Editorial Special Collection on Doctoral Research: Learning in an Open World

The roots of this special collection began during the early doctoral experience of the guest editors. At that time, we reflected on the student community in the Institute of Educational Technology (IET) at The Open University (OU) and the essential role a strong student community plays in doctoral students’ lives, wellbeing, and learning. In particular, our feeling was (and still is) that doctoral researchers should be involved, where possible, in the wider fabric of the research community within their institutions and included in other research projects not necessarily directly linked with their doctoral topic. One mechanism for doing so can be found in the connections made between students through finding shared interests and forging new directions for joint research. Thanks to that approach and being enthusiastic about accessibility and inclusive design, two of the editors developed a joint research study over Christmas break that started as an initial presentation at the Association for the Advancement of Assistive Technology in Europe (AAATE)1 2017 congress (Hillaire, Iniesto, & Rienties, 2017), which then expanded into this very collection. We are aware of, and appreciate that there has been, a rising focus on supporting doctoral students’ wider development. For example, more and more conferences include doctoral consortiums that aim to provide feedback to doctoral students from their peers and reputed academics. Francisco, as a member of the Global OER Graduate Network (GO-GN)2 and having organised the OpenTEL3 doctoral consortium at the Computers and Learning Research Group (CALRG)4 2019 conference, has also been able to experience the benefits of participating in a strong doctoral student network (many of whom are represented in this special issue); which provides platforms for students to grow in their experiences by attending conferences and developing confidence in presenting their early research publicly. Jenna’s postdoctoral research has also investigated the invaluable social transition support provided by peers and staff throughout the doctoral journey (Mittelmeier, Jindal-Snape, & Rienties, 2018), both in terms of research development and through general wellbeing. Garron’s postdoctoral research is exploring how teachers express emotion when practicing conversations with students in practice spaces that simulate difficult conversation around equity. All of the editors of this special collection are attuned to social issues related to learning, our common interest is in finding ways to be inclusive that support students to thrive. This collection of doctoral research reflects the desire to help students to thrive in academia. When looking at academic journals, however, we recognised that it can be challenging for doctoral students to find publishing opportunities, particularly at earlier stages or for submitting ongoing work-in-progress (or even more mature doctoral research). Oftentimes, doctoral research remains hidden away inside university repositories or is contributed to the wider field as an afterthought, when indeed students’ work provides valuable and cutting-edge perspectives that the field should learn from today. This special collection emerged as a reflection of that need to offer opportunities for doctoral students to publish their work and contribute these new insights, regardless of their current stage. One additional benefit in having a special issue dedicated to doctoral research is that it allowed reviewers to provide feedback on academic writing and work-in-progress to those who submitted. This opportunity also extended to the number of early career researchers who were included as reviewers, as they were able to practice providing constructive feedback to doctoral students. As editors of the special issue, this was a valuable development and reflection experience for us, particularly as all three progressed during this process from being doctoral students ourselves to postdoctoral and lectureship posts in the broader open world learning community. Taken together, we hope that similar opportunities will be considered through other outlets and by other academics as a tool for supporting, developing, and sharing doctoral research.