Vol.:(0123456789) The Australian Educational Researcher (2019) 46:137–153 https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-018-0283-x 1 3 “Feeling more academic now”: Doctoral stories of becoming an academic Lilia Mantai 1 Received: 26 February 2018 / Accepted: 11 October 2018 / Published online: 24 October 2018 © The Australian Association for Research in Education, Inc. 2018 Abstract It is commonly believed that the doctorate prepares students for academic careers. While there is wide ranging literature about the development of doctoral students as researchers, preparation for the other aspects of academic careers, e.g. teaching, is mostly absent from the discussion. This qualitative longitudinal study investigated the shift from doctoral identities to academic identities using narrative inquiry. It examined the narratives of 15 doctoral students from two large Australian universi- ties, who were approaching thesis submission and who aspired to academic employ- ment. Two contrasting stories illuminated in-depth accounts of how academic identities were developed and experienced. Students defned their identities and assessed their academic development in relation to their perceived ‘market value’ in academia. To increase their employability, they engaged in university teaching and focused on strategic networking. Students regarded researcher development as the main focus of the doctorate as being insufcient for an academic career. This paper argues that doctoral education needs to facilitate student agency, encourage syner- gies between teaching and research, and support non-academic work experiences to strengthen researcher identity development. Keywords Doctoral education · Doctoral student · Researcher development · Academic identity · Identity trajectory · Employability Introduction It is commonly believed that the doctorate prepares students for academic careers, and, in fact, many still do want an academic career despite dire job prospects (Bexley et al. 2012). However, evidence shows that the doctorate is not as well designed for this purpose as is widely assumed (Brew et al. 2011; Greer et al. 2016). This paper * Lilia Mantai Lilia.mantai@sydney.edu.au 1 The University of Sydney Business School, The University of Sydney, Room 5154, Abercrombie Building (H70), Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia