Professional Doctorates as Spaces of Collegiality and Resistance: A Cross-Sectoral Exploration of the Cracks in Neoliberal Institutions

Abstract

Doctor of Education programs are designed to provide a cohort-based approach to doctoral study. Working under current neoliberal conditions that cause social isolation, mistrust and anxiety for educators, we argue that the Doctor of Education classroom can provide a site for collegiality and resistance. In this chapter, an Australian Doctor of Education professor and her current cohort of higher degree research (HDR) colleagues from school, Vocational Education and Training (VET) and university sectors subject their experiences of the neoliberal workplace to theoretically-informed scrutiny. We illustrate the pedagogies of anger, resistance and ultimately hope that become possible in professional doctorate programs. We engage in renewed modes of collaboration and collegiality and prise open the cracks in our institutions to forge activist connections across educational sectors.