Writing about writing: Establishing sustained writing practices for part-time doctoral researchers

Taryn Tavener-Smith is a full-time Lecturer at Buckinghamshire New University. She is in the fourth year of a part-time practice-based PhD in English Studies with the University of Stirling. Taryn’s research explores the portrayal of liminal identities in non-fiction life writing.

Finding the time and space to write as a part-time doctoral researcher can feel like an immense challenge, especially when this needs to fit alongside a full-time academic role. In this blog, I will share what I have learned about establishing my own writing practice.

I started my part-time practice-based PhD in English Studies in September 2020 while working full-time. Following enrolment, I encountered the seemingly insurmountable task of churning out a 70,000-word creative artefact alongside a 30,000-word critical piece detailing my reflections on the writing process. Once the initial panicked flailing of the project’s breadth had subsided, I started writing: I wrote in brief bursts for an hour before work each morning; I wrote for brief 15-minute intervals throughout the working day between lectures, seminars, student and faculty meetings (such writing spells were less frequent); I wrote in the evenings for momentary bursts when my otherwise weary brain permitted (these occurrences were even scarcer).

These non-sequential writing hours eventually clocked into writing days and, later, into entire weeks that morphed into blurry months. My writing practice (if I can even call it that) was punctuated by endless reams of fragmented text. Before long, the project’s content began swirling around my desk in several forms: crumpled Post-it notes, haphazardly constructed reminders in my mobile’s Notes, hastily typed, misspelt emails to myself, and scribbled musings on jagged-edged pieces of paper.

Suddenly though, something miraculous happened: I had a page completed. Then two. Then three. Then twenty pages. Before I knew it, an entire chapter had been written. But this was not a supernatural occurrence – all it boiled down to was gradually establishing a writing practice (more or less) and sticking to it (well, mostly sticking to it). Not everything I wrote was any good, either. In fact, much of the material produced during those earlier days has since been relegated to the proverbial ‘cutting room floor’, while William Faulkner’s reminder to ‘Kill your darlings!’ echoed in my ears.

Here are some things I have learned about writing during the first four years of part-time PhD study:

Find your ‘tribe’ and attend writing retreats: Your ‘tribe’ can be anyone: a local writing group; a collection of students or scholars who are interested in writing; novice writers practising the craft for enjoyment. These communities reinforce accountability while making the (often isolating) PhD journey feel less lonely. These groups are also well established to support writers from all disciplines, interests, and walks of life. If you cannot locate any local writing groups, establish your own by reaching out to peers at your institution.
Write less, more often. An advisor once gave me a piece of advice about dissertation writing: ‘Just start by writing a room in the house and forget about writing the entire house!’ This caveat has remained with me. It reminds me of the significance that even the most rudimentary of initial steps often holds in terms of writing practice.
Write anything! We often possess the misconception about obtaining ‘perfection’ in our writing from the outset. We hold ourselves to standards that are not only unattainable (in the first draft, anyway) but that are often stifling to our progress. We assume that unless a piece of text is ‘perfect’, it fails to convey progress. First drafts will never be perfect and are called ‘drafts’ for exactly that reason, but they are still undeniably valuable components on the journey toward perfection (if such a thing even exists). And, if this fails, remember the well-used ‘cutting room floor’ idea from earlier.
When it comes to writing practice – you need to do just that: practice. Writing is a craft requiring practice. We take pride in practising various other skills in our daily lives and writing is no different. It requires practice if it is to be mastered.

Four years on, I have reached the conclusion that the PhD endeavour (regardless of discipline) is firmly rooted within writing practice and as such, calls for clear acknowledgement of this fact. The importance of identifying suitable approaches to writing, establishing a writing practice, and actually executing that practice consistently (regardless of how fragmented it may appear in the moment), cannot be overstated. Writing in a PhD is ultimately a journey, whose destination can only be reached in one way: by writing. One. Word. At. A. Time.

Studying part-time: enjoying the ride for a little bit longer

Photo by Fernando Garcia Estrella: https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-carousel-in-the-amusement-park-at-night-4164781/

Beverley Jennings is doing a part-time PhD with the Institute of Education at the University of Reading whilst also working part-time as a secondary school English teacher. She can be found on twitter @bjm_teacher

A common metaphor for PhD study is that it is a journey and for a long time this felt true for me. A major feature of my journey, with all its twists and turns, mountains and valleys, swamps and deserts, has been the company of my fellow travellers. We were like pilgrims, a disparate group thrown together onto the same path with a common goal. But, as a part-time student whose full-time companions have now completed their journeys, thinking about my PhD in this way was starting to make me feel like I had been left behind. I found myself in need of a new metaphor to make sense of this feeling of dissonance and I am claiming the carousel.

I started my part-time PhD in September 2018. As part of the welcome and induction activities at my university all the new starters, both full-time and part-time, met on campus and were encouraged to get to know and support each other. To be honest, apart from the fact that I was only studying two days a week, I didn’t really feel that much different to the full-timers. In the first year we helped each other through two research methods courses, grappling with ontology, epistemology, and statistics. In the second year we clambered over the obstacle of confirmation of registration and then parted ways to start collecting our data. I may have passed these milestones a few months behind the full-timers, but I still very much felt like we were a group.

This year though, the inevitable has happened. Those full-time students who started with me in 2018 have now finished. Theses have been submitted, vivas completed, and graduations celebrated. It has been an enormous privilege to have travelled alongside my full-time colleagues and to see their successes, but it also didn’t feel like it made sense that they had finished without me. I had always felt as if we were journeying together, so how could I not have arrived at the destination with them? How did I manage to fall behind when we have been alongside each other the whole way?

