From a tiny seed to a sturdy sprout: a collaborative autoethnography of teachers’ lived experiences towards PhDs

There is an increasing volume of research on PhDs’ lived experiences or educational motivations. However, the transformation process of teachers into doctoral students is underexplored. Moreover, their prior lived experience should also be examined. To address these, this research aims to transcend the snapshotting of the lived experience of PhD students. By providing a panoramic view, ranging from their early childhood to the beginning of their PhD research, the paper explores the authors’ agency and their interaction with their surrounding environment. Through a collaborative autoethnography, the authors employed the concept of agency and a cultural-historical lens to examine their aspirations in China and Iran, two distinct contexts. The authors have metaphorically likened their journey of life and personal growth towards the start of a PhD to that of a seed transforming into a sturdy sprout. This metaphor progresses through four stages: from cultivating the land, planting the seed, and germinating to sprouting. The authors highlight that they are in a dialectical relationship with the surrounding environment and demonstrate agency in their life quests and pursuits.