Abstract:

This paper examines how candidates undertaking professional doctorates navigate the tensions between distinct knowledge terrains: the explicit, communal, and textually mediated knowledge of academia and the often tacit, embodied, and action-oriented knowledge of professional practice. Positioned uniquely within the postgraduate research landscape, professional doctorates are typically pursued part-time by mid- to late-career professionals seeking to produce work that contributes to both theory and practice. While this dual contribution appears straightforward, the reality is more complex. Academic knowledge is codified and disciplinary, whereas professional knowledge is frequently experiential and situated, creating an uneasy epistemic space for candidates who must achieve credibility across both domains.

Drawing on a narrative review of literature since the inception of professional doctorates in the UK in the late 1990s and interviews with candidates at a UK digital university, the paper explores how research and practice intersect—sometimes enhancing, contradicting, or running parallel to one another. We found evidence that candidates often experience moments of coherence alongside episodes of contention, requiring engagement with philosophical inquiry to resolve practical dilemmas. Rather than following a linear pathway, candidates inhabit a liminal space which we characterized by “diffractive abeyance”—a condition of difference and entanglement where identity becomes the central thread. Ultimately, this paper argues that the capacity to remain within the discomfort of contradictory truths and to sustain dialogue across boundaries is a defining feature of the professional doctorate experience.

Keywords:

PostGraduate Research, Professional Doctorate, Workplace Learning, Workplace Impact, Academic knowledge, Professional knowledge.