This essay discusses the impact of a diversity and social justice course on the assessment philosophy and practice of an early-career higher education assessment professional. The author, who directs institutional assessment practices at a public 4-year institution in the northeastern United States and is pursuing an online doctorate in higher…

Literature Review. The Higher Education Policy Institute (2020) report presents a decline in the attraction of Professional Doctorate Education, one that seeks to address the attrition and length of time of completion of traditional doctorates, yet rests on an undertheorised notion of practice. This paper examines the meaning construction at play…

This qualitative study examines cognitive presence in a graduate-level online pedagogy course that introduced students to the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework. Students wrote weekly reflections that described their own learning and speculated on how they could apply what they learned to create positive online learning environments for future…

The purpose of this study was to employ autoethnography as a methodology to examine my doctoral comprehensive exam experience in the context of COVID-19. It was a special period of "isolation squared" with both the take-home exam and the stay-at-home order enforced. Through diary entries, I recorded my complex feelings of overwhelming,…

This paper will provide insight into the reflective practice that a professional doctorate (EdD) encourages, and how such reflection can affect the professional practice of professional services staff. It concludes with my reflections on how undertaking an EdD has been beneficial, and the self-awareness that I have achieved both from the programme…

This article examines our border experiences as PhD candidates developing transdisciplinary research in a Colombian public university. Its objective is to present our autoethnographic reflections by employing the borderlands theory as a framework to understand the emergence of physical and symbolic in-between spaces in which our experiences are…

In qualitative doctoral research the methodological approach, and the research design are extremely important when ensuring the rigorousness of the work. This is particularly significant for all researchers, and even more for doctoral students who are still developing their research and analytical skills. This paper aims to support doctoral…

Purpose: Many doctoral students never obtain a doctoral degree, and many do not finish their studies in time. To promote aspects of effectiveness and efficiency in doctoral studies, the purpose of this paper is to explore a project perspective, more specifically how doctoral students experience their studies in terms of key dimensions of projects.…

This article explores a doctoral sustainability leadership course in an interdisciplinary leadership program. Learners in the course study sustainability and sustainability leadership from a systemic design perspective. They are invited to become visionaries who work across boundaries and disciplines with cooperative and reflective spirits to find…

This paper serves as a beginning conversation of how two White males perspectives' were shaped and how those perspectives evolved while attending and teaching at a Predominately Black Institution (PBI). Their initial understandings of Whiteness are introduced. This is an ethnographic study that utilized personal narratives from a college professor…

A white person from the Global North, referred to in Kiswahili as a mzungu, can hardly conduct research anonymously, observe unnoticed or merge with staff and students in the context of African university classrooms. This article builds on the author's six years of research at the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) in Tanzania, examining staff and…

This Forum issue discusses the centrality of the fieldwork in doctoral research. The inevitability of researchers' influence and of their values apparent during and after their fieldwork calls for a high degree of reflexivity. Since the standard methodology textbooks do not sufficiently guide on addressing such challenges, doctoral researchers go…

Purpose: This paper examines the experiences of engaging with academic writing of international doctoral students in the schools of humanities and education at a UK university. The purpose of this paper is to uncover the real accounts of international students whose cultural and language backgrounds are often marginalised and considered, not as…

During this heuristic phenomenological inquiry, we examined our lived experiences as five women (three doctoral students, two early career faculty) in the process of becoming music teacher educators participating in a year-long, online, group-facilitated professional development community (PDC). Data included recorded meetings via Skype, journal…

The central aim of this article is to explore the intersecting voices and experiences of 4 educational leadership doctoral students in a social justice program at a Hispanic serving institution in the Southwest. The 4 doctoral students engaged in conversations regarding their lived experiences and about the relationship between social justice and…