So, I am throwing away the journey metaphor and reaching instead for the carousel. The part-time PhD experience can then be thought of as a fun and thrilling ride that I joined at the same time as my full-time companions. When we started there were already some riders on board and more have joined us since. The PhD carousel has its ups and downs, but we rode side by side and have laughed, cried and screamed together. The ones who have now left can still cheer and wave from outside and I still have companions, both old and new, with whom to enjoy every remaining rotation. In this metaphor I am no longer left behind, as a part-time student I am just enjoying the ride for a little bit longer.

Part-time Studying as a Disabled Student

Katherine Langford is a part-time PhD student at the Open University. She is in her 4^th year of researching how students develop an understanding of tricky Physics concepts.

I came down with ME when I was 13 and I have effectively been studying part-time ever since. For a while, I was barely well enough to get out of bed, so studying even four GCSEs with a home tutor was a real struggle. I was never going to be able to go away to university, but I was determined to get a degree and ended up studying Psychology part-time from home with the Open University. That came in handy when our house flooded. We were woken in the middle of the night by a fireman who told us we had an hour to pack up our things. Fortunately, I remembered to pack my OU textbooks, so I could keep studying for the 8 months that we were waiting for the flood damage to be repaired.

Finding your rhythm

I really enjoyed my degree and wanted to continue with a PhD. Studying part-time suits my ME very well as I can study at my own pace. I tend to do a little at a time and need rest breaks in between as otherwise, my brain refuses to work properly. If I need to take time off because I’m not feeling well, then it doesn’t matter as I can catch up later. As long as I do the work, it doesn’t matter when I do it. I can find technical research papers a bit challenging at times if they are particularly heavy going, so tend to read a little and often. Part-time studying gives me the flexibility to do what works for me. I wouldn’t be able to do my PhD otherwise.

The benefits and challenges of part-time life

I find one of the other advantages of being part-time is that it doesn’t matter as much when it takes a while for people to reply to emails, forms to be approved or if it takes longer than expected to find research participants. It helps to remove some of the pressure. I’ve learnt that no matter how generous you are when planning how long things will take, research will always take longer than you expect, even when you’ve added in extra time for unforeseen problems. However, when you’re part-time, people tend to assume that you’re doing something else like working or raising a family, so it can get a little awkward when they ask what else I’m doing besides studying for a PhD (being a disabled student – recovering from studying a PhD mostly!).

One of the most difficult things I find is that, because I mostly study from home, it is sometimes difficult to switch off. There is always a temptation to get a bit more done by doing some work at the weekend or studying late into the evening if I haven’t got everything done that I wanted. Of course, that’s a great way to end up getting burnt out, so I’ve learnt it’s important to have some downtime and make sure I have some time off in the evenings and weekends either to relax or spend time with family and friends.

The pandemic has changed things

The pandemic has actually done a lot to even the playing field. Suddenly, nearly all training is available online or at a distance. Everyone has been in the same boat, so I’ve been busy trying to get as much training done as possible. Before the pandemic, I went into the Open University campus a few times a year. However, it has always been a challenge to fit in as much as possible when I’m there or I’ve had to make choices about which events it’s best to attend in person. Some things just aren’t the same when you attend online and other people are there in person. As a distance student, it means you’ve got to be more proactive about making contacts and joining in with events.

Studying for a PhD is very different from anything I’ve done before. My degree was much more structured. There was a set syllabus and a timeframe to cover it in. For a PhD, you study much more independently. I have guidance from my supervisors and training sessions, but it’s largely up to me what I need to do when and what I want to study. I’m a perfectionist, so it can be a little overwhelming to have so much to do. I survive by making to do lists and prioritising the top few most important things. If a job is particularly big then I’ll break it down into smaller, more manageable jobs. On days when my ME is particularly bad, then I may only be able to tick off one or two things. It’s all progress. Some days I make more progress than others, but I’ve learnt that big things can be achieved just by taking things one step at a time.

My top three tips for success

Use being part-time to your advantage and find a routine that works for you.
Remember that having some downtime is important too. A lot of part-time students have to fit in studying around other commitments, so may not have a lot of free time. Time off is important to recharge, so set some time aside as part of your routine.
Don’t feel you need to do everything at once. Prioritise the most important things and set your own deadlines to help stay motivated and on track.

Avoiding getting bogged down in the Swampy lowlands

(Image: The wetlands of Sudd in South Sudan.)

Victoria Pendry (@VictoriaPendry1) is a freelance education consultant based in York specialising in Education and International Development. Most of her work is as the CEO of the The Curriculum Foundation (CF), a not-for-profit, internationally orientated social enterprise working with Governments in Low- and Middle-Income Countries to improve access to, and the quality of education. She is also a researcher forging her way (at 47 years young) through a part-time EdD at UCL where her focus is on teacher education in low resources settings.

‘In the varied topography of professional practice, there is a high, hard ground where practitioners can make effective use of research-based theory and technique, and there is a swampy lowland where situations are confusing ‘messes’, incapable of technical solution. The difficulty is that the problems of the high ground, however great their technical interest, are often relatively unimportant to clients or to the larger society, while in the swamp are the problems of greatest human concern.’
(Schön, 1984, p. 42)

Focus has been one of the hardest aspects of both my (interlinked) professional and researcher roles. The education landscape is vast and ever-changing, especially when you work internationally. To have the relative freedom as a consultant to respond to opportunities that wink at you over unexpected horizons is a mixed blessing particularly when this is combined with a newfound access to shiny academic journals, inspirational questioners, and totally unmissable webinars full of new thinking and challenges to previously held assumptions. This combination of opportunity, shifting priorities and the discovering of yet more ‘unknowns’ creates a busy environment which could arguably be described as ‘messy’.

