Description
BackgroundAgency, the ability to control one’s life (Biesta & Tedder, 2007), is crucial for PhD students navigating their research journey. Yet, how students exercise their agency remains underexplored in academic and personal contexts (McAlpine et al., 2020).
Description
This study draws on data from a 12-week PhD Coaching Program (PCP) at Macquarie University, which supports students’ research progress by enhancing skills such as project management, self-awareness, and resilience. Seventeen students from four faculties, all past their first year, met with their coach, a PhD-qualified professional staff member, for eight sessions of 30 minutes one-to-one.
Focus
Following the temporal agency framework (Emirbayer & Mische, 1998), we examined students’ agency across three dimensions:
• iterational: how their agency is shaped by their past habits, understood in the framework as patterns of thought and action carried forward from previous experiences
• practical-evaluative: how coaches mediate students’ agency for addressing their current challenges
• projective: how students reshape their past habits to pursue long-term goals.
Method
We used qualitative methods with data from surveys and semi-structured interviews.
Evidence
Results revealed the diverse ways students exercised their agency. Some students relied on iterational agency, drawing on past habits such as a strong work ethic to navigate their PhD. Others demonstrated projective agency, targeting long-term goals such as submitting their thesis on time. Coaches enhanced students’ agency through reflective dialogue, guiding them to evaluate situations and refine strategies for overcoming challenges.
Contribution
The study provides insights into the fluidity of PhD students’ agency across the three dimensions of the temporal agency framework in their research journey.
Engagement
This virtual presentation will outline key findings and features of the coaching program and administer a live online poll to discuss attendees’ impressions of which dimension of agency is most crucial for PhD completion or navigating critical challenges.
| Period | 8 Jul 2025 |
|---|---|
| Held at | Higher Education Research and Development, Australia |
| Degree of Recognition | International |