Changing Lives : Women, inclusion and the PhD

Heidi Safia Mirza, Penny Jane Burke, Jennifer Lavia, Gloria Gordon, Helen Gunter and Barbara Ann Cole each tells her story of completing doctoral studies at a particular personal and professional stage in her life. Their narratives reveal their experience of the resultant life changes and will speak to women who are at different stages in their own careers and studies. Each author, by locating her story in the context in which she undertook her study, gives readers her reasons for embarking on such a demanding path. This raises issues about social movements, not least post colonial thinking and gender identity in a changing world as well as their personal and professional vulnerabilities. The interplay between personal life and living the life of academia makes these stories essential reading for anyone about to embark on academic study or who has completed it. Study rarely comes out of smooth linear lives and readers will certainly relate to the stories, which will cause them to think about and engage with the authoring of their own identities. Their reflection will be aided by the conceptual tools regarding the self and others described in the book. Changing Liveswill be of interest to social scientists who want to engage with narrative and the story genre and with the use of conceptual tools regarding explanations of practice and change. The stories will be a resource for supporting research activity, particularly doctoral research, and will be essential reading for active researchers and professionals on professional development, Masters courses and doctorates to consider how to locate the self productively within their projects.

Barbara Ann Cole is senior Lecturer Inclusive Education at the Institute of Education, University of London. Her book about the teachers and mothers of children perceived as 'different' won the NASEN/TES award for best academic book in 2005. Helen Gunter is professor of Educational Policy, Leadership and Management in the School of Education, University of Manchester.