So, I frequently find myself in what Schön describes as ‘swampy lowlands’ where principles of quality education are complex in countries where class sizes regularly exceed 100 mixed-aged students and where characteristics of effective teaching are hard to define when teachers are hardly paid and hardly trained. It would be easier to step out and stand back seeking quick-fix solutions. But such solutions are often shallow and superficial, lacking in contextual relevance. Consider the teacher for example who is handed a guidebook on Peace Education in English where her 1^st language is Dinka, her second language is Arabic and her third is English – and then the materials suggest websites and videos in a land where internet penetration is less than 7% and she can’t afford the data anyway. So I prefer to remain within sea of swampy possibilities, a place of struggle and adventure in order to get to the heart of the matter, driving lasting change for a better world.

Using reflective thinking to help

It was during our first EdD Module on Professionalism with Dr D’Reen Struthers that I considered in more detail the value of reflective thinking as a reflective practitioner to help me continue to juggle all of my roles and responsibilities. (I’m a governor too and a tangled mum of teens). I consider the oppressive ‘circle of certainty’ and swampy lowlands be interlinked due to their focus on the need to look for solutions ‘amongst’ rather than from ‘beyond’. This is also one of the challenges of juggling in-depth research and solution focused consultancy.

Like many practitioners, I also tend to be over-critical of my own professionalism – some would suggest Imposter Syndrome – but my career has featured rapid change through new pastures which have made it entirely necessary for me to be hypersensitive to my environment.

When consumed with the challenge of navigating these lowlands with their supercomplex web of uncertainties within a liquid modernity of increasingly rapid change, D’Reen would remind us of the importance of getting in our helicopters to take a look at our swamp from another perspective from time to time. It’s admittedly difficult to see the new growth and possibilities when you are working within uncertainty and change, so standing back once in a while, is a worthy investment in time.

Operating predominantly within these swampy lowlands as a freelancer and part-time researcher requires one to keep a keen eye on the signs of burnout. Messy terrain can be suffocating and one can become blind to possibilities ‘just behind’ or ‘just underneath’. To survive and thrive I have found that a commitment to enabling others and regular, purposeful visits to the hard, high ground are essential aspects of my blended researcher/professional journey. One way to do this is by talking and about my research with others.

On this hard, high ground I can pause, take a look at the whole landscape, and look to further horizons which may offer innovation and new learning. This ‘step up and out’ gives me the energy and perspective to dive back into the lowlands where ‘the problems of greatest human concern’are waiting to be solved.

I value the struggle and beauty of the swampy lowlands, but it’s not an easy journey. I’m grateful for the watchful and kind eyes of my EdD and CF community and for the people of South Sudan who constantly inspire me with their resilience and imagination.

The study habits of a full-time educator, part-time EdD student

Nathan Douglas ( @Nathan_DHT_EdD) is a full-time Deputy Headteacher at a large, multicultural primary school in Birmingham. He has over twelve years’ experience in primary education, and currently leads on curriculum design and implementation, teaching and learning, the spending of the pupil premium grant and attendance. Nathan is a part-time EdD student at Birmingham City University, where he is researching professional identity in a teacher retention context.

Study habits come naturally, don’t they?

Study habits are what I see as the important tools and processes that I use to read, make notes and write-up my thinking. Whether that is for reading and notetaking, ongoing writing for personal reflection, or something for my Thesis, my study habits allow me to ‘get there’ (Or, as close to ‘there’ that I can be)! Having study habits and knowing what yours are, in order to get the best from them, are important on the doctoral journey.

Study habits come naturally, don’t they? The academic ‘jump’ from Masters-level to Doctorate-level is vast; and, despite enjoying successes at previous-level studies, my study behaviours did not simply appear to me as fully-formed habits that were good-to-go. I have just started my fifth year as a part-time EdD student, and this something I have become acutely aware of.

Study habits as ‘a journey’

I have come to understand everything on my EdD course as ‘a journey’. This sounds a little clichéd – and I am aware of that – but it is genuinely true. When reflecting on my studies, everything, including my study habits, are a journey of sorts. My supervisors were constantly reminding me to accept change, prepare for the unexpected, acknowledge there will be setbacks. This was – and is! – hard for me, so, try I had to.

Yet, there actually does come a point in your studies where, all of a sudden, like the proverbial lightbulb moment, things slot into place and suddenly make sense. Maybe it’s an article that provides the missing jigsaw puzzle piece or the supervision you needed to put you back on the straight and narrow (rather than the rabbit hole you were in ten minutes prior). Very recently, I have found myself developing more effective study habits, which manifests in the outcome of better writing…all because I’ve gone on a journey!

What are my study habits?

When I do the following, my writing is slower than it used to be, but its quality improves significantly.

Ringfencing my doctoral study time and promise myself that I will keep to it: So many people say ‘turn off your phone’ and ‘shut down Twitter.’ I say: ‘do what works for you.’ I love tweeting about what I’m doing when I’m working; it helps my motivation (something else that’s really important). I enjoy a quick nosey scroll through Facebook for 2 mins. But, a few ‘likes’ here and there, and I’m back to it.
Finding the most effective time for my own situation: I used to put whole days (6hrs+) to one side to accomplish one big job. Now, I sometimes study for an hour, or even less, breaking down the task. Less, but more often, has proven to be better at times, for me.
Reading widely, reading little and often, and re-reading: This includes returning to the same book but a different chapter. Or, re-reading the same article again a few months later.
Making notes under main themes/headings and sub-themes: I organise my notes/references in tables in MS Word and then categorise major themes in MS Excel. Both together helps me to see micro and macro knowledge. I also keep records of all of my references in an ongoing manner.
Working actively with my notes: I cannot just write from my notes; there’s just there’s too many. So, I collate all my notes onto a mindmap, which helps to gather my thoughts, including things I’ve forgotten, and structure my thinking. In turn, this structures my writing.
Accepting change to my motivation, habits and processes: Being flexible! I used to get easily frustrated when something did not go to plan or get ‘done’ on my first attempt. For example, now, I readily accept big obstacles and my judicious editing of ‘good writing’ as part of the thinking process.

