Doctoral students' experience of information technology research

As part of their journey of learning to research, doctoral candidates need to become members of their research community. In part, this involves coming to be aware of their field in ways that are shared amongst longer-term members of the research community. One aspect of candidates' experience we need to understand, therefore, involves how they 'see' or 'constitute' the fields of research in which they are engaged. The study reported in this article investigated information technology research students' differing ways of experiencing their object(s) of study and their research field or territory. A phenomenographic approach was adopted, using techniques developed from an earlier study of experienced information technology researchers in order to make the results comparable. The results revealed seven ways of constituting information technology research amongst students, compared with eight previously identified amongst experienced researchers. Information technology research students constituted information technology research in ways that revealed both variation from, as well as complementarities with, more experienced researchers working in the same environment. The results extend an existing collective model of the character of information technology research, and suggest directions for doctoral education and associated research across the sector.