Education, theory and pedagogies of change in a global landscape: interdisciplinary perspectives on the role of theory in doctoral research

Where does theory come from in educational research? Which theories and theorists do doctoral scholars in education engage with in particular, and what might that say about our interactions with theory in rapidly changing times? Each of the nine practitioner narratives in this volume provides a unique illustration of the doctoral story from diverse contexts and settings across the globe, together with an introductory chapter which highlights specific issues and themes in the doctoral process for students, teachers and assessors. The editor of these stories proposes that the doctoral thesis may be understood as a prismatic cultural artefact, observable from a multiplicity of angles and perspectives, so that from Irigaray on mothering in higher education to Jamison among Danish engineering undergraduates, from Te Whariki in a New Zealand kindergarten to ren wen in contemporary China, these accounts of educational research provide a wealth of topics for discussion and debate, not least when considering the contribution of theory towards 'pedagogies of change'