How boundaries work in higher education: an ethnographic account of Ph.D. students' identity formation

GÖKTÜRK AĞIN D.

COMPARE-A JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE AND INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION, vol.55, no.5, pp.792-809, 2025 (SSCI) identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 55 Issue: 5
  • Publication Date: 2025
  • Doi Number: 10.1080/03057925.2024.2321853
  • Journal Name: COMPARE-A JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE AND INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION
  • Journal Indexes: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, Periodicals Index Online, EBSCO Education Source, Education Abstracts, Educational research abstracts (ERA), ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Index Islamicus, Linguistics & Language Behavior Abstracts, PAIS International, Public Affairs Index
  • Page Numbers: pp.792-809
  • Middle East Technical University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

In this article, I argue that Ph.D. students' construction of academic identity depends on the boundary-making process in academia. The presented ethnographic account of Ph.D. students at one of the research-intensive universities in Turkey is based on 15 months of fieldwork, including observations and 21 in-depth interviews with PhD students. This ethnographic study employs a two-headed approach: institution-based boundary-formation and Ph.D. students' socialisation into academic habitus. The findings reveal that, first, the identity building process in doctoral education is constituted by the practices of institution-based boundaries, which enable Ph.D. students to accumulate symbolic and social capital; second, the practices of distinction through socialisation into academic life are developed, embodied, habituated, and integrated to academic identity and academic life as part of a habitus of doctoral education; third, identity formation is a social space of relational positions characterised by the supervisor-enforced social order, rooted in both authority and domination.