Pathfinder Career Narratives is an ongoing series tracking the career choices and experiences of doctoral graduates. You can see all of the posts in the series here. You can find all the Pathfinder resources and opportunities here. Today’s blog is written by Dr Dely Elliot, Senior Lecturer in the School of Education, University of Glasgow. You can find Dr Elliot’s staff profile here.
Name: Dr Dely Lazarte Elliot
Doctorate subject area, and year of completion: Psychology of Education, 2003
Role and employer: Senior Lecturer, School of Education, University of Glasgow
Approximate salary bracket of this type of role: Grade 9
Summarising my career journey is quite a tall order. There are many elements in this colourful kaleidoscope but one thing remains certain – I have always enjoyed my job in academia. This enables me to say with confidence that if I ever found myself presented with the same opportunities, I know in my heart what I would pursue. By following my inner compass, I hopefully would end up on the same track aspiring to do what brings me joy.
Many of my career-related decisions were deliberately pursued. Likewise, I should neither underestimate how personal circumstances and interests nor serendipitous opportunities guided my career steps along the way.
My story began as an international scholar coming to British shores with the sole purpose of undertaking a PhD in a niche area where Higher Education and Psychology intersect. While grateful for my scholarship grant, it also came with some pressure as it required me to complete my entire PhD in three years. To my delight, those years became genuine sources of growth and development not only for my doctoral research journey; such amalgamation of learning also extended to my personal and professional life. I was in awe to have witnessed how these doctoral years could be bursting with multiple layers and various types of learning prospects – something to take advantage of. That aspect of my experience is worth highlighting because little did I know that that would eventually become one of my core research interests, i.e. the hidden curriculum in doctoral education.
In my career journey, serendipity intervened and changed my original intention to return to South East Asia following PhD completion. After marrying “my Scotsman”, we were faced with the situation where staying in Scotland was the least precarious option. This caught me unaware, however. I knew even then that my lack of publications would work against me, if I were to apply directly for academic posts in any UK university. Bearing this in mind, I considered various posts outside academia. My first break was as a Research Officer for the Scottish Further Education Unit (now part of Colleges Scotland). While short-lived, my experience in this family-like organisation involved me leading research projects, winning small research grants and writing for publication.
That experience proved invaluable when I applied for a tenured Research Associate post in The SCRE Centre (after it merged with the then Faculty of Education, University of Glasgow) – something I always considered as my official postdoctoral experience. Two years later, with my background and research projects within the Psychology of Education domain, I gratefully accepted the programme director’s invitation to teach Educational Psychology (within the MSc Psychological Studies programme), which I continue to do to this day. Over the years, as my experience of teaching, dissertation supervision, programme convening, research and publication increased, my application for promotion and redesignation into Lectureship with an R&T track was granted (subsequently leading to my current post).
I need to stress that being in a Research Associate role for several years had implications, i.e. my experience of leading research projects and publications was ‘all over the place’. This made me feel frustrated – not only did I become alienated from my PhD research topic, but it was also apparent that there was no longer a specific research area I could call my own. As a junior academic, this led me to ask myself a searching question: “In which research area do I want to establish myself and be known for?” It needed to be an area where I could happily spend the rest of my academic career. My contemplation took me back to my Master’s and doctoral research interests as well as my own personal acculturative experience and observation of the hidden curriculum as an international scholar. Additionally, the rewards of co-travelling with doctoral scholars as their supervisors greatly added to my fascination in investigating international doctoral learning experience.
For me, this was a crucial question, which guided the rest of my work to date. It was instrumental in focusing and consolidating my research activities, grant application, publications and other academic collaborations as I pursued greater appreciation of international doctoral scholars’ experience. Fortuitously, I met a lot of likeminded colleagues along the way and our mutual interest in doctoral education contributed to many different doors being opened. The last ten years since my transition to lectureship witnessed me actively researching on doctoral curriculum and pedagogies and in turn, promoting theory development within and outwith academia – all with a view to enhancing doctoral practices while sustaining doctoral scholars’ well-being. This led to the publication of books in doctoral education (e.g. The Hidden Curriculum in Doctoral Education; Navigating Your International Doctoral Experience (and Beyond); Developing Researcher Independence Through the Hidden Curriculum) and several journal articles.
My very hands-on role as Community Building Team Lead for developing a thriving doctoral community in the School of Education, University of Glasgow also helped to validate my research in doctoral education. Leading this team for five years (2018 to 2023) offered genuine ways of linking doctoral theories and practices. During this time, my work in doctoral education became more widely recognised. This led to me serving on high-profile journal editorial boards (e.g. IETI, HERD, TiHE) and giving keynote addresses and guest talks internationally. In 2023, I joined a team of Convenors for EARLI SIG 24 – Researcher Education and Careers – which has researcher education development at its core. Starting January 2024, I was appointed as Associate Director of Student Engagement and EDI (0.3 FTE) for the Scottish Graduate School of Social Science. This affords me a much larger platform for all the doctoral-related interests central to all of my research and scholarship.
Looking back, it seems that I have come a long way since I searched for the answer to that question – “In which research area do I want to establish myself and be known for?” It acted as a catalyst for what subsequently happened. While everyone’s career pathway is different, I believe it is essential to pursue one’s passion. It fuels our drive to dream, reach milestones and help us arrive at our career destinations.
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