Gina Wisker | University of Brighton (original) (raw)
Papers by Gina Wisker
… in Education and …
Most studies on metalearning and metacognition have focused on undergraduates where reflective an... more Most studies on metalearning and metacognition have focused on undergraduates where reflective and active awareness of learning practices and achievements, or metalearning, has been seen to be useful, indeed essential for the learning achievement of undergraduates Veenman & Verheig, 2003). This paper reports on the latest development in action research carried out at Anglia Polytechnic University for the last seven years and concentrates on developing and supporting the successful research-as-learning of international postgraduates studying at a distance. It argues that students encouraged to develop metalearning through reflection upon results of the Reflections on Learning Inventory (RoLI) (Meyer & Boulton-Lewis, 1997), supervisory dialogues from groups and research development workshops are likely to achieve success in their research as learning, while others who are less able to develop metalearning are less successful.
Tags: Doctoral students, early career researchers, Gina Wisker, Relationships, Supervisors
Within the current higher education context, early career researchers (ECRs) face a ‘risk-career’... more Within the current higher education context, early career researchers (ECRs) face a
‘risk-career’ in which predictable, stable academic careers have become increasingly
rare. Traditional milestones to signal progress toward a sustainable research career are
disappearing or subject to reinterpretation, and ECRs need to attend to new or
reimagined signals in their efforts to develop a researcher identity in this current context.
In this article, we present a comprehensive framework for researcher identity in relation
to the ways ECRs recognise and respond to divergent signals across spheres of activity.
We illustrate this framework through eight identity stories drawn from our earlier
research projects. Each identity story highlights the congruence (or lack of congruence)
between signals across spheres of activity and emphasises the different ways ECRs
respond to these signals. The proposed comprehensive framework allows for the analysis
of researcher identity development through the complex and intertwined activities in
which ECRs are involved. We advance this approach as a foundation for a sustained
research agenda to understand how ECRs identify and respond to relevant signals, and,
consequently, to unravel the complex interplay between signals and spheres of activity
evident in struggles to become researchers in a risk-career environment.
Postal address: G.wisker@brighton.ac.uk CLT university of Brighton, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9PH The ... more Postal address: G.wisker@brighton.ac.uk CLT university of Brighton, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9PH The literature review is arguably the place in a thesis where doctoral authors convincingly engage with theory and theoretical perspectives underlying their research, situating their own contribution to knowledge in established and ongoing dialogues in the field. One difficulty doctoral candidates encounter in their learning to be researchers is articulating this understanding and engagement, how their work grows from literature informing and underpinning their research. Writing confidently at doctoral level in the discipline discourse, and breaking writing blocks are key features of engagement and articulation. Most research into academic writing concentrates on undergraduate writing development , while research on doctoral students looks at relationships with supervisors, communities and the doctoral learning journey. This research on doctoral writing in the literature review uses work on conceptual threshold crossings to identify ways in which doctoral students engage with and indicate their understanding of theoretical perspectives through successful doctoral writing.
Contemporary British women horror writers critically engage with, and develop a range of familiar... more Contemporary British women horror writers critically engage with, and develop a range of familiar settings and concerns, familiar, that is, in more conventional, male authorised horror. But they are scripting roles for women and the more radical amongst them frequently refuse the disempowerment, which consistently configures women as victims, femmes fatales, hags, and whores in such conventional horror. Additionally, they tend to investigate the spaces, settings, the representations, roles and the myths which restrict and abject women. Many are writing formally familiar horror tales: they revive the ghost story, beloved of male and female writers alike, and emphasise its gendered significances. They revitalise mythic figures -Medusa, witches, female vampires. However, these women writers are more likely to rescript the abject scripts usually allotted such conventional figures, devaluing and undercutting the cultural assumptions which construct and constrain them . Even more radically, they often refuse the "horror turn" that neat closure which shuts down the subversive energies and restores order at the end of a horror fiction. In this they not only disturb the familiar figures, they also, by troubling the conventional narrative structure, question the values which use it as a vehicle. For many irony, for others the oxymoron, and for others the combining of genres enable such a subversive move. Each subversion and yoking of opposites destabilises the complacency of conventional horror which itself only terrifies and disgusts in order eventually, to overpower and restore the status quo, a status quo which is itself predicated upon largely masculine values, and a social imbalance of power between the sexes. Mark Jancovitch comments on this horror 'turn' or return to order:
Innovations in Education and Teaching International Nov 2013
Purpose -The purpose of this article is to present findings from the authors' research into how s... more Purpose -The purpose of this article is to present findings from the authors' research into how supervisors of doctoral students cope with change in supervisory relationships where a supervisor takes on a student previously supervised by another, or has to hand over a student to another supervisor's care, and to identify recommendations for applying these findings to supervisory practice. Design/methodology/approach -The research used interviews to gather and analyse perceptions and practices from experienced supervisors, and aimed to identify good practice to support supervisors in enabling transitions to enhance student success. This work is underpinned by work on conceptual threshold-crossing, students working at sufficiently critical, creative and conceptual levels to achieve doctorates; well-being and emotional resilience, particularly in doctoral studies. It makes links between knowledge construction, resilience and well-being, from the perspective of the supervisors, since it focuses on the experience of supervisors engaging with and supporting students. Findings -The research identifies supervisors' anxiety at, and ways of managing the difficulties of, either losing or acquiring students. It highlights effective strategies for taking on students midway into their research to enable successful supervision. Originality/value -This research offers new knowledge about supervisor perceptions of, experiences with and good practice suggestions for, supporting transitions for doctoral students who change supervisor.
