DOCTORATE AT 20 YEARS VS 40 YEARS
As I sit in a scooter shop at Manly waiting for my bike to be serviced (I have discovered with both cars and bikes that if you make it clear you are going to sit and wait it gets completed much faster!), I am using this time to reflect on a number of articles I have been reading lately about the doctoral research process.
It is interesting to think about the difference between a doctorate undertaken immediately after completion of your degree ie early 20s and a doctorate at my stage of life ie after 20 odd years of working in the field. If I had done a doctorate at 20 instead of 40, I guess it would have been in something from one of my degrees at the time – ie English literature, perhaps something that explored poets such as Keats, Donne, Yeats or Mathematics – perhaps something in queuing theory . Yet when I look at these topics, they have absolutely no relevance to my life as it has evolved over the last 20 years.
In some ways, everything I have been doing has been leading to the doctoral research I am looking at – exploring the gap between independent learning skills secondary students need and what is actually developed at school and how to address this need using an online space. So if I look at what I have done since leaving uni: teaching, running my own business in study skills, developing my web and programming skills – they all contribute to the development of my research question. I used to wish I had done a doctorate immediately after my degree as it would have been so much easier without the pressure to earn, to pay a mortgage and the other associated responsibilities you accumulate in life.
But now that regret has vanished. By doing my doctorate at this stage in my life, I am able to work on a research topic that truly reflects who I am, what I do and what I want to know. I also bring 20 years of experience and perspective to what I am doing which means that I have a richer tapestry of knowledge and awareness to work with. Although it also means I have to be aware of pre-conceived ideas and notions. And as an additional aside, my background in study skills is a definite advantage as so far everything I read about note-taking, research skills etc is not new to me and are all strategies I use.