Disciplinary Enculturation of Doctoral Students through Non-Formal Education Parviz Ahmadi Arshad Abd. Samad

Introduction The disciplinary socialization process is in conformity with the principles of situated learning which focuses on the importance of involvement in the process of learning. Situated learning through legitimate peripheral participation focuses on how novice learners or legitimate peripheral participants engage with and integrate into a community of practice in an enculturation process, “a process of learning to become a particular kind of person, who has developed a sense of belonging in a particular academic or research community”

Enculturation into disciplinary conventions can bring about “disciplinary savvy”(Parry, 2007) through which doctoral students are initiated into the values and practices of their own disciplines whether through formal or non-formal networks. A number of qualitative case studies have been carried out on how non-native English speaking (NNES) graduate students acquire academic literacy in their academic settings through in-depth interviews or observation. These studies have reported the interaction between novice scholars and their disciplinary communities when writing disciplinary texts such as dissertations and seminar papers.

The Study Since the proposed research area is mainly concerned with disciplinary enculturation of doctoral students through establishing informal networks in their natural contexts, a qualitative case study research method was selected for the study. A public university in Malaysia was selected as the setting for the study due to its vast coverage of various disciplines, its accessibility to the researcher, and his familiarity with the context. After audio-recording the interviews and transcribing them, a constant comparative method was used to analyze the data.

Findings & Discussion Informal Interaction with Peers To help graduate students improve their scientific writing skills, graduate schools in Malaysia hold scientific writing workshops. The immediate influence of the workshops was mainly limited to offering some macro-guidelines to make doctoral students familiar with their academic settings in general, institutional policies and the basics of writing academically. The strategies the informants adopted when writing for publication ranged from dealing with language and rhetorical challenges to interacting with journal gatekeepers. The importance of coping strategies in writing for publication success makes doctoral students try various strategies through informal exchange of ideas, though they sometimes may not correspond to academic standards. Resorting to published research articles as the main source of disciplinary socialization was indispensable for the informants as they thought of them as their own guide books.

Informal interaction with Experts Seeking help from experts beyond disciplinary socialization through exchanges helped students enhance their confidence and know their position as a novice legitimate member of their communities of discourse. The value of such social networks and their roles in sustaining life-long learning can be significant when doctoral students understand its importance in their academic success and even in their daily life settings. Socially situated learning is not accumulation of knowledge but is active participation of individuals in their social contexts.

Conclusion Establishing a link between formal and informal education can fill the void felt by the informants. Encouraging students to interact with the experts of their disciplinary communities and even appointing them as their external supervisors beyond their local disciplinary communities not only helps establish a link between experts in various academic settings but it also facilitates the way novice participants fully participate in their communities under the supervision of the ‘oldtimers’.

This study is not a longitudinal study; the effect of informal education can be assessed over a longer period of time to illuminate the influence of informal education on academic discourse socialization of doctoral students across various fields.

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