International Journal of Doctoral Studies , Jan 21, 2013
This research and research development programme informed book focuses on the design, conceptual ... more This research and research development programme informed book focuses on the design, conceptual work, actioning and achieving of the PhD, EdD, and masters. It is based on extensive original action research with cohorts of PhD students, and individual PhDs (Uk, Israel, ...
The good supervisor: supervising postgraduate and undergraduate research for doctoral theses and ... more The good supervisor: supervising postgraduate and undergraduate research for doctoral theses and dissertations WISKER Gina.
Teaching in Higher …, Jan 1, 2003
Results from action research conducted at APU largely with Israeli PhD students, start to identif... more Results from action research conducted at APU largely with Israeli PhD students, start to identify good practice in supervisory dialogues, peer support and in facilitative strategies as part of research development programmes. Our results, focusing on learning conversations between students and supervisors, students and peers on research development programmes, identify strategies, supervisory relationships and support, which aid completion. This research builds on earlier studies into PhD students' development of research methods and conceptual frameworks, and on the work of others (Moses, 1984; into supervisory relationships. Focus groups, workshops, questionnaires and individual supervisory dialogues with PhD students, have been conducted using an action research format. This paper concentrates on elements of the action research taking place at completion stage in students' PhDs and during the research development workshop programme (stage 3
… in Education and …
Most studies on metalearning and metacognition have focused on undergraduates where reflective an... more Most studies on metalearning and metacognition have focused on undergraduates where reflective and active awareness of learning practices and achievements, or metalearning, has been seen to be useful, indeed essential for the learning achievement of undergraduates Veenman & Verheig, 2003). This paper reports on the latest development in action research carried out at Anglia Polytechnic University for the last seven years and concentrates on developing and supporting the successful research-as-learning of international postgraduates studying at a distance. It argues that students encouraged to develop metalearning through reflection upon results of the Reflections on Learning Inventory (RoLI) (Meyer & Boulton-Lewis, 1997), supervisory dialogues from groups and research development workshops are likely to achieve success in their research as learning, while others who are less able to develop metalearning are less successful.
Tags: Doctoral students, early career researchers, Gina Wisker, Relationships, Supervisors
Within the current higher education context, early career researchers (ECRs) face a ‘risk-career’... more Within the current higher education context, early career researchers (ECRs) face a
‘risk-career’ in which predictable, stable academic careers have become increasingly
rare. Traditional milestones to signal progress toward a sustainable research career are
disappearing or subject to reinterpretation, and ECRs need to attend to new or
reimagined signals in their efforts to develop a researcher identity in this current context.
In this article, we present a comprehensive framework for researcher identity in relation
to the ways ECRs recognise and respond to divergent signals across spheres of activity.
We illustrate this framework through eight identity stories drawn from our earlier
research projects. Each identity story highlights the congruence (or lack of congruence)
between signals across spheres of activity and emphasises the different ways ECRs
respond to these signals. The proposed comprehensive framework allows for the analysis
of researcher identity development through the complex and intertwined activities in
which ECRs are involved. We advance this approach as a foundation for a sustained
research agenda to understand how ECRs identify and respond to relevant signals, and,
consequently, to unravel the complex interplay between signals and spheres of activity
evident in struggles to become researchers in a risk-career environment.
