Doctoral pedagogy in digital third space: An investigation of academic blogging

Academic blogs are international, extramural, outside of institutional structure, obligation, and audit. Their algorithms allow quantitative investigation, but qualitative research on blog practice is rare. This paper offers qualitative insight into academic blog pedagogy using DoctoralWriting as a case study. Here, DoctoralWriting comments-to-posts become data (391 comments giving 129 pages of text), analysed both thematically and using NVivo12 to show the blog's interactive practice. We became interested in how commenters and academic bloggers create a community of practice. The findings led us to add Third Space theory to community of practice. Emerging from the super-complexity of postcolonial theory, Third Space exists outside of, or between, cultures. That means it can detach from biases, hierarchies and role restrictions. We show blogging's potential within doctoral education, demonstrate a novel method for understanding academic blogging, and advance the pedagogical use of Third Space theory.