The bi-weekly conversations sound like a great idea! Thank you for sharing your PhD process too. I’m in the process of gathering my PhD ideas (about 2 years off applying) and find it interesting and useful to hear how others further down the line are getting on.
Claire, thanks for the support. Hopefully you find some of the content informative.
That is super exciting. Best wishes through that process. If you don't mind sharing, what topics are you entertaining to pursue for your doctoral research?
You’re welcome, Piotr. I’m looking forward to the content. So far my subject is the concept of “kime” in Japanese martial arts and its links to self-defence. It relates to embodied decision-making in a social training context that involves close proximity and hand-to-hand combat, and links to emotional states such as fear and confidence as well as biomechanical and technical precision. I’m looking at an embodied qualitative research method (possibly ethnography with symbiotic autoethnographic elements). The question is around whether kime is intrinsic (i.e. part of character) or if it can be learned (and if it can, how can it be taught - it is one of those mysterious concepts in training where students are told, no kime or, more kime, but there aren’t clear words to describe this embodied state. I’m hoping the research will have value for student learning (or at least support why it is not explicitly taught - there will be differences in Japanese and Western cultural approaches to teaching, with questions not being common to the latter in traditional dojo training environments). My biggest challenge is finding the right research supervisor within the Exercise & Sport Psychology field who understands the subject and qualitative research. I have a first Masters degree in Social Sciences so I’m also exploring options there. Thanks for asking and good luck with your research!
That is so fascinating Claire! I have never heard of this topic, and I can only imagine how challenging it is to find a supervisor who may be an expert in it. I wonder if it will require you to be the expert based on your readings and pursuits, and having a supervisor willing to support you through that process in empirical pursuits of the questions. Thank you, likewise!
Aw thank you, Piotr, for the kind reply! I had a similar challenge for my MSc Exercise & Sport Psychology research. Some great lecturers but none interested in martial arts or qualitative research, so I ended up with the Social Psych senior lecturer (a bodybuilding/darts/pool expert) and managing myself (my subject was motivation to teach martial arts/self-defence). Thankfully my partner is doing his PhD in Education & Psychology and is a martial arts expert so I got great guidance there. I foresee a similar thing in the PhD if I choose Exercise & Sport Psychology as the route. In Social Sciences there is one expert willing to supervise me but the flip side is the lack of Cognitive Psychology base and preference for discourse analysis. Ah it’s a journey I bet for all. I do hope your PhD journey is going well!
The bi-weekly conversations sound like a great idea! Thank you for sharing your PhD process too. I’m in the process of gathering my PhD ideas (about 2 years off applying) and find it interesting and useful to hear how others further down the line are getting on.
Claire, thanks for the support. Hopefully you find some of the content informative.
That is super exciting. Best wishes through that process. If you don't mind sharing, what topics are you entertaining to pursue for your doctoral research?
You’re welcome, Piotr. I’m looking forward to the content. So far my subject is the concept of “kime” in Japanese martial arts and its links to self-defence. It relates to embodied decision-making in a social training context that involves close proximity and hand-to-hand combat, and links to emotional states such as fear and confidence as well as biomechanical and technical precision. I’m looking at an embodied qualitative research method (possibly ethnography with symbiotic autoethnographic elements). The question is around whether kime is intrinsic (i.e. part of character) or if it can be learned (and if it can, how can it be taught - it is one of those mysterious concepts in training where students are told, no kime or, more kime, but there aren’t clear words to describe this embodied state. I’m hoping the research will have value for student learning (or at least support why it is not explicitly taught - there will be differences in Japanese and Western cultural approaches to teaching, with questions not being common to the latter in traditional dojo training environments). My biggest challenge is finding the right research supervisor within the Exercise & Sport Psychology field who understands the subject and qualitative research. I have a first Masters degree in Social Sciences so I’m also exploring options there. Thanks for asking and good luck with your research!
That is so fascinating Claire! I have never heard of this topic, and I can only imagine how challenging it is to find a supervisor who may be an expert in it. I wonder if it will require you to be the expert based on your readings and pursuits, and having a supervisor willing to support you through that process in empirical pursuits of the questions. Thank you, likewise!
Aw thank you, Piotr, for the kind reply! I had a similar challenge for my MSc Exercise & Sport Psychology research. Some great lecturers but none interested in martial arts or qualitative research, so I ended up with the Social Psych senior lecturer (a bodybuilding/darts/pool expert) and managing myself (my subject was motivation to teach martial arts/self-defence). Thankfully my partner is doing his PhD in Education & Psychology and is a martial arts expert so I got great guidance there. I foresee a similar thing in the PhD if I choose Exercise & Sport Psychology as the route. In Social Sciences there is one expert willing to supervise me but the flip side is the lack of Cognitive Psychology base and preference for discourse analysis. Ah it’s a journey I bet for all. I do hope your PhD journey is going well!