Examining the Impact of Doctoral Studies on Teachers as Professionals and Their Workplaces: a Study from Portugal and Poland

Author(s):

Marta Kowalczuk-Walędziak(presenting / submitting)Amélia Lopes(presenting)Isabel Menezes Nuna Tormenta

Conference:

ECER 2015

Network:

01. Continuing Professional Development: Learning for Individuals, Leaders, and Organisations

Format:

Paper

Session Information

01 SES 07 B, Understanding Professional Identity

Paper Session

Time:

2015-09-09

17:15-18:45

Room:

204.Oktatóterem [C]

Chair:

James Underwood

Contribution

The demand for highly qualified teachers has been growing in response to challenges of lifelong learning society as well as higher and higher expectations of students, parents, employers or policy makers on teachers, schools and educational systems. According to many European policy papers on the quality of teachers of the 21st century (see e.g. European Commission, 2012; Commission of the European Communities, 2007), teachers should be well grounded in their subject matter, have the necessary pedagogic skills to teach them, use learning materials from various sources, and apply research-based knowledge in educational practice. Besides, the professional model of teacher education stresses the importance of teachers as researchers and authors of their own knowledge (Buchberger, Campos, Kallos, & Stephenson, 2000).

This has generated the necessity to develop teachers' professional skills, to stimulate and intensify their research activities through, for example, participation in postgraduate (doctoral) education (Erixon, Frĺnberg, & Kallós, 2001; European Doctorate in Teacher Education, 2013; Zgaga, 2013). National governments and universities have invested on in-service teacher education, notably developing and funding post-graduation courses in Educational Sciences – Master and PhD -, towards the qualification and specialization of teachers.

At the same time and all over the world what a PhD is and what for has really changed. If in the past, the leading goal of PhD programmes was to prepare the individual to conduct research in the scientific field of his/her PhD, today, notably in the field of education, there is a growing number of professionals involved in a PhD to improve their professional practice or status. Indeed, the need to include in PhD programmes in educational sciences the relations between research and educational practice is more and more often emphasized (EDiTE, 2013).

Despite the increasing number of debates surrounding the curricula and expected outcomes of doctoral studies for teachers (see e.g. EDiTE, 2013) and the growing interest in doctoral studies in educational sciences, still little is known about how teachers’ participation in doctoral studies or completing them influences such individuals as professionals and the school as an organization (Burgess & Wellington, 2010; Scott, Brown, Lunt, & Thorne, 2004; Wellington & Sikes, 2006). Surprisingly, there are few national statistics or educational reports concerning teachers participating in doctoral programmes. Most of the research projects refer to motivations, aspirations, employment and careers of doctoral students in general or in other areas of science (see e.g. Appel & Dahlgren, 2003; Raddon & Sung, 2008) and the impact the studies have on individuals, organizations or institutions (Canal-Domínguez & Wall, 2014; Platow, 2012; Raddon & Sung, 2008). In these contexts, teachers are a relatively rare object of research.

This paper comes from a collaborative research project on the impact of doctoral studies on teachers as professionals and their workplaces, carried out in Poland and Portugal, intending to respond the following research questions: Why do teachers decide to undertake PhD studies? What is the impact of completing a PhD on the individuals as professionals and on the school environment? What differences can be found according to national contexts and educational systems, teaching sectors or scientific areas of the PhD? The main goal of this paper is to present and discuss the project findings concerning those teachers who have completed a PhD in educational sciences.

Method

Methodologically, the project consists of a qualitative research study, which grounds on an extensive collection of data through semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted with Polish and Portuguese teachers that have completed a PhD or are participating in a PhD programme. 42 interviews were conducted in each country with teachers belonging to different teaching sectors (pre-school, primary school, middle and high school) and having completed or participating in PhD programmes from different scientific areas. Considering that the doctorate is both a process and a product (Halse & Mowbray, 2011), the guidelines of the interview were developed on the basis of the research questions and organized by the aspects of the process of doing the doctorate which are most relevant to the investigation of the impact of teachers' doctoral degrees on school improvement. The works of Wellington and Sikes (2006), Burgess and Wellington (2010), and Scott, Brown, Lunt, and Thorne (2004) were used as a starting point for generating topics of inquiry. Finally, the interview guidelines were organized in themes as follows: the motivations for choosing doctoral studies, the process of preparing doctoral dissertations, the influence of the doctorate on personal and professional life, and plans of future professional development. With all participant teachers, information was collected regarding: gender and age; status of doctoral qualifications, scientific area of the doctorate, teaching level, years of teaching experience, and subjects they have taught. The interviews were conducted by researchers, audio recorded, and they lasted from 45 to 90 minutes. The interviews have been transcribed verbatim and a qualitative content analysis of data (Mayring, 2000) is being conducted. Findings that will be presented in this paper concern those teachers (8 from Poland and 8 from Portugal), working in different teaching sectors) with a completed PhD in the scientific area of educational sciences.

