Dr Lynette Pretorius – Educator and researcher

Lynette Pretorius
21 May, 2026
Autoethnography, Doctoral Education, Student Wellbeing, The Scholar’s Way Blog

What does success really look like for an international PhD student?

Authors: Maxi (Huy-Hoang) Huynh and Lynette Pretorius. Note: We also acknowledge the other co-authors of our paper, as it was a truly collaborative project: Sandeep Khattri, Zhiheng Zhou, Redi Pudyanti, Abdul Qawi Noori, and Huizhen Nan. Doing a PhD is often seen as a journey of growth and achievement, but have you ever stopped to ask what

Lynette Pretorius
8 April, 202621 May, 2026
Academic Identity, Doctoral Education, Student Wellbeing, The Scholar’s Way Blog

Learning how academia really works: what doctoral students discover beyond the PhD handbook

Authors: Sandeep Khattri and Lynette Pretorius. Most doctoral students begin their PhD expecting to learn how to conduct research. They read the literature, design a study, collect and analyse data, and aim to contribute new knowledge to their field. On paper, the path to becoming a scholar appears relatively clear: map the literature, master the

Lynette Pretorius
27 February, 202621 May, 2026
Academic Identity, Doctoral Education, The Scholar’s Way Blog

Becoming a scholar together: why doctoral writing groups matter

Authors: Abdul Qawi Noori, Michael J. Henderson, and Lynette Pretorius. We often imagine doctoral writing as a solitary endeavour. The image of a PhD candidate working alone, a lone ‘genius’ wrestling with literature, writing drafts, chasing deadlines, and decoding reviewer comments, still dominates academic and public culture. When writing stalls or publications don’t succeed, we

Lynette Pretorius
20 January, 202630 April, 2026
Academic Identity, AI Literacy, Autoethnography, Doctoral Education, Research Skills and Methods, Student Wellbeing, The Scholar’s Way Blog

The questions that keep me up at night and what I plan to do about them in 2026

Author: Lynette Pretorius. Hi everyone, and welcome to The Scholar’s Way for 2026! As I start the year back at work, I thought it would be a good time to reflect on what I do. A nice introduction to my new subscribers and a reminder of why you are here if you’ve subscribed for a

Lynette Pretorius
10 November, 202524 April, 2026
Research Skills and Methods, The Scholar’s Way Blog
2 comments

Deadline extended – you can still submit your abstract! 🎉

Author: Lynette Pretorius. Hi everyone! A quick note to let you know the deadline has been extended to submit an abstract for our upcoming research paradigms book. Final abstracts are due 28 November 2025 at 12PM AEST (Melbourne time; UTC+11). So you still have time! 🎉 We are looking for stories from all different paradigms

Lynette Pretorius
25 September, 202524 April, 2026
Research Skills and Methods, The Scholar’s Way Blog
1 comment

Call for abstracts for our research paradigms handbook!

Authors: Lynette Pretorius and Basil Cahusac de Caux. We are seeking chapter contributions for a forthcoming edited book titled The Researcher’s Compass: Choosing Your Paradigm, Finding Your Voice. This book aims to demystify research paradigms by offering accessible, reflective, and grounded accounts of how paradigms shape research design, practice, and identity. The book will be

Lynette Pretorius
27 August, 202521 May, 2026
Academic Identity, AI Literacy, Autoethnography, Research Skills and Methods, The Scholar’s Way Blog

Seeing myself in pixels: What happens when GenAI becomes a co-researcher?

Author: Lynette Pretorius. I didn’t set out to write an essay about academic identity, generative AI, and publishing politics. But, as with so many qualitative journeys, the story found me first. What started as a playful experiment with image generation soon became a critical turning point in how I understand knowledge, creativity, and resistance within

When AI meets Ubuntu: rethinking power in academic writing

Author: Lynette Pretorius. Hi everyone! I’m excited to share a new podcast episode that I think you’ll enjoy. Last week, I had the privilege of presenting my latest research on generative AI to the Australian Association for Research in Education. We explored some of the big questions shaping higher education right now, particularly how we

Lynette Pretorius
25 June, 202521 May, 2026
Academic Identity, AI Literacy, Autoethnography, Doctoral Education, The Scholar’s Way Blog
2 comments

Reclaiming our words: how generative AI helps multilingual scholars find their voice

Authors: Lynette Pretorius and Redi Pudyanti. Acknowledgement: This blog post extends our presentation at the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia (HERDSA) Conference 2025. We acknowledge the other co-authors of our paper, as it was a truly collaborative project: Huy-Hoang Huynh, Ziqi Li, Abdul Qawi Noori, and Zhiheng Zhou. As the South African

Lynette Pretorius
10 June, 202524 April, 2026
Academic Identity, Research Skills and Methods, The Scholar’s Way Blog

Call for abstracts for our book on positionality and reflexivity in research!

Author: Lynette Pretorius. We are seeking expressions of interest for our new book provisionally titled Positionality & Reflexivity in Research (Editors: Sun Yee Yip and Lynette Pretorius from Monash University). Whose research is it? Who owns it? Whose interests does it serve? Who benefits from it? Who has designed its questions and framed its scope?