What’s the point?

When people ask me, “Why are you doing a doctorate?”, my answer is, “Because I enjoy it.” In all of the study habits I’ve listed above, I forgot the most important one:

Enjoy studying: If I am not enjoying what I am working on, I think reflectively about how I’m studying, when, where, how often, my methods and sources of motivation. When I find that something is a grind, I switch my focus to another area of my Thesis or simply get away from the screen. Some of my best thinking occurs when I am away from Word or Excel!

Getting It Done (and rewarding yourself along the way)

Leona McQuaid is a second year part-time PhD Student and Occupational Therapy Lecturer at Glasgow Caledonian University.

A cork pinboard with lots of notes and stickers, the central note reads 'make things happen'

In my attempt to manage the demands of a part time PhD alongside a busy full time academic role, I have developed a form of self-bargaining; I call it transactional thinking. This is where I set mini goals throughout the week and reward myself for doing them. We all set goals and have deadlines in the PhD process but for me, this is more about acknowledging the mundane progress being made. It’s about creating small, regular wins to maintain focus and motivation.

“If I read this paper first, then I’ll go for a run”. “If I write 600 words in my literature review this morning, then I’ll meet my friend for a coffee this afternoon”. “If I do 10 articles of data extraction this week, then I’m taking the weekend off”. You get the idea.

The goal, timescale and reward can all change but the simple recipe is; If I do X, then I can enjoy Y. The trick is to make the task specific and measurable so you’ll know if you have achieved it or not. Setting the reward up front helps to motivate me to get the task done and when I’m enjoying the run, coffee with a friend, time off etc. I can fully relax and be present, knowing the time is earned and there is no room for guilt. Involving other people and informing them of this method has really worked for me. It has allowed family and friends to see that I can still have a life and work on my PhD. They can also encourage me to get X done and help protect my PhD time especially if they are invested in doing Y too.

I’m not sure if this type of transactional thinking will work for everyone but I find not seeing my progress can be really demotivating. Whilst interest in my subject and making a valuable contribution to knowledge provide the intrinsic drive to complete my PhD, sometimes that isn’t enough to get through the hard work week-to-week.

They say a PhD is a marathon not a sprint so what motivates us to keep putting one hypothetical foot in front of the other? I have noticed that if I remove the reward or transaction element and only tell myself ‘I have to do X’, then the task becomes much more stress inducing. This leads to thinking of the many things I have to do and this can feel overwhelming.

All tasks, the PhD, or the marathon, can be broken down into smaller steps that chip away at the bigger picture – so that’s where I like to focus. At this point I should divulge that I am an occupational therapist by background so breaking tasks down and creating specific, measureable, achievable goals is something I naturally gravitate to. But we can all do it, it might just take a bit of trial and error to gauge the right level of goal and reward for ourselves.

So whilst the bigger picture of PhD completion is motivating, we still need to lead ourselves to that point. Rewarding ourselves for constantly showing up and putting the effort in through transactional thinking can provide this.

We must not forget the bigger picture completely though. Whilst transactional thinking may be another tool in the box to help us along the way, we do need to lift our heads and take an overview of our work. For this, I have my Gantt chart. This helps align those small goals and transactions towards the bigger picture and timescales. If you are reading this and thinking ‘but my Ganntt chart is just a piece of paper or spreadsheet I never look at’ then may I suggest Team Gannt? This software offers visual feedback as you progress on a task, so all that reading, writing and thinking is colour progressing on your bar chart. Oh, and when you get to click the box to say a task is done… well, that is very satisfying indeed.

Whichever way you approach it, the work needs to be done for you to make enough progress in your part-time PhD. As of course does your paid work, family life, role as a mother, father, partner, friend, dinner maker, house cleaner, yogi etc. Doing a PhD part-time means we need to actively carve out the time to work on it, as we don’t have the same gift of structured time to dedicate to our study, as perhaps do our full-time colleagues.

Carving out small chunks of PhD time throughout the week lends itself to setting small but regular goals — and using my approach — small, regular rewards. So transactional thinking may be one way that can help you manage the many plates you are spinning, to get the work done, but to also enjoy yourself along the way with the other hats you wear in life.

Top Tips for Balancing Clinical Practice and a Part-time Professional Doctorate

Allison Scott (@AllisonPoddem) is a professional doctorate student embarking on the design for her project. Her research explores the decision- making experiences o proxy decision makers for people with dementia lacking capacity.

There is no denying doing a PhD of any sort is hard and extremely time consuming, add in the pressures of daily life and in my case the pressures of working full time as clinical lead in a busy podiatry practice, not a week goes by without someone asking, ‘but why do you do it?’ The answer to me is simple, I love it, I love learning, I love the opportunities to meet people from different backgrounds and I love challenging myself. Despite this I can confess there are times when keeping the required level of motivation can be challenging and have therefore come up with these seven top tips for balancing them.

1. It sounds simple but find a project you are passionate about.

If at the outset you do not have a topic that you care about, you will never commit the amount of time out of work needed to be successful. I am completely driven by the hope that my topic will truly impact and benefit the target population.

2. Plan your time!

Spend a bit of time setting out a schedule, by doing this you are making a commitment to dedicate that time to the task. This helps to ensure you manage to carve out that much needed down time!

3. Within your plan, set yourself some mini deadlines.

Despite the cohort of the professional doctorate when it has been a while since you met or discussed your project with anyone it can be all too easy to push it to the back of your to-do-list. By setting your own deadlines you are creating some personal accountability, driving you to keep going.

