Table Of ContentBecoming a Scholar provides a window into the lives of nine non-traditional doctoral Edited by Maria Savva and Lynn P. Nygaard
students. As mature, part-time, international students enrolled in a professional doctorate
programme, they reflect on the transformation process of becoming scholars, and their
BECOMING
narratives provide breadth and depth to themes that represent a diverse cross-section
of cultures, identities and communities.
Recognising that the process of becoming a scholar is as much internal as it is external,
A SCHOLAR
the book provides an opportunity to engage with authentic personal stories that remain
firmly rooted in academic literature. By bringing the ‘human face’ behind the doctoral
journey to the forefront, the narratives draw much-needed attention to the personal journey
that inevitably parallels and intersects with the academic journey. Although the narratives
are drawn from a professional Doctor in Education (EdD) programme based in the UK,
Cross-cultural reflections
the struggles are sure to resonate with a much wider range of doctoral students and
E
academics, sparking lively discussion, debate and reflection. A must-read for students d
on identity and agency
it
preparing to embark on the doctoral journey, and essential reading for doctoral programmes e
d
that wish to equip students with important knowledge about the challenges ahead. b in an education doctorate
y
M
a
r
i
Maria Savva is Associate Professor and Director of the International Studies Program a
S
at the City University of New York’s LaGuardia campus. She has published widely on the a
v
intercultural development of international educators, with additional research interests in v
a
cross-cultural identity formation and the internationalisation of higher education.
a
n
d
Lynn P. Nygaard is a special advisor at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), L
y
Norway, where she helps researchers publish academically, secure grants and develop as n
n
professionals. She holds a Doctorate in Education (EdD) from UCL Institute of Education, P
.
and uses ethnographic methods and bibliometric analyses to better understand the different N
y
contexts of academic writing and the wide variety of publishing practices. g
a
a
r
d
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Becoming a Scholar
Becoming a Scholar
Cross- cultural reflections on identity and
agency in an education doctorate
Edited by
Maria Savva and Lynn P. Nygaard
First published in 2021 by
UCL Press
University College London
Gower Street
London WC1E 6BT
Available to download free: www.uclpress.co.uk
Text © the authors, 2021
Collection © the editors, 2021
The authors and editors have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988 to be identified as authors of this work.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from The British Library.
This book is published under a Creative Commons 4.0 International licence (CC BY
4.0). This licence allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the work; to adapt
the work and to make commercial use of the work providing attribution is made to
the authors (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the
work). Attribution should include the following information:
Savva, Maria and Nygaard, Lynn P. (eds) 2021. Becoming a Scholar: Cross- cultural
reflections on identity and agency in an education doctorate. London: UCL Press. https://
doi.org/ 10.14324/ 111.9781787357662
Further details about Creative Commons licences are available at
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licence unless indicated otherwise in the credit line to the material. If you would like to
re- use any third- party material not covered by the book’s Creative Commons licence,
you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.
ISBN: 978- 1- 78735- 768- 6 (Hbk)
ISBN: 978- 1- 78735- 767- 9 (Pbk)
ISBN: 978- 1- 78735- 766- 2 (PDF)
ISBN: 978- 1- 78735- 769- 3 (epub)
ISBN: 978- 1- 78735- 770- 9 (mobi)
DOI: https:// doi.org/ 10.14324/ 111.9781787357662
Contents
List of contributors vii
Foreword by Bryan Cunningham x
Acknowledgements xiii
Introduction 1
1. Belonging and becoming in academia: a conceptual
framework 10
Lynn P. Nygaard and Maria Savva
2. A tale of two languages: first- language attrition
and second- language immersion 27
Barbora Necas and Susi Poli
3. I found my tribe online: belonging in the context
of precarity 43
Muireann O’Keeffe
4. A view of the Western university through the eyes of a
non- Western student 58
Mohammad Abdrabboh (Al- Batran)
5. Navigating the pass: distance, dislocation and the viva 71
David Channon, with Maria Savva and Lynn P. Nygaard
6. Understanding the personal significance of our academic
choices 89
Maria Savva
v
7. Academic identity interrupted: reconciling issues of culture,
discipline and profession 106
Rab Paterson
8. Into the fray: becoming an academic in my own right 121
Lynn P. Nygaard
9. The cultural encounters of women on the periphery 136
Safa Bukhatir and Susi Poli
10. The ‘peripheral’ student in academia: an analysis 154
Maria Savva and Lynn P. Nygaard
Index 173
vi CoNtENtS
List of contributors
Maria Savva, PhD, is Associate Professor and Director of the International
Studies Program at LaGuardia Community College, one of 25 colleges that
make up the City University of New York. She has published widely on
the intercultural development of international educators, with additional
research interests in cross- cultural identity formation and the international-
isation of higher education. She holds an undergraduate degree in Psychology
from Marymount Manhattan College, a graduate degree in Comparative and
International Education from Columbia University and a Doctor of Philosophy
degree in Education from UCL Institute of Education. Prior to joining academia,
Maria taught in both primary and secondary schools in the United States and
abroad. She is a New York State certified teacher and also holds Qualified Teacher
Status in England and Wales. Her scholarly work is available at https://cuny.aca-
demia.edu/MariaSavvaPhD.
