Select SAGE journal articles are available to give you more insight into chapter topics. These are also an ideal resource to help support your literature reviews, dissertations and assignments.

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Allyson Holbrook, A., Bourke, S., Lovat, T. and Fairbairn, H. (2008) Consistency and Inconsistency in PhD Thesis Examination, Australian Journal of Education, 52, (1), pp. 36-48.

Abstract: This is a mixed methods investigation of consistency in PhD examination. At its core is the quantification of the content and conceptual analysis of examiner reports for 804 Australian theses. First, the level of consistency between what examiners say in their reports and the recommendation they provide for a thesis is explored, followed by an examination of the degree of discrepancy between examiner recommendations and university committee decisions on the theses. It was found that the comments of a small minority of examiners were inconsistent with each other or with the committee decision in a significant way. Much more commonly the texts of examiner reports were highly consistent and were closely reflected in the final committee decision.
 

Ye, L. and Edwards, V. (2015) Chinese overseas doctoral student narratives of intercultural adaptation, Journal of Research in International Education, 14, (3), pp. 228-241.

Abstract: This study aims to explore how Chinese overseas doctoral students adjust to a different academic, social and cultural environment, using Giddens’ theoretical framework of self-identity. The findings indicate the participants proactively used various coping strategies in meeting challenges and adapting to new social environments. Continuity and stability of self-identity were achieved either culturally or academically through self-reflexivity, autonomy, creativity, authenticity and reliance on an ontological identity. The results challenge the grand narrative of essentialised ‘problematic Chinese learners’.
 

Kamler, B and Thomson, P. (2008) The Failure of Dissertation Advice Books: Toward Alternative Pedagogies for Doctoral Writing, Educational Researcher, 37, (8): pp. 507-514.

Abstract: Anxious doctoral researchers can now call on a proliferation of advice books telling them how to produce their dissertations. This article analyzes some characteristics of this self-help genre, including the ways it produces an expert–novice relationship with readers, reduces dissertation writing to a series of linear steps, reveals hidden rules, and asserts a mix of certainty and fear to position readers “correctly.” The authors argue for a more complex view of doctoral writing both as text work/identity work and as a discursive social practice.