Research development in doctoral education: role of languages and cultures

Abstract

Portuguese universities have been receiving an increasing number of students from Portuguese-Speaking Countries at the level of PhD studies, namely from Brazil, Angola, Cape Verde and Mozambique. As acknowledged by research, undertaking a PhD overseas entails several challenges and one of the deepest concerns the implications of languages and cultures in several doctoral activities, since they act as significant research reconfiguration agents. Against this background, this paper reports on a study that aimed at understanding the role of languages and cultures in doctoral research development. For this matter, and within a qualitative approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with doctoral students from Portuguese-Speaking Countries attending a Portuguese university. Results from thematic analysis reveal that students’ linguistic and cultural backgrounds influence several stages of the research process: theme and research objetives definition, theorisation of the research problem and concept mobilisation, construction of data collection instruments and data collection and thesis writing. Implications of findings for institutional policy and practice concerning doctoral education and research are put forward.