More than meets the eye : the use of videonarratives to facilitate doctoral students’ reflexivity on their doctoral journeys

This article discusses findings from a UK Higher Education Academy project, which used digital video to promote doctoral students’ reflexivity. The project aimed to facilitate doctoral students’ research skills through the making of videonarratives; create spaces for reflexivity on the relations between research, narrative and identity; and consider the opportunities and problems offered by the use of digital video as a research method. In its focus on the relations between reflexivity, doctoral research and the use of digital video the project sought to make a contribution to a currently under-researched and theoretically under-elaborated aspect of doctoral education. The article discusses findings from the project, identifies the key role played by narrative in emerging doctoral researcher identities, and argues that these findings provide a stimulus for a more critical interrogation of recent and increasingly performative constructions of doctoral study. Keywords: videonarratives; reflexivity; doctoral students; doctoral journey