PhD as Process

Yet another interesting but slow week in the progress of my PhD. Officially I’ve been at it for just about a month and psychologically it’s a big shift from what I was doing last year. I feel more relaxed, less anxious and probably more excited about my work than I was last year. At the moment I am worrying a bit about the pace of my progress and wonder if I should be working more. I’ve decided to work everyday even if it’s only for 2 hours and so far I have been able to maintain this work ethic. I had two insightful conversations this week about the nature of the PhD; one with a lecturer who works in my building, Jan – who inadvertently asked how things were going and then 15 minutes later we were still chatting while my tea got cold, and the other one with my supervisor Robin – again an informal chat meant to last 20-30 minutes, but that went on for at least an hour. The main thrust of both these conversations; or rather what I took out of these conversations is the notion of the PhD as process. The value of having an understanding of, and developing reflective insight about what, how and when you are doing something. Also how your research fits in or challenges current debates in your field and in broader arena of higher education. Most importantly I am in control of the process, I need to shape it and take out of it what I need most. Very scary thought!




Robin and I were also talking about Bernstein (of course) and his main project i.e. finding ways to make education more accessible and equal to working class kids. I was saying to Robin that I wasn’t sure of the extent to which I wanted to use Bernstein and whether my research agenda was overtly seeking to change pedagogic practices in favour of working class kids getting access to the ‘goods of the academy’. Reflecting a bit more on this issue, I realised that even if I don’t overtly seek to pursue this agenda – issues of discrimination and inequality inherent in education (irrespective of the context) will come to the surface and I will be confront with it and will have to make a decision about what I do about it. Ignore it, or confront it, highlighting the inequalities and provoke change. Thus making a politic stand or using my research to take a political position. Again scary stuff…



I’m starting to see the educational world and its processes through the lenses provided by Bernstein (without understanding all the complex bits and pieces) and I feel proud of myself in a small way – because I understand his theories in sufficient depth to conceptualise its working in the practices I encounter. Next week I have to put all these loose and floating thoughts into a coherent format and present some written motivation for why I want to use his work and the possible value it might offer.