My seeking for clarity in the PhD phase i am into at the moment, i have been reading literature that i found either in the library or though online searches and realised that the next step for me is to write the Literature Review of my Phd thesis, as it is formed through the main themes of my findings. It has been some time now that it was clear to me that it is not easy to do the Literature Review, given that there is not much written on the particular angle i am taking. So, i had arranged for meeting with my supervisor so discuss some dilemmas and strategies i could follow to approach the matter. I looked at 2 doctoral theses (one on existential migration conducted in UK and one on the evolving cultural identities of immigrant psychotherapits conducted in the US) and identified what could be relevant to my writing. Although i have strated reading voraciously at an early stage of my phd, i was advised not to do a Literature Review chapter then so that i could be less pre-occupied around what i was seeking and also cause there is an argument for doing one once the data gives you the angles that require attention. I have now made a list of 22 main themes that come out of my data. … Read more »

I used my time during the PhD group supervision today to clarify where am at in relation to the research and the writing process. I have acknowledged some dynamics that i have with my interview data that relates to what i understand as ‘hidden agenda’ which leads to certain things not being articulated and leaves me feeling frustrated with it. My supervisor highlighted the importance to see that as part of the phenomenon am exploring and write about it. I have also spoken about how i feel in relation to my sense of power in the role of researcher and this raised a rich conversation in the group about voice, decisions and our positioning as researchers and authors. In terms of writing, i have so far received positive feedback from 4 readers of my methodology chapter (my 2 supervisors and 2 friends/colleagues) which is a good start; however i need to be steadily progressing with it as it will take long. I am aware that i need to be ready to write a certain part, in a heuristic study, and cannot force the process, although the PhD clock keeps ticking. We have agreed with my supervisors that completion will very possibly take longer and that is something to accept and make good use of the time ahead…am not the only one after all!

I arranged to have supervision with my other supervisor today. I informed her about the health situation that it is taking time off my studies and she re-assured me that if i need more time, the Univ takes into account such situations. I also talked with the School’s administrator and she gave me some info about PhD students having the option to go for ‘submission pending’ period if they reach their offical deadline but require more time to submit. This is good in terms of not getting too stressed out and having this affecting my work, i definitely cannot write properly if i feel i am in a race and also i need to be ‘compassionate’ towards myself, when i have a health issue to deal with cause it is a priority anyway! … Read more »

After about 6 weeks of hard work focusing on chapter writing, i managed to produce a coherent methodology chapter for my PhD thesis which i emailed last night to my supervisor and we had a meeting today about it. I received very positive feedback, him commenting that my writing is ‘tour de force’ and attracts the interest of the reader, it is having an impact. We talked about the structure of the Thesis and where i could place what, something that will get clearer as i do more writing. We also discussed some things that i feel confused about and how i position myself towards certain dilemmas. i think what i have to keep doing at this point is just keep writing and possibly all the processing and decisions to be made will become clearer as I proceed. My goal now is to produce another two chapters within certain deadlines we have set: 1. first, i will write a chapter about my ‘own story’ by the end of January, which shall possibly go before the methodology and after the Introduction because it introdices me and gives the context of my reflexivity to the reader. Then 2. i will attempt to do the analysis and write the findings chapter by end of April. This is going to be a bit hard cause i see that there is much more to be done with data analysis before i can do the writing but i will give it a try anyway…time to take a ‘breath’ now and continue with the rest of the journey, it is ongoing now and for the next months and requires my discipline and dedication

During our monthly supervision session today, i shared a poem with the group that i wrote as i am drafting my methodology chapter. I feel that i do not want to disclose it here in public as my supervisor advised me to actually it unclude it in my thesis as an expression of the ‘heuristic illunimation’ phase that seems to be happening and is giving me insights in the forms of metaphor and more creative forms of writing, i.e poetry. I read the poem in front of the Phd group and this generated a fruitful discussion where i expored further how all this images and metaphors that come to my head are related to my PhD topic and the researh process…othe members of the PhD group made their own connections too. I notice that the more i am focusing on producing Phd text, the less am writing in this blog , which is what works for me now and it matches my prioritising. More will come as and when necessary, any comments from readers are still welcome!