Postal address: G.wisker@brighton.ac.uk CLT university of Brighton, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9PH The ... more Postal address: G.wisker@brighton.ac.uk CLT university of Brighton, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9PH The literature review is arguably the place in a thesis where doctoral authors convincingly engage with theory and theoretical perspectives underlying their research, situating their own contribution to knowledge in established and ongoing dialogues in the field. One difficulty doctoral candidates encounter in their learning to be researchers is articulating this understanding and engagement, how their work grows from literature informing and underpinning their research. Writing confidently at doctoral level in the discipline discourse, and breaking writing blocks are key features of engagement and articulation. Most research into academic writing concentrates on undergraduate writing development , while research on doctoral students looks at relationships with supervisors, communities and the doctoral learning journey. This research on doctoral writing in the literature review uses work on conceptual threshold crossings to identify ways in which doctoral students engage with and indicate their understanding of theoretical perspectives through successful doctoral writing.
Contemporary British women horror writers critically engage with, and develop a range of familiar... more Contemporary British women horror writers critically engage with, and develop a range of familiar settings and concerns, familiar, that is, in more conventional, male authorised horror. But they are scripting roles for women and the more radical amongst them frequently refuse the disempowerment, which consistently configures women as victims, femmes fatales, hags, and whores in such conventional horror. Additionally, they tend to investigate the spaces, settings, the representations, roles and the myths which restrict and abject women. Many are writing formally familiar horror tales: they revive the ghost story, beloved of male and female writers alike, and emphasise its gendered significances. They revitalise mythic figures -Medusa, witches, female vampires. However, these women writers are more likely to rescript the abject scripts usually allotted such conventional figures, devaluing and undercutting the cultural assumptions which construct and constrain them . Even more radically, they often refuse the "horror turn" that neat closure which shuts down the subversive energies and restores order at the end of a horror fiction. In this they not only disturb the familiar figures, they also, by troubling the conventional narrative structure, question the values which use it as a vehicle. For many irony, for others the oxymoron, and for others the combining of genres enable such a subversive move. Each subversion and yoking of opposites destabilises the complacency of conventional horror which itself only terrifies and disgusts in order eventually, to overpower and restore the status quo, a status quo which is itself predicated upon largely masculine values, and a social imbalance of power between the sexes. Mark Jancovitch comments on this horror 'turn' or return to order:
Innovations in Education and Teaching International Nov 2013
Purpose -The purpose of this article is to present findings from the authors' research into how s... more Purpose -The purpose of this article is to present findings from the authors' research into how supervisors of doctoral students cope with change in supervisory relationships where a supervisor takes on a student previously supervised by another, or has to hand over a student to another supervisor's care, and to identify recommendations for applying these findings to supervisory practice. Design/methodology/approach -The research used interviews to gather and analyse perceptions and practices from experienced supervisors, and aimed to identify good practice to support supervisors in enabling transitions to enhance student success. This work is underpinned by work on conceptual threshold-crossing, students working at sufficiently critical, creative and conceptual levels to achieve doctorates; well-being and emotional resilience, particularly in doctoral studies. It makes links between knowledge construction, resilience and well-being, from the perspective of the supervisors, since it focuses on the experience of supervisors engaging with and supporting students. Findings -The research identifies supervisors' anxiety at, and ways of managing the difficulties of, either losing or acquiring students. It highlights effective strategies for taking on students midway into their research to enable successful supervision. Originality/value -This research offers new knowledge about supervisor perceptions of, experiences with and good practice suggestions for, supporting transitions for doctoral students who change supervisor.
International Journal of Doctoral Studies , Jan 21, 2013
This research and research development programme informed book focuses on the design, conceptual ... more This research and research development programme informed book focuses on the design, conceptual work, actioning and achieving of the PhD, EdD, and masters. It is based on extensive original action research with cohorts of PhD students, and individual PhDs (Uk, Israel, ...
The good supervisor: supervising postgraduate and undergraduate research for doctoral theses and ... more The good supervisor: supervising postgraduate and undergraduate research for doctoral theses and dissertations WISKER Gina.
Teaching in Higher …, Jan 1, 2003
Results from action research conducted at APU largely with Israeli PhD students, start to identif... more Results from action research conducted at APU largely with Israeli PhD students, start to identify good practice in supervisory dialogues, peer support and in facilitative strategies as part of research development programmes. Our results, focusing on learning conversations between students and supervisors, students and peers on research development programmes, identify strategies, supervisory relationships and support, which aid completion. This research builds on earlier studies into PhD students' development of research methods and conceptual frameworks, and on the work of others (Moses, 1984; into supervisory relationships. Focus groups, workshops, questionnaires and individual supervisory dialogues with PhD students, have been conducted using an action research format. This paper concentrates on elements of the action research taking place at completion stage in students' PhDs and during the research development workshop programme (stage 3