How Doctoral Students Understand Academic Identity in China: A Qualitative Study Based on the Grounded Theory
Huirui Zhang 1 , Lingyu Liu 2,* , Xiaoxiao Li 3 and Yongzhen Sun 4
1 Faculty of Education, The Open University of China, Beijing 100039, China; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
2 China Academic Degrees and Graduate Education Development Center, Beijing 100083, China
3 Development and Plan Office, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100190, China; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
4 Department of Student Affairs, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
* Correspondence: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Abstract: The process of doctoral students transitioning from being knowledge learners to being knowledge researchers is beneficial for personal growth and career development. This study explores how doctoral students at Chinese research universities understand academic identity from a psychological perspective based on grounded theory. Understanding academic identity for doctoral students involves three psychological activities: situation recognition, psychological interaction, and reflective positioning. The sense of academic meaning and the sense of academic efficacy shape doctoral students' understanding of academic identity, resulting in four patterns: Adeptness, Academic Pursuit, Alienation and Powerlessness, and Struggling for Meaning. Academic meaning serves as the internal driving force for developing academic identity, while academic efficacy acts as a psychological condition for maintaining academic identity. Therefore, it is crucial to enhance doctoral students' recognition of academic meaning and academic efficacy.
Keywords: doctoral students; academic identity; academic meaning; academic efficacy
1. Introduction
The experiences and professional socialization of doctoral students have long been regarded as a black box [1]. In China, doctoral students assume multiple roles. On the one hand, they are regarded as learners with sufficient knowledge and skills. Through rigorous academic training, they have been capable of professional knowledge and enhanced research abilities, all with the main aim of cultivating innovation capability. Doctoral students are also treated by universities as regular recipients of education [2]. On the other hand, doctoral students are also junior researchers. With the advent of the knowledge economy, universities are playing a strategic role in enabling innovation and economic growth, and graduate education programs are the key to long-term growth and the future of the innovation economy, with doctoral students serving as knowledge workers [3]. Doctoral education not only forms a part of the education system, but also serves as a vital component of the knowledge production system [4]. The training of doctoral students has been closely combined with research, making it the main procedure of doctoral education [5]. Doctoral students are not only recipients of information, but also producers of knowledge.
The role of a doctoral student can be seen as a transitional role between undergraduate and faculty status [6]. Within doctoral programs, the simultaneous presence of multiple roles can easily cause ambiguity and confusion regarding doctoral students' self-positioning. Higher education institutions require doctoral students to engage in academic activities, while simultaneously treating them as managed students, creating potential confusion about their self-identity [7]. Doctoral studies require entering the academic community as a contributing researcher, a transition that often poses challenges for many prospective doctoral students [8]. Failure to recognize their role as researchers and establish a research identity may negatively impact individual development, leading to frustration, disappointment, lack of self-confidence, and other problems during their doctoral journey [9]. This can result in a deficiency in the attitude required for scientific research and may lead to inappropriate ways to participate in academic competition [7]. The failure of identity formation is related to the attrition of doctoral programs [10], and will cause difficulties and challenges in the socialization of doctoral students [11]. In the context of doctoral writing, identity development primarily involves learning how to communicate within the discipline and situating one's work within the larger field [12]. The establishment of a research identity upon entering a doctoral program can significantly influence their academic performance during their doctoral studies [13]. For doctoral students pursuing careers in academia, failure to establish an identity as researchers may affect their career development in the academic field after graduation.
Academic identity refers to an individual's identification as a member socialized into the values, norms, practices, and belief systems of their particular epistemic community and disciplinary culture [14]. For doctoral students, this entails defining themselves as academic researchers. Although doctoral education cannot facilitate identity transformation for all doctoral students, successfully constructing an academic identity is important for the personal growth and future careers of PhD recipients. However, within doctoral programs, many students are in the process of transitioning from being learners of knowledge to independent researchers. Their individual differences in cognitive development, skill enhancement, and integration into the community lead to variations in their perceptions of academic identity. This study utilizes grounded theory to explore the process of understanding the academic identity of doctoral students at Chinese universities, aiming to reveal how doctoral students become researchers through academic training.