Friday, 10 March 2017
March 2017 Ups and Downs
I haven't posted in any reflections for a long time. I have made some fundamental changes to my approach to my PhD, I took voluntary redundancy from work a few months ago and this has enabled me to go from 3 hours a week on the PhD to 3 days per week. The impact has been huge, it feels like a huge privilege to be able to focus on my studies in this way.
There have been lots of very positive outcomes from this move, I have been through an important PhD gateway with my confirmation of thesis which forced me to clarify a number of methodological choices. I have drafted a couple of chapters, published a paper in a high profile journal, gained funding to support both my University fees and an essential module.
The down side is that I am now appreciating the intensity of being more immersed in my PhD, I am spending a lot of time alone, in my attic, studying. I know that I am learning and being very productive but I can see that I am losing perspective on some things. I have noticed a recent tendency to view every hiccup as a crisis. I have had several "crises" this week, all of which have been resolved with a bit of further reading. I'm not usually prone to catastrophising so I have to acknowledge that I am losing the plot ever so slightly.
The issue that seems to underpin my anxieties is consistently related to the question of "is it good enough?" The (almost vertical) learning curve around research methods has opened me up to the continuum of quality in relation to research methods. I am reading about "gold standard" methods and also reading research based on very poor methods that has been published in peer-reviewed journals. I am beginning to appreciate the breadth of the continuum and trying to place myself and my chosen methods on that continuum. The bit that I am grappling with is where doctoral study should place on the continuum. This is not easy to answer, different people have different opinions, different institutions have different expectations. Understanding the required balance between the quality of the actual research with the extent to which the student has learned and is able to reflect on the respective limitations is one that is difficult.
There have been lots of very positive outcomes from this move, I have been through an important PhD gateway with my confirmation of thesis which forced me to clarify a number of methodological choices. I have drafted a couple of chapters, published a paper in a high profile journal, gained funding to support both my University fees and an essential module.
The down side is that I am now appreciating the intensity of being more immersed in my PhD, I am spending a lot of time alone, in my attic, studying. I know that I am learning and being very productive but I can see that I am losing perspective on some things. I have noticed a recent tendency to view every hiccup as a crisis. I have had several "crises" this week, all of which have been resolved with a bit of further reading. I'm not usually prone to catastrophising so I have to acknowledge that I am losing the plot ever so slightly.
The issue that seems to underpin my anxieties is consistently related to the question of "is it good enough?" The (almost vertical) learning curve around research methods has opened me up to the continuum of quality in relation to research methods. I am reading about "gold standard" methods and also reading research based on very poor methods that has been published in peer-reviewed journals. I am beginning to appreciate the breadth of the continuum and trying to place myself and my chosen methods on that continuum. The bit that I am grappling with is where doctoral study should place on the continuum. This is not easy to answer, different people have different opinions, different institutions have different expectations. Understanding the required balance between the quality of the actual research with the extent to which the student has learned and is able to reflect on the respective limitations is one that is difficult.
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