First Nations and transcultural counter-imaginaries in doctoral education

Catherine Manathunga; Jing Qi; Maria Raciti; Kathryn Gilbey; Sue Stanton; Jiao Tuxworth (Mengjiao Wang); John Whop

doi:10.1007/s11217-025-10014-7

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First Nations and transcultural counter-imaginaries in doctoral education

Journal article

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First Nations and transcultural counter-imaginaries in doctoral education

Catherine Manathunga, Jing Qi, Maria Raciti, Kathryn Gilbey, Sue Stanton, Jiao Tuxworth (Mengjiao Wang) and John Whop

Studies in Philosophy and Education, Vol.45, pp.351-365

2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11217-025-10014-7

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Abstract

Educational inequality

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples

Doctoral education

social imaginaries

First Nations

transcultural communities

affective ecologies

Australian doctoral education

storying

UniSC Diversity Area - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Engagement

Doctoral education is a key site of knowledge creation that has the potential to either foreclose or open up possibilities for transformation in higher education. It is a pedagogical space rife with neoliberal imaginaries that ground strong affective investments in efficiency and strict regimes of accountability. The flexible knowledge worker, the entrepreneur and the industry-ready graduate comprise some key examples of governing significations in doctoral education that contribute to affective ecologies of anxiety, fear, shame and anger among both doctoral candidates and supervisors. These affective experiences are particularly heightened for First Nations and transcultural (migrant, refugee, culturally and linguistically diverse and international) doctoral candidates, whose ways of knowing and being in the academy are governed by imaginaries and affective investments that run up against dominant arrangements. This paper seeks to challenge dominant imaginaries by foregrounding First Nations Storying. This First Nations knowledge approach has the potential to produce ecologies of affect characterized by connectedness, reciprocity and solidarity. There are, however, a number of governing imaginaries, especially in settler-invader countries like Australia, which make embedding these localised and embodied affective ecologies very challenging. This paper explores both the opportunities and obstacles that exist in attempts to introduce alternative affective ecologies in doctoral education.

Details

Title: First Nations and transcultural counter-imaginaries in doctoral education
Authors: Catherine Manathunga (Corresponding Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Indigenous and Transcultural Research Centre
Jing Qi (Author) - RMIT University
Maria Raciti (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Indigenous and Transcultural Research Centre
Kathryn Gilbey (Author) - Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education
Sue Stanton (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Indigenous and Transcultural Research Centre
Jiao Tuxworth (Mengjiao Wang) (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Indigenous and Transcultural Research Centre
John Whop (Author) - Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education
Publication details: Studies in Philosophy and Education, Vol.45, pp.351-365
Publisher: Springer Dordrecht
Date published: 2026
DOI: 10.1007/s11217-025-10014-7
ISSN: 1573-191X
Grants: Implementing Indigenous knowledge approaches in Australian doctoral education, DP210100647, Australian Research Council (Australia, Canberra) - ARC
Organisation Unit: School of Business and Creative Industries; Indigenous and Transcultural Research Centre
Language: English
Record Identifier: 991172845202621
Output Type: Journal article

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Collaboration types: Domestic collaboration
Web Of Science research areas: Education & Educational Research; Philosophy

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