“Who Am I to Question the Research Literature?” From Experienced Teacher to Novice Researcher

• In Event: Roundtable Session 11
  In Roundtable Session: A Sense of Belonging: The Construction of Doctoral Identity

Abstract

By conducting a micro ethnography of an introductory education research course for incoming doctoral students, the course instructor and two senior doctoral students document a practitioner's journey (Shulman, 2005) to examine teachers becoming researchers in this field, where there are various shifts in thinking, performing and valuing. A critical discourse analysis of the practitioner’s texts uncovers issues concerning identity and knowledge construction.

Theories of culture for building community membership inform our perspective. As novices become members, entry into ways of thinking and being are performative acts visible through the novices’ use of discourses in the field (Wenger, Green & Lee, 2006).

Insights provide directions for improved scaffolding of novices’ entry, retention, and further development, and suggestions for doctoral program development.

Authors

• Theresa Y. Austin, University of Massachusetts - Amherst

• Charles W. Estus, University of Massachusetts - Amherst

• Katie Lazdowski, University of Massachusetts