Qualitative Interview Data on Academic Identity in German Doctoral Supervision

Twenty student interviews from German universities explore academic identity construction in supervision meetings. The data, a 116.2 KB DOCX file, was created by Martina Beatrice Engel and last updated in May 2026. A critical realist framework and reflexive thematic analysis identified five key themes, including feedback and hierarchical relationships.

Use Cases

• Analyzing themes of power and hierarchy in academic mentoring based on the identified 'hierarchical relationship' theme.
• Studying the role of feedback in doctoral student development based on the 'feedback as a source of security and direction' theme.
• Investigating processes of student emancipation and confidence-building in academia.
• Exploring how doctoral students negotiate their sense of belonging and 'fit' within academic institutions.

Strengths

• Data is based on twenty qualitative interviews, providing a defined sample size.
• The analysis identified five distinct thematic areas, offering structured insights.
• The dataset is openly available under a CC-BY-4.0 license, facilitating reuse.

Limitations

• The dataset is very small at 116.2 KB, indicating limited scope and likely a textual summary rather than raw interview data.
• Row count and column-level documentation are absent, making data structure and granularity unknown.
• The data reflects a specific context, likely introducing geographic and institutional bias from its German university source.

Provenance

Source

Martina Beatrice Engel via figshare.

Collection Method

Qualitative study using interviews and reflexive thematic analysis.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-12 15:00:27.

Geography

Germany (universities).