Trouble in mind: supporting the transition to graduate research in English

Abstract

This article considers the ways in which entry-level graduate students in the discipline of English begin to understand themselves as researchers within a particular disciplinary formation. Analysing data from student and staff reflections on the experience of undertaking a supervised research project, we argue that the ontological shifts and identity transformations that occur at doctoral level are also observable in the transition from undergraduate coursework to graduate research but only in the right conditions. We compare participant accounts of two supervised research projects that, although offered within the framework of a single fourth-year unit, created very different opportunities for transformative learning. This comparison of graduate research experiences raises a number of questions about threshold concepts in English and cognate disciplines, particularly those that have been transformed by the encounter with theory.