Expected Outcomes

The preliminary results reveal: (1) a strong similarity between the perspectives of Portuguese and Polish teachers; (2) the existence of multiple, frequently overlapping reasons and motives for the doctorate among the interviewed teachers – from increased opportunity of academic career or the influence of friends and academics up to the wish to become the school principal, escaping school reality (especially the routine, issues with students and colleagues) and enhance personal development; (3) the participants reported enjoying multiple benefits from completing doctoral programmes, such as a more reflective and critical approach to their work (especially to classroom activities, curricula, educational reforms) and increased confidence in applying the results of the educational research in their practice; (4) in contrast to these benefits, a large number of teachers pointed to worse relations with the principal and other teachers as a result of their participation in doctoral studies; it does have to be noted that a few respondents (from both countries) reported they are being objects of mobbing because of their PhD degree; (5) most of the interviewed teachers make some attempts to apply their doctorate-based knowledge in the school environment by planning and introducing educational innovations, introducing new teaching methods, organizing lectures and workshops for teachers and parents from their schools as well as from other educational institutions; (6) however, all of the interviewees claimed that their colleagues and principals were reluctant to participate in such activities or to support them, and that none of these activities resulted in financial benefits. Final results will scrutinize differences and similarities across teaching levels and national contexts. Findings will be discussed in relation with current challenges on teaching profession, governments’ educational policies, school cultures and leadership, and relations between doctoral programs and schools.

References

Appel, M.L., & Dahlgren, L.G. 2003. ‘Swedish doctoral students’ experiences on their journey towards a PhD: obstacles and opportunities inside and outside the academic building. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research 47(1), 89–110. Buchberger, F., Campos, B.P., Kallos, D., & Stephenson, J. 2000. Green paper on teacher education in Europe: High quality teacher education for high quality education and training. Umea: TNTEE. Burgess, H., & Wellington, J. 2010. Exploring the impact of the professional doctorate on students’ professional practice and personal development: Early indications. Work Based Learning e-Journal 1(1), 160–176. Canal-Domínguez, J.F., & Wall, A. 2014. Factors determining the career success of doctorate holders: evidence from the Spanish case. Studies in Higher Education 39(10), 1750–1773. Commission of the European Communities. 2007. Improving the quality of teacher education. http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52007DC0392&from=EN. European Doctorate in Teacher Education. 2013. European Doctorate in Teacher Education. Progress report. http://www.edite.eu/files/2012_3214_PR_EDiTE_pub.pdf. Erixon, P., Frĺnberg, G. M. & Kallós, D. 2001. Studies and Research in Teacher Education within the European Union. In P. Erixon, G. M. Frĺnberg, & D. Kallós (Eds.), The role of graduate and postgraduate studies in teacher education reform policies in the European Union (pp. 47–60), ENTEP. European Commission. 2012. Supporting the teaching professions for better learning outcomes.http://eurlex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=SWD:2012:0374:FIN:EN:PDF. Halse, C., & Mowbray, S. 2011. The impact of the doctorate. Studies in Higher Education 36 (5), 513-525. Mayring, P. (2000). Qualitative content analysis. Forum: Qualitative Social Research 1(2). http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/1089/2386. Platow, M.J. 2012. PhD experience and subsequent outcomes: a look at self-perceptions of acquired graduate attributes and supervisor support. Studies in Higher Education 37(1), 103–118. Raddon, A., & Sung, J. 2009. The career choices and impact of PhD graduates in the UK: A synthesis review. Swindon: ESRC. Scott, D., Brown, A., Lunt, I., & Thorne, L. 2004. Professional Doctorates. Integrating Professional and Academic Knowledge. Maidenhead: Open University Press. Wellington, J., & Sikes, P. 2006. ‘A doctorate in a tight compartment’: why do students choose a professional doctorate and what impact does it have on their personal and professional lives? Studies in Higher Education 31(6), 723–734. Zgaga, P. 2013. The future of European teacher education in the heavy seas of higher education. Teacher Development: An international journal of teachers' professional development 17 (3), 347-361.

Author Information

Marta Kowalczuk-Walędziak (presenting / submitting)

University of Bialystok

Faculty of Pedagogy and Psychology

Białystok

Amélia Lopes (presenting)

Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

Isabel Menezes

University of Porto

Psychology and Education

Porto

Nuna Tormenta