3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
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Item Exploring career choice negotiation among psychology honours students.(2014-02-27) Isakow, HaleyThe primary aim of the research was to examine the ways in which Psychology Honours students interactionally made sense of their career choices. In addition, the research examined how these students interactionally made sense of psychology as a discipline and field of study, particularly in the context of discussions of career choices. The participants were selected for inclusion into the study (through purposive sampling) if they were currently in their psychology honours year. An interview schedule that contained open-ended questions and prompts was used to guide the focus groups. The findings showed that the participants were contextually creating meanings of career choice and psychology as seen by the acknowledged, additive or at times challenged responses, statements, descriptions etc. in the focus groups. Further research could be performed on students from other disciplines to see if the meanings of ‘psychology’ and ‘career choice’ vary or are similar across disciplines. This would provide the field of psychology with a better understanding of how it is perceived and might provide some constructs that have not been considered yet, with regards to careerItem The experience of becoming a PHD.(2012-02-28) Hadingham, Jennifer AnnThe development of the next generation of researchers is a priority if South Africa is to make a significant contribution to the international knowledge economy and establish itself as a force to be reckoned with in international research circles. In the context of this knowledge economy, researchers are increasingly being recognised as agents of economic growth. In order to be competitive, therefore, an extensive pool of active researchers needs to be cultivated. One way of doing this is to promote and develop doctoral capacity at the country’s universities. This entails, among other things, a move away from the traditional focus on what the supervisor does, to a more student-centred understanding of how the doctoral candidate experiences the process, and by implication, how this impacts on their research contribution. In this qualitative study, thirty doctoral candidates from the Faculties of Science and Humanities at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, were interviewed in order to establish firstly, how they had experienced their supervision at this level, and secondly, whether or not these experiences had influenced the successful completion of their doctorates. One of the principal findings of the research was that the role of the supervisor was not central to the achievement of their degree; rather, many of the doctoral candidates asserted a significant level of agency in both identifying and making contact with experts beyond their university-appointed supervisors in order to supplement their access to relevant knowledge. In the majority of cases, this was encouraged by the supervisors. Such enterprises represent a marked departure from the traditional models of supervision in the Science and Humanities faculties. In the case of the former, the customary co-supervision arrangement is increasingly being augmented by student-initiated collaboration with authorities located outside the formal boundaries of the institution. The traditional Humanities model of supervision is also transforming from a one-on-one relationship to a style characterised by multiple supervisors, each from separate but cognate disciplines. The research suggested that these emergent models are eclipsing their predecessors as doctoral candidates increasingly recognise the value of extending the breadth of their disciplinary exposure beyond the confines of the university.