4. Work at a time that works for you!

I find after a long day in clinic I struggle to switch to researcher mode in the evenings. It took a while to work out a pattern that works best for me, but I find getting up early doing 1-2 hours research work before a walk with the dog to clear my head really sets me up for the day ahead and gives me a sense of achieving something, chipping away little and often at my project. Managing my time in this way also frees up some guilt free family time in the evenings.

5. Make time to do what you enjoy.

Constantly working between clinic and research will eventually get you down and can lead to you resenting both. Make sure to spend your down time doing what you enjoy. For me it is getting out into the hills with my dog for some much-needed escapism. It will often amaze you the ideas and different angles that will pop into your head when you are not staring at a screen hoping for inspiration.

6. Learn how to say no

It sounds harsh however juggling time to maintain and develop the clinic, continue with your studies as well allowing time to enjoy yourself means that you are going to have to prioritise your time and miss some social events. Your friends and family will understand and are often proud to see the level of commitment you are making.

7. Most importantly, ENJOY IT!

The process takes you on an undeniable journey at times the conflicting demands will be tough, and you will have to keep long hours but the sense of satisfaction and the impact on you, especially as a clinician are significant. Working through the taught element of the professional doctorate has taught me so much about myself and about my approach to clinical practice. Your confidence will grow, your ability to critique literature and use it to change and implement practice will flourish, your ability to engage meaningfully with others from all different backgrounds will develop and your interests will expand leading to more significant conversations with patients.

Surveys take longer than you think! Or: taking your time has benefits for data collection

This post is from Sophie Payne-Gifford. Sophie is a social scientist at the University of Hertfordshire. She completed her PhD part-time from 2010-2016, mostly because she only won part-funding and had to keep her day job at NERC UKRI, a great job which had its definite advantages. She tweets at @GiffordPayne on food, environment, agriculture and research design.

Introduction

In this post, Sophie describes implementing a survey late in her PhD to demonstrate one of the advantages of doing a PhD part-time, the added time benefit. You know that saying, one woman can produce a baby in nine months, but nine women can’t produce a baby in one? It’s a similar tale, some processes can’t be sped up, even with additional resourcing.

Phase 1: Qualitative fieldwork

I started my social science PhD on agricultural innovation with a qualitative research design and conducted fieldwork from 2011-2013. I interviewed agricultural scientists, agrochemical companies, food processors and agricultural consultants and observed at a number of agricultural events. I was exploring what replacements for pesticides were available in the scenario that many were to be withdrawn under a proposed change in pesticide legislation.

After this round of fieldwork, I had a working conclusion: that many farmers were locked in to the regular spraying of pesticides and were unable to change their agricultural practice. However, I had made that conclusion based on conversations with only a few farmers and my theory was based on many other people’s opinions on what they thought farmers would do. I didn’t think this was fair, reasonable, or rigourous and to address this I wanted to talk to more farmers. But British farmers are geographically distributed, and I didn’t have time to traipse around the country again. Also, I had a simple-ish quantitative question that did not need me to visit their farms to answer:

If fungicide mancozeb is withdrawn, will you

Use the other chemical fungicides available?
Use genetically resistant seeds?
Use biologically-derived treatments?
Use mechanical methods of control, such as removing infected plants?

Phase 2: Being patient

In February 2013, around the same time as making this conclusion, I was at an agricultural event and met an industry organisation’s head of communications. I floated the idea to her: would she like to collaborate on sending a fungicide usage survey to the organisation’s ~1000 members? She was vaguely positive, so I emailed her in the Spring to start the planning process. Little did I know that getting approval and buy-in from the industry organisation would take months!

At some point in the Autumn of 2013 the Head of the Organisation needed to discuss the survey. I don’t remember what we discussed in detail, but I remember that it was an uncomfortable conversation. In hindsight I think she was checking my ‘politics’ were okay and in line with the needs of her organisation. She might have been checking whether I was pro- or anti-pesticide (I’m neither). She might have been checking who I was funded by, whether I was funded by a university, pesticide company or campaigning organisation and therefore what my agenda for the research was. She wasn’t alone, an agricultural consultant I approached for interview checked who I was funded by, before agreeing to an interview. I now know these kinds of checks are common when working with external organisations, but at the time it was confusing. However, apparently I passed the test, and got the go ahead.

The survey itself was ready to go by the Winter of 2013, and still I had to wait. This time, it was because the industry organisation wanted to put the chemical companies that made the fungicide on stand-by to give them an opportunity to respond to a finding that could potentially positively or negatively affect their business interests. The organisation wanted to act in the interests of its members, and so I waited until this communication had been issued.

A year after it’s conception, the survey was launched in February of 2014!

Reflections

What did I do to overcome these delays? In the main, I just waited. I had the extended part-time timeline working in my favour. No amount of extra work could make the bureaucratic processes move more quickly. As I still had another three years until I had to submit my PhD thesis, I knew I had time to wait for the collaborating organisation to be satisfied. And throughout this process of waiting, I had plenty to keep me busy as I was transcribing and analysing the data from the previous qualitative fieldwork, as well completing a new ethics application. There is much to be said for planning a project where the different workstreams overlap rather than become dependent on one another.

Plus, I was also (and still am) a confident and unapologetic qualitative researcher and at the time wasn’t worried about the prospect of not implementing the survey. I know how to construct a qualitative argument, draw on theory as well as use the requisite phrase in research discussions: “more research is needed…”

My waiting paid off, however. Nearly 80 farmers confirmed that, yes, they would continue to use fungicide mancozeb because market and environmental conditions lock them in to using chemical methods of crop protection. Had I been a full-time student nearing the end of my fieldwork, I couldn’t have waited a year to implement a survey. The benefit of stretched time had allowed me to conduct more rigorous research.

Not only did conducting a survey allow for quantitative data collection, it allowed for additional qualitativedata collection. Through widespread use of free-text boxes, growers were able to tell me why they needed to continue to use the fungicide mancozeb, adding invaluable additional insight.

