Still in the Thick of it: A Duoethnographic Account Navigating and Challenging the Institutional PhD Through Participatory and Action-Oriented Research

Choosing to undertake participatory and action-oriented research within the constraints of a doctoral project remains relatively rare. Yet an increasing number of graduate students are challenging traditional trajectories and academic systems by pursuing degrees with proposed research grounded in such approaches. This article draws on duoethnographic inquiry between two PhD candidates enrolled in a joint doctoral program across institutions in Australia and the United Kingdom. We offer a collaborative account of our ongoing journeys in real time rather than retrospectively, tracing how we navigate challenges while also identifying opportunities. Our methodology is grounded in dialogic exchange, written correspondence, and the co-authoring of each other’s narratives, practices that blur the boundary between method and action. By situating our writing within the immediacy of the doctoral process, we foreground the complexity and uncertainty of negotiating institutional demands while remaining committed to participatory and action-oriented values. In doing so, we open space for broader reflection on how doctoral study can be reimagined as a site of collective learning and transformation. Ultimately, this contribution affirms that participatory and action-oriented research is not only possible within doctoral programs, but can also catalyze new ways of challenging and reshaping the institutional cultures in which it is embedded.