Pam Green

Spaces of Influence: A Framework for Analysis of an Individual's Contribution Within Communities of Practice.

Within our lives there are spaces of influence or opportunities in which the impact of an ‘influential other’ enables learning in ways that might not otherwise occur. This paper focusses on learning in terms of the learning of others, and in particular the professional impact of John Bowden. Building on the work of Vygotsky (1978), and Wood, Bruner and Ross (1976), the notion of supported learning is revisited and extended. A range of actual stories involving Bowden as key influence are presented through which the term: spaces of influence is developed. The stories flow from varied contexts including those pertaining to research students, communities of practice around methodological positions steeped in qualitative methods, phenomenography, and a scholarly review network. Five spaces within a metaspace of influence‐action, explicit discourse, learning, practice development and trust are developed through the analysis of the stories. The paper pays tribute to the significant work of John Bowden, through the telling of embedded stories, the interweaving of theory such as Bowden and Marton’s (1998) theory of learning for an unknown future, and through the development of the notion of spaces of influence that emerged from reflection here on Bowden’s contribution within communities of practice.

Completion Mindsets and Contexts in Doctoral Supervision.

Purpose – Doctoral candidates are now located within a research context of performativity where the push to successfully complete in a timely manner is central. The purpose of this paper is to develop a model of completion mindset within a completion context to assist research students and supervisors.Design/methodology/approach – The research was undertaken using qualitative interviews involving both PhD candidates and research supervisors, with transcripts analysed both manually and using NVivo. The paper addresses two questions: How can supervisors create a supportive completion context and help candidates to develop an effective completion mindset? What approach does a candidate need to take and what environment does a supervisor need to create in order to facilitate timely successful completion? These key questions are addressed through examples of individual success stories as well as through the development of a series of supervisory models.Findings – The need to complete “on time” often clashes wi...

A moral compass framework for resolution of wicked problems in doctoral education and supervision

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to design and explain a moral compass framework that informs decision-making by those engaged in shaping the doctoral education and supervision environment. Design/methodology/approach – The research involved analysis of transcripts of 50 interviews with a range of doctoral students and supervisors. The framework was derived from the integration of the transcript analysis with a range of theoretical constructs: Rittel and Webber’s (1973) “wicked” problems; Bowden’s (2004) capability for the unknown future; Baillie et al.’s (2013) threshold capability development; liminality (Meyer and Land 2006); mindfulness (Langer and Moldoveanu, 2000; Green and Bowden, 2012); as well as our interpretation of moral compass and collective morality. Findings – Although applicable to a wide range of contexts, with broader, potentially universal implications for professional life, the framework is explained using the doctoral education system as example, and supervisor and candidate exp...

Moral compass framework: Individual and collective decision-making in some complex doctoral education scenarios

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is as follows: locate our moral compass framework (Bowden and Green, 2014) within the moral development literature; demonstrate how the framework can be used to analyse complex system-wide problems; and propose change in doctoral education. Design/methodology/approach – This paper shows the analysis of transcripts of 50 interviews with doctoral students and supervisors. Four scenarios, each a composite derived primarily from the interview data, were analysed using the framework, complemented by reference to the moral development literature. Findings – The structure of the framework and meaning of the constructs’ collective morality, moral advocacy and moral mediation are elaborated and further explained through the analysis of the four scenarios, showing how the framework can contribute to resolution of complex system-wide problems and how they facilitate moral development within a multi-level system. Six proposals for change in the doctoral education system, at the ind...