The harvesting of professional knowledge: methodological perspectives on the legitimization of tacit and mode 2 knowledge in the professional doctorate thesis

Chynoweth, Paul

Abstract

At the moment of enrolment on a professional doctorate programme, many candidates will already have a long history of generating new knowledge as an integral part of their professional lives. This might typically be described as mode 2 knowledge, and much of it is likely to be of a tacit nature. In view of the scholarly inclinations of practitioners who are attracted to doctoral study, some of this knowledge will be at the forefront of their disciplines, and therefore already of potential doctoral quality. For these candidates the doctoral journey may be less about the traditional process of empirical data collection and analysis, and more about the task of converting their existing tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge, which is then capable of forming the subject-matter of a thesis. An important aspect of this process – and one where professional doctorate candidates are not currently well-supported by the literature - concerns the need to present the findings of what is essentially a self-reflective undertaking, in an academically credible form. The paper explores some of the methodological approaches and philosophical justifications that professional doctorate candidates might use when approaching this task. It also makes practical suggestions as to how these can be incorporated into a professional doctorate thesis, based overwhelmingly on what it describes as a process of harvesting existing tacit and mode 2 professional knowledge.

Citation

Chynoweth, P. The harvesting of professional knowledge: methodological perspectives on the legitimization of tacit and mode 2 knowledge in the professional doctorate thesis. Presented at Third International Conference on Professional Doctorates (ICPD-3), The European Universities Institute, Florence, Italy

• Presentation Conference Type: Other
• Conference Name: Third International Conference on Professional Doctorates (ICPD-3)
• Conference Location: The European Universities Institute, Florence, Italy
• Publication Date: Apr 1, 2012
• Deposit Date: Sep 26, 2012
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