BARRIERS TO RESEARCH COMPETENCY DEVELOPMENT IN DOCTORAL EDUCATION: A QUALITATIVE EXPLORATION

Abstract

One of the major goals of the doctoral program is to develop research competency to enable scholars to conduct independent, ethical, and high-quality research. But numerous doctoral students have difficulties in cultivating these abilities. In this study, the authors went into the doctoral scholars' understanding of research competency, factors that help in developing research competency, factors that hinder in developing research competency, coping strategies and suggestions to strengthen the competency development. The study used a qualitative exploratory design with a small number of five doctoral scholars from Pakistani universities who were interviewed using semi-structured interview method. The data were analyzed by reflexive thematic analysis. Five themes emerged conceptualizing research competency, pathways to competency development, barriers, coping strategies and recommendations. They found that research competency goes beyond method knowledge to critical thinking, academic writing, ethical research practices, resilience, and life-long learning. The personal responsibilities, challenges of supervision, lack of institutional support, and lack of research opportunities were identified as significant obstacles. These challenges were overcome through self-directed learning, collaborative work with peers, sufficient use of time and the positive application of feedback from scholars. It suggests continued research training, proper research practices, mentoring, more funding for research and better research cultures to support doctoral scholars. The results offer practical implications to universities and policy makers regarding enhancement of doctoral education and competency development of research.