– Being one of the chosen ones admitted to NAFOL was considered prestigious, Karina Rose Mahan says, adding that this might have helped her land a full-time job as an Associate Professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).

Mahan defended her dissertation May 29 2020, and was awarded the title «Associate Professor of Teaching English as a Second Language (TESOL)» a few weeks later. She says that her involvement in NAFOL might have been a contributing factor to get the position at NTNU, both considering that NTNU has a connection to NAFOL as primary host institution and that NAFOL is considered prestigious to attend.

An important social arena

Mahan was hired as a Ph.D. candidate at the University of South-Eastern Norway at the age of 25, making her one of the youngest to be accepted as a doctoral candidate in her program. As many other doctoral candidates within teacher education in Norway, Mahan was one of few people specializing in her research field and she experienced that the group of Ph.D. students on campus to be diverse in age and family situation, making it hard to connect with other students.

- Most of the Ph.D. candidates in education were in their 40s or 50s who had families, and they preferred to have home office, so I basically sat alone everyday for the first year, Mahan says.

NAFOL quickly became a social arena where she could meet Ph.D. candidates at her age and similar life situation.

- NAFOL had a huge social aspect for me, and was a way of meeting other Ph.D. candidates and spend some quality time together, she says.

In the same boat

One of the main reasons why Mahan found it important to be part of NAFOL, was the experience that the Ph.D. students in her cohort was going through the tough process of writing a dissertation and developing research skills together.

- I think Kari Smith (professor, head of NAFOL ed.note) from the onset said that the reason why they chose to group us based on how far we had come along in our thesis versus what field we were in, was because it was this feeling that you were in the same boat.

Mahan experienced that she gained a lot of emotional support through her fellow doctoral students.

- A lot of the thesis work is so disconnected, and there is no guarantee that you feel a part of a community even though you are connected to a research group. But in NAFOL, for instance when we went to Tromsø and had different social activities, I felt that kind of bond that you have with someone when you are doing something outside the office or classroom. These social events are so important for doctoral students, Mahan says.

Network of colleagues

Through NAFOL, Mahan got to know Ph.D. candidates and senior researchers from Norway and abroad across multiple fields within education. She considers the networking as one of the most important aspects of the research school.

- I feel that I have gained a lot of contacts and now know people from many different universities and university colleges across, so when I am in Bergen or Oslo, I know someone I can have coffee with, Mahan says and adds:

– Now that I am in the real world without guidance from my advisor anymore and I am figuring out what kind of researcher I want to be, I do think that it is a big comfort to know that there are other researchers at other universities in teacher education who I can talk to, that I would not have had otherwise.

Bringing the philosophy onwards

Mahan is today co-leader of the research group Multidisciplinary Educational Research at NTNU. She thinks that her contribution to this research group in some ways maintains and continues the philosophy she learnt from participating in NAFOL.

– NAFOL did give me a sense of community and taught me why it is so important to be a part of an environment. I took parts of this philosophy with me into my job, and created a research group for researchers from different disciplinary fields to give each other feedback on texts you know, but also on life, Mahan says and adds that she also created an instagram profile that focus on the holistic process of writing and dealing with challenges that emerge when writing articles.