Understanding doctoral students' needs for thesis discussion writing and supervisory curriculum development: a sociocultural theory perspective

The global blossoming of doctoral education calls for a better understanding of doctoral candidates' needs concerning thesis writing. Although scholars proclaim the particular difficulty of writing a thesis discussion, empirical studies on doctoral students' needs for the discussion chapter are insufficient. To fill the gap, using individual interviews, we investigated seven candidates' views on challenges and helpful resources, noting L1/L2 students' differences regarding writing the discussion. We found that students perceived challenges differently: challenges (or absence of challenge) are connected with individual situations. We also found that students relied mainly on supervisors to help them with thesis discussion writing and yet supervisors sometimes were not able to provide sufficient guidance. Lastly, we found L1 candidates had ideologically related reasons for writing choices whereas L2 candidates' reasons were to fit in. Another L1/L2 difference is that L2 students reported using more resources for language difficulty than L1 students did. We draw on sociocultural theory to make sense of these findings to offer insights into pedagogy. We conclude the paper with a discussion on the implications for supervisors, writing instructors and students.