Lynn P. Nygaard, EdD, is Special Adviser at the Peace Research Institute Oslo
(PRIO), Norway, where she helps researchers publish academically, secure grants
and develop as professionals. Lynn is the author of Writing for Scholars: A prac-
tical guide to making sense and being heard (2015) and Writing Your Master’s
Thesis: From A to Zen (2017), both published by SAGE. In addition to the support
she provides to researchers at PRIO, she also holds writing retreats and workshops
on academic writing for publication and presentation technique for researchers
throughout Norway. She holds a BA from the University of California, Berkeley,
in women’s studies; a graduate degree in political science from the University of
Oslo and a Doctorate in Education (EdD) from the Institute of Education, UCL. As
a researcher, she uses ethnographic methods and bibliometric analyses to better
understand the different contexts of academic writing and the wide variety of
publishing practices.
Mohammad Abdrabboh (Al- Batran), EdD, started his career with the Saudi
Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) in 1980 as an ESL trainer. During his
more than 34 years with the company, he performed a number of jobs in curric-
ulum design, assessment, school management, career planning and HR consult-
ation in various locations across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). In 2012,
Mohammad joined the Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Maaden) as the Dean of
vii
Maaden Academy and led their efforts to establish Maaden Leadership Academy.
In 2019, Mohammad joined Maaden North Promise Phosphate Company in the
Northern Region of KSA as Head of Training Department. Concurrently, he is
facilitating the Accreditation Programs for the Saudi Mining Polytechnic in Ara’ar
and the School of Excellence in Turaif, Saudi Arabia.
Safa Bukhatir, EdD, is Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Future
International Nurseries, United Arab Emirates (UAE). Safa’s professional career
started as a computer programmer, a computer training instructor and later a
teacher of mathematics in a public middle school. She voluntarily withdrew
from her career to start a family, choosing to resume her professional career
later as Executive Director on the board of governors of a private international
school. During that time, she completed an MEd in educational leadership at the
University of Gloucestershire, UK. Having developed a particular interest in early
childhood education, Safa decided to leave the school and establish her own pre-
school based on the International Early Years Curriculum. Her work in the field
inspired her to join the EdD international programme in order to study the career
progress of early years leaders in the public sector of the UAE. Her future aca-
demic interests include talent management in education.
David Channon, EdD, has been Teaching Fellow at the Centre for the Development
of Academic Skills at Royal Holloway, University of London since 2015. His main
area of responsibility is as programme leader for the pre- sessional course. Prior to
this, he worked for 13 years as a teacher, a teacher-t rainer and a project manager
for the British Council in Myanmar. His research interests are in internationalisa-
tion, political education and teacher development. He is currently writing a book
entitled Metaphors for Academic Practice, as well as leading a small environmental
education project in the Caucasus.
Barbora Necas, MAEd (Applied Linguistics), MEd (Practitioner Research), is a
qualified teacher of English as a Foreign Language (RSA Dip TEFLA) and has been
working at the Centro Linguistico di Ateneo at the University of Bologna, Italy,
since 2004. Her work centres on language teaching, learning and assessment.
She teaches general purpose English for internationally recognised language
accreditation to graduate and undergraduate students, Academic English Skills
courses for doctoral students and Language Empowerment for Academics courses
for faculty. Prior to this she worked at the Department of Languages, Literatures
and Modern Cultures at the University of Bologna. She is a member of the
Associazione Italiana di Anglistica. Raised bilingually herself in the UK (Czech/
English), she has lived in Italy since graduating and has raised her own children
in a trilingual family involving three generations experiencing the complexity of
multicultural contexts.
viii LiSt of CoNtributorS
