and the area of grammatical analysis by investigating demonstrative cleft constructions in spoken British English such as That’s what I wanted to talk about and This is where I saw him. Using the Spoken BNC2014S, I ask whether speaker characteristics, including gender, age, education and occupation, might be correlated with the use of demonstrative clefts and with various aspects of their structure (preference for the distal or proximal demonstrative pronoun, use of negative polarity, and use of stance adverbs). Findings suggest that in British English, demonstrative cleft use is more likely to be present in the speech of males compared to females, working adults in higherskilled occupations compared to semi-skilled adults, and in adults of middle age compared to younger adults. This work shows that even highly abstract grammatical constructions can be sensitive to speaker preferences and linguistic communicative style.

year: 2017-11-23

title: Rebel discourses: Colonial violence, Pai Marire resistance and land allocation at Tauranga

authors: Kahotea, Des Tatana

abstract: This thesis is a study of resistance and power in a colonial situation, based on the ethnography of a confiscated-land claim of three hapu who had been Kingitanga supporters and Pai Marire adherents in the 19th century. It draws on archival material and insider ethnography and is arranged into four parts. The first part looks at the relationship between anthropology and colonialism, particularly the role of Sir George Grey, a Governor who used anthropological knowledge to facilitate colonial domination of Maori. Grey instigated the establishment of learned societies which introduced the use of ethnology and anthropology to study Maori. This led to the development of colonial anthropology and its emphasis on salvage anthropology in the late nineteenth century, which in turn gave rise to an intellectual tradition of Maori anthropology. The first proponents of Maori anthropology, Te Rangihiroa and Apirana Ngata, emphasised the role of anthropology for cultural recovery and 'insider' ethnographer. The second part examines the Kingitanga and Pai Marire political and religious expressions of resistance. Political resistance to colonialism was met by legislation by the settler colonial government to punish 'rebellion', a system of collaboration or cultivation of 'loyalty' amongst 'friendly' Maori, and other policies directed at suppressing indigenous expressions of rebel consciousness. This programme had a major bearing on the ongoing existence of these hapu into the twentieth century. Pai Marire was a rebel religious phenomenon that became the object of a campaign of coercion, surveillance, and violence by the settler colonial government. The adherents were subject to policies of exclusion from the redistribution and allocation of confiscated land by local government officials and civil commissioners. The government supported, instead, the land claims of 'friendly' and 'surrendered rebel' chiefs. The third part is hapu ethnography. Key transformations in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries related to changing political and kin alliances for one hapu, Ngati Kahu, while another hapu, Ngati Pango which was involved with Pai Marire, suffered from claims on their traditional lands leading to the undermining of its identity and existence as a socially operating hapu. The fourth part uses historical and ethnographic fragments to consider what Pai Marire meant to its adherents. The colonial construct of Pai Marire and Hauhau was forms of savagery and a mix of Christian syncretism, an image that has little changed from the nineteenth century.

text: Rebel discourses: Colonial violence, Pai Marire resistance and land allocation at Tauranga This thesis is a study of resistance and power in a colonial situation, based on the ethnography of a confiscated-land claim of three hapu who had been Kingitanga supporters and Pai Marire adherents in the 19th century. It draws on archival material and insider ethnography and is arranged into four parts. The first part looks at the relationship between anthropology and colonialism, particularly the role of Sir George Grey, a Governor who used anthropological knowledge to facilitate colonial domination of Maori. Grey instigated the establishment of learned societies which introduced the use of ethnology and anthropology to study Maori. This led to the development of colonial anthropology and its emphasis on salvage anthropology in the late nineteenth century, which in turn gave rise to an intellectual tradition of Maori anthropology. The first proponents of Maori anthropology, Te Rangihiroa and Apirana Ngata, emphasised the role of anthropology for cultural recovery and 'insider' ethnographer. The second part examines the Kingitanga and Pai Marire political and religious expressions of resistance. Political resistance to colonialism was met by legislation by the settler colonial government to punish 'rebellion', a system of collaboration or cultivation of 'loyalty' amongst 'friendly' Maori, and other policies directed at suppressing indigenous expressions of rebel consciousness. This programme had a major bearing on the ongoing existence of these hapu into the twentieth century. Pai Marire was a rebel religious phenomenon that became the object of a campaign of coercion, surveillance, and violence by the settler colonial government. The adherents were subject to policies of exclusion from the redistribution and allocation of confiscated land by local government officials and civil commissioners. The government supported, instead, the land claims of 'friendly' and 'surrendered rebel' chiefs. The third part is hapu ethnography. Key transformations in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries related to changing political and kin alliances for one hapu, Ngati Kahu, while another hapu, Ngati Pango which was involved with Pai Marire, suffered from claims on their traditional lands leading to the undermining of its identity and existence as a socially operating hapu. The fourth part uses historical and ethnographic fragments to consider what Pai Marire meant to its adherents. The colonial construct of Pai Marire and Hauhau was forms of savagery and a mix of Christian syncretism, an image that has little changed from the nineteenth century.

year: 2005