Recommendations

If you’re thinking of supplementing your research with a different type of data, remember that collaborating with an external organisation may take longer than you want.

Also, if you were to do the opposite to me and start with purely quantitative data collection and decide near the middle or end of your project to collect qualitative data, that it is equally time consuming, as you will need to:

submit a qualitative ethics application (another potentially long bureaucratic process);
recruit participants;
schedule interviews (for example);
transcribe, analyse and write up qualitative data.

Data collection is always time consuming if done properly, and more so if done in partnership with others. Remember that next time you think “oh, I’ll just send out a little survey.”

Four uncomfortable truths about part-time doctoral study…

Ceri Coulby (@cericoulby) is a part-time online EdD student with the University of Liverpool. She is in her 6^th year and is due to submit her thesis in October 2021. Her case study research is a narrative exploration of part time doctoral students’ experiences of personal transformation during their studies. Ceri also works full time at the University of Liverpool and lives with her husband, 14-year-old son and Labrador on the Wirral.

I started my online part time EdD in July 2015 after being turned down for a job mainly due to my lack of PhD or equivalent. It was made clear to me that if I wanted to go further in my career I needed to get that piece of paper. I was a reluctant student, having already dropped out of a PhD five years previously and having the emotional scars to prove it. Scowling, I enrolled on the EdD, with a deadly determination to get through it.

I was in a slightly better position this time around, my son was older and at school, and I had some experience of the reality of doctoral study. This was a mixed blessing, as I had found the previous experience lonely and confusing, and the aftermath left me feeling stupid and embarrassed. Hence the decision this time around to do an EdD with a taught component rather than a PhD.

My doctoral journey has been transformational, and whilst I cannot say I have enjoyed every minute of it, my overwhelming experience of the process has been joyful. The motivation for a ‘piece of paper’ a distant memory. However here I share four uncomfortable ‘truths’ I have learnt along the way, in the hope it might save other students some anguish on their own journeys.

If you feel like an imposter, who doesn’t know what they are supposed to be doing a lot of the time, or if you are in a cohort and think everyone around you “gets it” and you are the only one who doesn’t- THAT’S NORMAL. This is actually a part of the process for the majority of students. Doctoral study takes you out of your comfort zone constantly, if it didn’t you wouldn’t be learning anything new would you? As hard as it is to accept, uncertainty and doubt will be your bedfellows during the doctoral journey and you are going to need to learn to live with them and trust in the process.
You will likely be changed by doctoral study, indeed this is the topic of my own doctoral research. These changes can be wonderful, but also uncomfortable and distressing at times. During a doctorate you develop new skills and knowledge, but you also learn to perceive things differently, and from multiple perspectives. You may find yourself questioning some of your deeply held personal values and beliefs, or those of the people around you. During the process you may see your workplace and colleagues through a more critical lens. These changes in perception are usually irreversible; once you ‘see’ something you cannot un-see it. I don’t say this to put people off doctoral study; it is just something potential candidates should be aware of.
If you have multiple commitments such as a full time job, family, or caring responsibilities, do not kid yourself that you will be able to fulfil all those roles to the same extent whilst also undertaking a part time doctorate. You may tell yourself ‘oh I will only work when the kids are in bed or early in the morning before people are up’ but you probably won’t be able to sustain it over an extended period ,. If you are a parent, part-time study will mean you spend less time with your family and you will feel guilty about it. If you currently work full time and like a spotless house and to cook every meal you eat from scratch, it is unlikely you will maintain the same standards unless you have help. You will need to be more flexible in your self-expectations and willing to compromise in some areas as the time and energy required by the doctorate itself is uncompromising.
Lastly, the difference between people who complete a part-time doctorate and those who don’t is persistence and self-belief. There will very likely be times when you consider quitting. It is a long, time consuming and at times hard journey, academically and emotionally. You read, write, refine, discard, abandon repeatedly throughout. Your ability to keep at it, even when you are not sure you are getting anywhere is crucial to your success, as it will pay off in the end.

Undertaking the EdD has been one of the best experiences of my life. I have grown so much as a person and am comfortable in my own skin. I feel that I have something to contribute personally and professionally. I am happier and more content as a result of my doctoral journey and would definitely recommend it to others, but as with most things that bring pleasure, there is a cost to be paid for it.

Lessons for life

Photo by Startup Stock Photos on Pexels.com

This post is from Jon Rainford (@jonrainford), one of the editors of the blog. Jon completed his PhD part-time with Staffordshire University in 2019. He has studied part time in various forms for over 12 years. Having interests in the Sociology of Higher Education and having worked in varied roles in education, his doctoral research focused on exploring the gaps between policy and practice in relation to widening participation in higher education. He now splits his time between teaching, research and developing the resources he wishes were there when he started his own doctorate.

As I sit here at my desk and look around, I realise how many of my daily habits have been formed through my experiences of studying and researching part-time. Whilst the doctorate was not my first experience of studying part time, it was the first time of doing it without quite as much structure. My secret to success is probably working out what structure works best for me and creating it. Here are a few suggestions of what has worked for me and might work for you:

You need a deadline

Even if you make them up yourself, you need specific goals and times to work to. Human nature is to prioritise the urgent things, especially if they are things you don’t like doing. For example, how many times have you panicked when you heard the bin lorry to put your rubbish out? This need for a deadline is most true when it’s a task you don’t want to do. If something is not urgent and you don’t want to do it, it rarely gets done.

Deadlines aren’t just for the big stuff

The focus during a doctorate is often on formal deadlines such as assignments (for taught and professional doctorates), annual review points, drafts and thesis submission, smaller deadline are often important. When dealing with a large project, focusing only on these deadlines is not an ideal strategy.

