The model in use

My framework can be used in many different ways. This is just one example. After I completed my doctorate I became an Affiliated Researcher and a Supervisor on the Doctorate in Education (EdD) Programme at the Open University. While talking to a colleague we realised the nine spaces in my learning model could be applied to doctoral researchers themselves. As a result I talked to past and present EdD students to explore their learning experiences. The research led to the Researching Professional Development Framework (RPDF) and to an online resource for OU EdD students, where they can access tips and hints from previous students and develop their own development plans.

The development of the RPDF is described in Supporting researching professionals: EdD students' perceptions of their development needs, a paper I co-authored with Dr Lucinda Kerawalla, and Dr Alan Floyd. The paper was published in 2017 in Studies in Higher Education and can be accessed online.

I gave a keynote address about the RPDF at the British Accounting and Finance Association South East Conference and was delighted to receive the following feedback:

The RPDF is an invaluable framework for identifying multiple skills that all doctoral students need to develop for successful and impactful research – both during their doctoral studies and in their post-doctoral careers. This framework provides a flexible interconnected structure to help doctoral students place the variety of skills they need to develop in context. It therefore helps ensure doctoral researchers and their supervisors do not overlook building any of the crucial longer-term career-enhancing elements in the work of researching and writing a doctoral thesis.

Professor Jeffrey Unerman, Royal Holloway University of London