Autoethnographic Reflections on a Research Journey - Dual Perspectives from a Doctoral Student and a Researcher Development Specialist

This book assists research students, supervisors, practitioners, and associated others to successfully navigate their research journey by highlighting research student experiences leading to student success. It reveals the research journey through an auto-ethnographic study based on the research student's narratives accompanied by digital artifacts. It also includes commentary from the perspective of a researcher development specialist who assisted this researcher throughout this journey. This book provides insights into research journeys through layered accounts and meanings, which include the first author's life events spanning almost two decades alongside higher education pursuits. It presents the perspective of a K-12 teacher-researcher moving into higher education in her local university, who is a Southeast Asian female international student embarking on her second-chance degree in a predominantly Australian learning environment/culture. Accompanying this is the perspective of a research training and development professional who has also undertaken higher degree by research studies.

Dr. J. Aleta R. Villanueva enjoys working with all kinds of minds in face-to-face, blended and fully online settings. She is currently an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Education of the University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU), engaged in online teaching, academic advising, and program supervision of the Social Studies Education postgraduate degree program. She is also the Deputy Director for Learning Design at UPOU's Center for Open and Digital Teaching and Learning, and the Program Development Associate of the Continuing Education Program, overseeing the development and implementation of non-formal short courses. Aleta has published qualitative research on dual language programs, curriculum integration and inquiry learning, virtual communities, open and progressive schooling, teaching presence, and the community of inquiry framework. Her ongoing projects include virtual learning community building, research on epistemic beliefs of educators, teacher-researcher identity development, and research journeys. She is keen to collaborate on research projects which entail classroom-based research, design-based methodology and historical, auto- and ethnographic studies.

Dr. Douglas Eacersall is a Senior Lecturer (Researcher Development) and Learning Advisor (Higher Degree by Research) at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia, and an Adjunct Assistant Professor, at the University of the Philippines Open University, Philippines. His research interests are in education, technology enhanced learning, research development and training, identity, and popular culture. He has worked on numerous research projects in the areas of Education, Martial Arts, History and Sociolinguistics, including a major ARC project examining language and cultural maintenance in the Australian Sudanese community. He has presented research from these projects at various Australian and International research conferences. Douglas is passionate about researcher training, especially as it relates to early career researchers and Higher Degree by Research students. He is the convener of the Postgraduate and Early Career Researcher Symposium and the University of Southern Queensland Research and Writing League. He is a registered mentor with the Web of Science Academy, organiser of the Mentoring For Researcher Development (M4RD) scheme and co-lead of the International Doctoral Education Research Network (IDERN). In each of these initiatives, Douglas seeks to support researchers and foster their continual development. This focus culminated in Douglas receiving the 2020, Outstanding Contribution to Graduate Research and Training Award