Workshop looking at different ways in which we might navigate the process of doing a doctorate

1. The Process of Doctoral Study –
Navigating the Journey
Phil Wood – Institute of Education, NTU
June 2023

2. Charting the Route
- The doctorate as a journey – navigating change
- A philosophical lens on the doctoral journey
- Coping with complexity. Living with change and reflecting on
experience
- Learning to listen and developing dialogue
- Developing your navigational toolkit

3. Navigating change
Change is ubiquitous, and therefore it is how we handle it
which becomes crucial.
At school, academic work and change tends to be
managed for us, but this increasingly becomes our
responsibility as we mature.

4. A doctorate is a long voyage, and so we
need the best tools we can muster to make
it as easy as possible.
What are your worries about the voyage?
What tools have you got to help you
navigate the voyage?

5. Thinking through vectors
There are bound to be challenges and
storms
They may knock you off course
But if you know your destination, you
simply need to weather the storm and
then set a new vector to get back on
course
The trick is knowing that storms are
bound to occur at some point and they
just need working through

6. How do you tend to react to storms?
How do you keep going during the
storm?
How do you react to the calm the
other side?

7. Processual metaphysics
A view of reality based on process rather than substance. Opens up the idea that all
existence is a flow and constant change is ubiquitous. Focuses on interactions as
much as entities.
Defining process:
‘a coordinated group of changes in the complexion of reality, an organised family of
occurrences that are systematically linked to one another either causally or
functionally. It is emphatically not necessarily a change in or of an individual thing,
but can simply relate to some aspect of the general condition of things.’
Rescher (1996: 38)

8. Whiteheadean Process Philosophy
A conceptually rich philosophy.
Actual occasion. Spatiotemporally extended event/process,
interconnected with other actual occasions. We can think of
humans as a process, a coherent series of actual occasions over
time, i.e. ‘a human becoming’.
Prehension. The experiences, perceptions and relations which
coalesce to create the actual occasion.
Concrescence. The coalescing of prehensions to create an actual
occasion.

9. Source:https://ericrose04.wordpress.com/2020/07/23/alfred-north-whitehead/

10. “
The art of progress is to preserve
order amid change, and to
preserve change amid order.’
A.N. Whitehead

11. Coping with complexity
We can’t predict everything
We need to accept that our view is
partial and the world is ever changing
All we can do is act as positively and
ethically as we can, and try to keep
that end point in mind
L’armoire surrealiste, Marcel Jean

12. Reflecting and learning from
experience
We can get lost in the
complexity, in the emotion
and the anxiety.
12
mind emotion
ethics
health
fitness
purpose
career

13. How often do you reflect on your doctoral work and its
impact on you (emotional, identity, etc)?
Does this help you regain your energy and help you get
back on course?

14. Dialogue and the art of listening
Who do you discuss your research with?
Is it a discussion or a dialogue?
Dialogue can help ‘unstick’ issues, can help
you find new insights and is fun
Egos need to be left at the door!
? !
?

15. Developing your navigational
toolkit
What ideas and techniques will help you stay
on course, or regain course if you’re blown off?
Who do you want on your crew to help you on
your voyage?
How can you keep your crew happy? You don’t
want a mutiny!!
"The fundamental
cause of the trouble
is that in the modern
world, the stupid are
cocksure while the
intelligent are full of
doubt.“
Bertrand Russell

16. “
‘Functional stupidity is [the] inability and/or unwillingness to use
cognitive and reflective capacities in anything other than narrow and
circumspect ways. It involves a lack of reflexivity, a disinclination to
require or provide justification, and avoidance of substantive
reasoning.’
Alvesson, M. and A. Spicer (2012: 1201)

17. In reaching port at the end of your
voyage, just remember that enjoying
the (whole) journey is a crucial part of
getting there
AND always remember you might end
up in a different port than the one you
set sail for. AND that is fine, as long
as you realise which port you’ve
arrived at and why!!