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The PhD programme Diaconia, Values, and Professional Practice is dedicated to studies of professional practice in health care, social welfare services, and churches, as provided by public sector, civil society and other human service organizations. The programme has an interdisciplinary profile with a particular focus on encounters with and navigation of complex knowledge and value landscapes from individual, collective, and societal perspectives. The programme is especially concerned with the ethical sources of and challenges in professional practice and draws on diaconal and other value traditions in order to delineate this field.
The programme’s three major denominators can be understood as follows:
Diaconia. Diaconia is understood, firstly, as designating diaconal organizations and churches and their role within and alongside other actors in the welfare state. And secondly, as a Christian tradition which, along with other traditions, has contributed and continues to contribute to the foundational values, impulses, and intuitions of the welfare state and welfare practices globally.
Values. In continuation of the second of these senses, the programme is especially concerned with the norms and ideals that guide and/or influence health and welfare services as well as attitudes, preconceptions and implicit notions that can be studied in practice.
Professional practice. Professional practice designates the empirical field of studies of the programme and concerns the performance of professional work in complex landscapes and at individual, collective, and organizational levels.
The programme has its starting point in the various challenges encountered in practices in public sector and civil society. Practitioners within contemporary welfare and voluntary sectors operate within frameworks that are often constrained in economical, technological, organizational, scientific, or ethical terms, which call for high levels of competence and reflection as well as the ability to prioritize and take responsibility for one’s choices. At the same time, professional practice is essentially collaborative and relational and so the PhD programme aims at fostering research in close cooperation with professionals and people who receive public and voluntary services, and in other human service organizations. PhD projects can focus on various aspects and levels of professional practice including the exercise and development of professional knowledge, learning in practice, realizing values in complex and challenging contexts, navigating complex existential challenges, professional autonomy and responsibility etc. In order to study the complex contexts in which professional and voluntary sector practice takes place, the programme draws on competence form several academic disciplines including Philosophy, Sociology, Literary Studies, Anthropology, History, Healthcare, Social Work, Pedagogy, Psychology, Leadership Studies, Diaconal Studies and Theology.
The programme is especially concerned with studying health- and welfare services as value-based and ethically challenging practices. This will be carried out in the context of increasing diversity of values and beliefs, in which social- and caring practices can be interpreted and motivated. In this context, the programme aims at knowledge about how diaconal and other civil society organizations and health and welfare services transform, express and apply their identity, originality, assets and roots, as a set of values and a view of the human person.
Completing the study programme will give the candidates the following learning outcome, sectioned into knowledge, skills and general competence:
Knowledge:
The Candidate
Skills:
The Candidate
General competence:
The Candidate
The PhD education normally consists of three years full-time study. It includes:
The PhD-courses consist of lectures, group-work and discussion, a variety of pre-course and post-course assignments, and individual reading. For more details, see pt. 7 and the course description for each individual course.
Candidates will attain knowledge, skills, and a general overview over the field of study by completing the mandatory course DVP-901 Diaconia, Values, and Professional Practice. In addition, the research project will make use of complex and relevant methodological and methodical approaches.
Supervision: Each student is assigned two supervisors as a general rule, while the project is allocated 210 hours formal supervision. For more, see §7 in Regulations for the PhD Degree at VID Specialized University.
Paper presentation seminars and research groups: The students are required to present and respond to at least one paper per year, either in the programme’s regular paper presentation seminars, or in a research group. The students are expected to be active participants in their respective research groups and are required to participate in at least one paper presentation seminar in the PhD programme each semester. They are also required to present in at least one international research conference.
The courses, seminars and other programme activities will provide candidates with tools to critically analyse, synthesise, systematise and plan research, as well as anchoring their own scientific contributions in a national and international context.
Supervision: Each student is assigned two supervisors as a general rule, the project is allocated 210 hours formal supervision. For more, see §7 in Regulations for the PhD Degree at VID Specialized University.
Paper presentation seminars and research groups: The students are required to present and respond to at least one paper per year, either in the programme’s regular paper presentation seminars, or in a research group. The students are expected to be active participants in their respective research groups and are required to participate in at least one paper presentation seminar in the PhD programme each semester. They are also required to present in at least one international research conference.
The degree of PhD is assessed on the basis of:
The method of evaluation for the courses in the training component is outlined in the course plan for individual courses.
Evaluation procedures are stipulated by the Regulations for the Degree of Philosophiae
Doctor (PhD) at VID Specialized University, as well as the Supplementary Guidelines for the PhD in Diaconia, Values, and Professional Practice. Exam guidelines and regulations are found in the Regulations relatingto Studies and Examinations at VID Specialized University, (The regulations and accompanying guidelines are valid to the extent that they are suitable for exams in the training component of doctoral programmes.)
The research component consists of an academic dissertation. The dissertation is an independent piece of research which complies with international standards regarding academic quality, methodology, and code of ethics. Technology and innovative approaches may be drawn upon where relevant. The dissertation will contribute new scientific knowledge of a level where it can be published as part of the literature of the field, cf. the Regulations for the Degree of Philosophiae Doctor (PhD) at VID Specialized University.
The dissertation may take the form either of an article-based work with an introduction, or a monograph. The thesis must be written in English or a Scandinavian language. Supplementary Guidelines for the PhD in Diaconia, Values, and Professional Practice are available.
The Centre for Diaconia and Professional Practice offers PhD fellows administrative support and the possibility to apply for economic funding for a period of study abroad. This period is to be spent at a recognised educational or research institution, alternatively in another, relevant academic environment where it is possible to work on problems and questions related to candidates’ research and/or dissertation. In addition to the possibility of studying elsewhere, the faculty also invite guest lecturers to speak, and provide opportunities for candidates to be included in international academic networks.
In addition, PhD candidates are expected to participate in international research conferences, and encouraged to be involved in international research cooperation and networks.
The target demographic for this PhD programme is national and international candidates who wish to carry out research in the field of diaconia, values, and professional practice and learn scientific craft as the basis for a further career.
The programme will qualify for research, teaching, development work and other work related to this professional and academic research field, with high requirements regarding academic insights and research competence- and skills.
Admission to the PhD programme normally requires a Master's Degree (120 ECTS) or equivalent in health- or social sciences, diaconia, or other relevant discipline. Applicants should normally have a weighted average of grade B or better.
Applicants without a weighted average of grade B or better in their master’s degree may qualify for admission through, for example, having contributed to a scientific peer-reviewed article as a lead author. Applicants must show basic scientific understanding and insight, independence and analytical thinking throughout their application.
The application should include a completed application form (see https://www.vid.no/filer/vids-template-for-project-descriptions/) relevant documentation of education and research experience, and a project description (max. 10 pages), containing the following: