Doctoral Practitioner Researcher Agency and the Practice-Based Research Agenda

Background

In past work, several researchers, including the chapter authors, have defined doctoral student agency within the context of the relationship between the doctoral scholar and dissertation research supervisor as well as research supervisor agency (LaFrance et al., 2020). These works framed doctoral student agency within the current scholarship as a pertinent indicator of doctoral persistence and completion and stressed the importance of the relational dynamic in the student-research supervisor relationship (Klemenčič, 2014, 2015; LaFrance et al., 2020; Rigler et al., 2017; Throne & Oddi, 2019; Throne & Walters, 2019). The chapter authors have also distinguished doctoral student agency as a necessary critical trait to attain professional or academic positions, career promotion, and academic tenure (Kaslow et al., 2018; Throne & Walters, 2019) and stressed the role of the doctoral research supervisor to foster and enhance doctoral student agency (Azizova & Felder, 2017; Throne & Oddi, 2019).