Towards a model of resilience protection: factors influencing doctoral completion
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Towards a model of resilience protection: factors influencing doctoral completion Janet McCray 1 & Paul Joseph-Richard 2 # Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract
This article asks what makes PhD completers resilient and which resilience protection factors help them complete their doctoral programme? A narrative inquiry methodology is applied to capture the experiences of eleven doctoral students who completed their PhDs in the United Kingdom. Data collected from interview conversations were analysed using resilience theory as a lens. We found that for these completers, success did not rely solely on the individual student, nor was the role of supervisors elevated, particularly for social and emotional support. Of importance were the students’ family and social network, institutional context and the nature of university central services and how these were available to the completers. The study’s contribution to the literature is in showing how the inter-relationship of the completers’ personal responses, environmental and social connections, and institutional processes was available to build resilience, as we present a model for resilience protection in doctoral students. We hope the findings presented will be of interest to PhD students, supervisors and other academic colleagues in universities globally, as they seek insights into successful PhD completion. Keywords Doctoral education . Resilience . Resilience protection
Introduction Doctoral students’ attrition rates are between 40% and 50% (Litalien and Guay 2015). Considerable attention has been directed to understanding why these students withdraw from * Janet McCray [email protected] Paul Joseph-Richard [email protected]
1
Centre For Workforce Development, Institute of Health, Education and Social Sciences, University of Chichester, West Sussex, UK
2
Department of Management, Leadership and Marketing, Ulster University Business School, Ulster University, Co Antrim, Northern Ireland, UK
Higher Education
their studies (Kyvik and Olsen 2014), creating a significant knowledge about “the influence of personal, social, cultural and institutional factors in explaining a number of aspects of the doctoral experience” (Cantwell et al. 2017). Reasons for non-completion include personal experiences of emotional exhaustion and depression that are triggered by isolation, stress and low levels of intrinsic motivation. Added to these are academic dissertation difficulties, conceptual and threshold challenges, problems with the supervisor and supervision style and poor or inappropriate socialisation with peers, along with the pressures of real-life and finance over a long period of time, which are all known to contribute to students’ attrition (Wisker et al. 2010; Hunter and Devine 2016; Levecque et al. 2017). However, less research attention has been paid to the perspectives of successful PhD completers which is an important area for further exploration to inform the practice of PhD students, supervisors and universities alike. Gaining a PhD is not easy and
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