Foreword When our postgraduate researchers choose to teach, we should show their value.

Abstract

The doctoral experience is characterised by uncertainty, and the need to make choices in an unknown territory (Albertyn and Bennet, 2021). Beginning with the setting of a novel research question to which the answer is by its nature unknown, it is from the outset a process of unique discovery. This necessarily involves a steep learning curve in which postgraduate researchers must, at speed, assimilate both the disciplinary knowhow required to engage in the processes of research as a robust practice, and at the same time become familiar with a vast and growing range of existing research so that they may communicate how their study adds meaning to the sum of knowledge to date. Further, they must learn to get the ‘job of research done’, learning how to operate within a large organisation, to navigate systems, to teach, collaborate, and innovate. Along the journey they must become familiar with the markers of career progress and esteem and build the foundations of a career as what Pitt and Mewburn (2016) call an ‘academic super-hero’: a multi-talented, always ready and available worker. An exciting time certainly, but without time for reflective sensemaking and a clear framework for how to gradually succeed with these weighty challenges, this can be experienced as an overwhelming responsibility, rather than an exciting opportunity for discovery and growth.