There is a saying that the best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. Think of these deadlines as planning which bits to eat first. You may have already begun to do this by creating a project plan or you may be familiar with Gannt charts. In these, there will be dependent things you might need to finish before you move onto the next task. This can go some way to making those deadlines.

For me, I need even smaller deadlines. they just work to keep me on track and motivated. I also love visual cues so over time I’ve taken to using an adapted version of a kanban board. This is a visual way of tracking tasks to do, in progress and done. This visually helps me see where I am. Depending on the project, these might be things as small as emailing someone or reading a paper. They might be as big as a journal article or chapter. The great thing about this method is i can adapt it for what I need at the time. I can also merge work, research and life tasks, really helping to balance my time.

Have a variety of tasks on the go

Time is always precious but when you are juggling competing demands it can feel even more important not to waste it. This morning was going to be spent reading a chapter in a book. I started but the words wouldn’t go in. Previously I might have slogged it out and not really got what I needed out of the reading. Instead, I took the approach honed during the part-time PhD and moved to my desk and found an admin task that was on my list. As such I’ve had a productive morning and can try later with the reading. Knowing when you can and can’t do certain things is important. This does not mean just ignoring some tasks (if something sits on your list for a while, you might want to ask why) but it does mean being attuned to your own abilities on a given day and time. Having finite pockets of time juggling work and study taught me this and it does work.

Find your rhythms and build the rest around it

I am an early bird. I always have been. I know afternoons are not my most productive. Therefore, I plan with this in mind. It is too easy to be reactive to the world around you. One of the benefits of part-time study was the ability to focus my doctorate for those optimal blocks of time. I continue to do that. Now I juggle a number of paid roles in additional to continuing to research and write, I tend to follow those same patterns. I never start with email in those first few hours if I have writing or reading to do. It only gets done if all other tasks are off the table. After all, why would you dedicate your best hours to replying to emails?

Remember your strengths

One of the things I have been guilty of is forgetting these skills I have developed and how valuable they are. There is a reason the Open University is ranked so highly with employers. As well as the quality of its degrees, the skills part-time students develop, especially in relation to managing competing demands are worth their weight in gold. Taking some time to remember this and working out how to ‘sell’ these skills is important especially if you are looking to apply for jobs. I embraced the part-time nature of my own doctorate and hope you will to as it helps build some excellent skills that will live long after that thesis is complete.

‘Life in the Part-time Lane’

This post is from Ruth Tudor (@AuntyOof). She is a pastoral support tutor in an institution supporting students from further education through to higher education. All her higher education has been achieved through part-time distance learning, including her research degree on Care Experienced Students which she is currently writing her thesis for.

I left school with few exams under my belt and what I had, the grades weren’t great. I definitely wasn’t going to university, so off to work I went and picked up SVQ level qualifications along the way. Since then, I’ve barely set foot inside a classroom as a student, only as a teacher. Eventually I got bored with my dead end ‘career’ and started investigating the Open University. I wanted to work and learn at the same time. I had a mortgage and other financial outgoings, I couldn’t afford to study full-time. I also didn’t have the confidence to study full-time. I was in my mid-thirties I didn’t have the courage to walk into a classroom full of teenagers. I also lacked confidence in my academic abilities. I had left school with few qualifications I didn’t think I was clever enough to go to university. If I was going achieve a university education the OU was the only way I could do it.

Learning to deal with feedback at a distance

I was a different way of life for me, writing essays, learning to reference but I was lucky in that I picked the right subject for me and although it was all new to me, I enjoyed it. What I did have to adjust to was the tutor feedback which came back in written form. I had to learn to read and understand what my tutor was writing, I had to learn to accept that although I thought I had written a masterpiece I hadn’t and there were things I could have done better and there was always the knowledge that I could contact my tutor for additional support if needed.

Finding my secret weapon

I also discovered a talent for being organised I never knew I had and it turned out to be my secret weapon. I don’t think I could have survived if I hadn’t been able to get myself organised around my shifts, running a house (and then boyfriend, now husband) and fitting in the study. For my first year there were face to face tutorials – 90 minutes away so that was a Saturday in the big smoke every month but it was worth it to get the time with my tutor and guidance for the assessment. Some people find it hard not being physically guided in what to study, luckily, I settled into it.

This was my life all through my degree and then my Masters – on a whole different topic as I didn’t fancy the Masters in my field. Masters study was hard work. My path to my Masters wasn’t as smooth but I still managed to pass. By then more work was online, less face-to-face tutorials and I definitely found the jump from undergraduate study to postgraduate study harder. I had to learn to write differently but never had any problems with the reading and research side of things.

Developing a distance learning skillset

There are important skills to be learnt for part-time distance learning. Organisation is perhaps one of the most important. Life will get in the way: work, kids, caring responsibilities, your health so it’s important to set aside our study time every week. You also need to be prepared for good weeks and bad weeks. Some weeks can be hard and you will wonder why you are bothering and other weeks you will sail through. Then there is assessment (or feedback) anxiety and waiting for the results. We all feel it. No matter how long you have been studying you still want to know how good (or bad) you did. You need to be disciplined, motivated and determined because there is no-one to tell you to sit down and study, you are responsible for your learning. However, the skills I learnt at undergraduate and Masters level have helped me manage my research degree.

Doing the doctorate

After completing my Masters, I wondered if I should do an EdD? Why not, the pinnacle of my educational achievement. Back to the OU and here I am in my final year, writing my wee socks off. I would be lying if I said it hadn’t been hard work and lonely. I’ve had to work hard at building up my networks, particularly online and during a pandemic but isn’t that what Twitter is for? Friendly stalking of academics? Working and doing a research degree is brutal but it does let me consider my research alongside what I do for a living, practice what I preach even. I think the discipline I have built up doing my Undergraduate and MA has stood me in good stead for doctoral study but it still hasn’t been easy. I have my submission dates but other than that I am left, home alone, to work and study, during a pandemic. I have a WhatsApp group with my peers and it’s a lifesaver, I have a critical friend who promises me I can pass this – all people I have met during my online life at the OU.

