The final observable product of a successful doctoral programme is typically a thesis that has been critically examined by senior academics and considered to demonstrate a significant contribution to knowledge. However, it is a conviction underpinning this special issue that the doctorate should be acknowledged, explored and understood as a…

My PhD study explored the experiences of a cohort of Iranian doctoral candidates in New Zealand. This paper presents my response to the unexpected challenge I faced as I collected data and formed my theoretical framework. I found that Western interpretations of non-Western international students largely ignored social-cultural specificities. I…

Unexpected twists and turns on the PhD journey can be directly related to the research itself, while others are related to the experience of the journey. For me, the most unexpected aspects were related to my health and saw me transition from writing and typing to dictating to the computer. This autoethnographic article is based on the lived…

Obtaining ethical approval for my PhD research with adults with learning (intellectual) disabilities presented an unexpected challenge of learning to work with two sets of guidance: the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), and the Ethical Conduct in Human Research and Related Activities Regulations (HRR).…

In this article, I present how I navigated unexpected apprehension that I faced while communicating with teacher participants during my PhD data collection (via interviews, observations and document study). I mediated the apprehension by strategies such as disclosing my teacher identity, expressing an interest in their practice and assuring them…

Socialisation in doctoral education is a multifaceted process through which students acquire the knowledge, skills and values required to perform in a scholarly community. The literature reports numerous experiences of doctoral students, but socialisation and the challenges faced by international students has received limited attention. As an…

An increasingly multicultural Aotearoa early childhood education (ECE) landscape forms the context for my doctoral study in progress. My research explores the culturally embedded and negotiated environmental identities of a growing number of migrant Indian teachers. This article documents my experiences of confronting and navigating the unexpected…

Qualitative data analysis (QDA) is often depicted as a linear process that employs an organised structure to derive themes inductively or deductively. However, I realised the "messiness" of the process during my doctoral studies on primary teachers' use of digital technologies in ESL classrooms in Maldivian schools. My own experience…

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected the field of teaching and educational research, requiring new changes to methodological tools in my research. My doctoral study examines Maldivian primary teachers' engagement with social studies pedagogies through reflection. The pandemic posed several complex data collection challenges which I…

This article retells the story of a researcher from the time she prepared for the data-gathering in her home country, to the time she was in the field. The story, in her own words, are reflections on how she utilised the advantages of being an insider to the studied context. The lessons illustrated by the researcher in this article may help other…

This research note aimed to highlight the reflections of the researcher while conducting videoconferencing interviews as a part of his doctoral research project. The researcher drew some inferences based on recent literature and two videoconferencing interviews conducted with the doctoral students via Zoom. It was a crucial experience to deal with…

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Chinese students studying in doctoral and postgraduate programmes outside of China numbered over 600,000 (2017). A number of these students may return to China to gather data. This article explores tensions between compliance with the bounds of formal ethical approval and further research opportunities that may…

The article documents the reflections on gathering data from the home country via distance while living and studying in New Zealand. These reflections strengthen the idea that data collection via distance could be a viable solution in circumstances where face-to-face data collection may not be an option. Three threads: negotiations, insider…

Research conducted by English-speaking researchers about other language speaking subjects is essentially cross-cultural and often multilingual, particularly with qualitative research that involves participants communicating in languages other than English. In research using non-English data, scholars have noted that the translation process can be…