Finding enjoyment in a PhD with time and space: switching from full-time to part-time

This post is from Laura Wilde. Laura is a part-time PhD student at Coventry University in the Centre for Intelligent Healthcare. Her thesis is exploring experiences of using apps and wearables for monitoring physical activity among people with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). She is in her 4^th year having completed 2 years full-time, a year away from studying, and then returned in 2020 part-time. Laura tweets @laurawilde24 and blogs about her experiences and research journey on her website.

I started my PhD in January 2017 and successfully completed 2 years full-time. As I came to the end of my second year and my annual progress review, I was feeling stressed and burning out. I was also struggling with chronic pain (more on that on my blog). In 2019 I was really struggling with my mental health and suspended my studies (read about my mental health story here). At first, I really didn’t want to suspend but certain events meant that I really needed to take a break and pause my studies. After around a year away from studying, I returned in January 2020 switching to part-time via a simple form which was supported by my supervisors and the University. Returning to my studies after a year off is one thing, returning part-time was something else. In this post I am mainly going to talk about the switch to part-time and how this has impacted me and my studies (you can read more about my experiences of returning to my PhD on my website).

All-consuming PhD life to finding other things

My main motivation for changing to part-time was my own mental health and wellbeing and it was the best thing I did. Reflecting on when I was full-time, it was all-consuming and intense, I was never able to switch off and stop thinking about it. Don’t get me wrong, full-time was right for me at the time when I started my PhD, and I found the transition from working full-time to full-time PhD straightforward. However, after a year away from studying five days/week, staring at a screen trying to do the same PhD, was not something I wanted or needed. I am so grateful to have an amazing supervisory team who were extremely supportive and understanding of my circumstances and decisions. We met (and still meet) regularly and talk about the whole PhD experience.

When I went back part-time I made sure I planned my week as Monday to Wednesday working on PhD (as much or as little as I could manage), Thursday attending and volunteering/working for Arty-Folks and Friday catching up on housework or reading (an actual book – not research papers!). Later, my Friday mornings consisted of volunteering at a Rabbit Rescue and in the last 6 months I have been working as a Research Assistant at Coventry University and Zipabout Ltd. Part-time also gave me flexibility with which days I wanted to work, for example, if I didn’t feel up to it on a Monday morning, I would work on a Thursday afternoon instead. My supervisors trusted me and had faith that I was doing as much or as little on my PhD as I could manage. They didn’t add any extra pressure of deadlines or meetings and let me lead the team. I am pretty good at managing my time, prioritising, and putting pressure on myself, so this wasn’t something I needed from my team and they knew that. Instead, they helped by encouraging me and being positive and enthusiastic about my work.

Same or different?

So, generally, what’s changed? Here are some things that I feel are the similarities and differences from studying part-time compared to full-time:

Same:

Same work to do – the PhD hasn’t changed; I am still doing the work I planned to do before I changed modes of study.
Same supervisors and institution – I wasn’t changing supervisors or switching universities, I knew the system and could talk to my supervisors about deadlines and expectations.
Same amount of time waiting for comments, feedback, ethical approval – these things I don’t have control over and up to the time other people have, but in some way its faster as I have spent less of my PhD time waiting.

Different:

More energy, enjoyment and enthusiasm to work on my PhD – I get quite excited about my PhD days now and look forward to what I am going to work on that week rather than being tired and frustrated.
Less stressed and more relaxed – the PhD doesn’t feel so fast paced and urgent, deadlines have shifted slightly to give me more time overall.
More time to think and reflect – having time away from the PhD and switching off also gives me an opportunity to reflect on the week or the PhD tasks, thinking about the barriers and how to overcome them, as well as the successes and to celebrate them.
More productive and focused – I am more focused. Less PhD time each week focuses me on what I want to get done that week (though this is not always the case, some weeks are just not productive and that’s OK!).
Fewer hours per week working on the PhD – giving me time to do other things like volunteering, art, working, etc.
More creative – having a varied week means that I am inspired by other things and have space to think outside the box generally which, I think, influences my research.

Time and space

Basically, the biggest positive change going part-time gave me was time and space. At first, this gave me time to reflect on transitioning back to my PhD and continue with my mental health recovery. Later, I had time for a part-time job thinking about career progression, gaining experience for my CV, and earning some money. Part-time gave me time to feel ‘ok’ about not working on my PhD all day, every day, and it was ok to do other things. I tended to plan my week in advance with activities and commitments, so it was busy but not overwhelming, and everything I planned was what I wanted to do and made me happy. But, possibly the most beneficial thing was having time and space to switch off from the PhD!

Moving to part-time also meant my submission deadline was further away giving me time and space to enjoy the PhD journey and the research itself, rather than needing to rush data collection, analysis and write up to get to submission.

Not without its barriers

Working part-time and juggling a part-time PhD can be a challenge in itself. Luckily, I am extremely organised and have fantastic employers who understand my PhD commitments. Finances can also be a barrier for some people, but luckily my Husband supports me with living costs and mortgage payments. Also, my tuition fees are covered with a studentship which paid a monthly stipend for the first 3 and a half years (or part-time equivalent) that I continued to receive during my year suspension.

A PhD is not easy, but I love research, learning and my PhD topic. It’s definitely achievable if you want it and you have choices and abilities to make changes to things that are not working. Now, part-time works for me, whereas previously full-time worked. There is no one-way to completing a PhD and it’s important to do what works for you. Give yourself permission to make a change and see where it takes you.