Literature phd - what does the day to day involve?

[AuroraFloyd]

I'm an English teacher with a masters in literature and I've always wanted to do a phd. I have some ideas but I'm not sure how to organise them into a proposal - still figuring that out.

What I want to know though, is what do you do each day? How much of your time is research and how much is other things? Do you have to teach? (I'd love to teach at university level blush)

If I go for it I would not be able to continue teaching full time (I have my own children too to think about), but would supply work be doable around the work involved in a phd?

For part time you would genuinely need to devote about 25 hours a week imo. Maybe 20. Less than that and it's hard to maintain momentum.

Teaching unlikely to happen until equivalent of second or (more likely) third part time year. Much more likely to be career building opportunity rather than genuine income stream (one of the unintended consequences of the NSS is that many institutions are wary of giving much teaching responsibility to PhD students because the undergraduates feel they are getting a second class experience. They don't want to be the guinea pigs on whom someone learns the trade.

It's almost all research, plus research seminars and, as you progress, a couple of conferences a year.

I'm not in English literature, but I'd guess it's mostly reading secondary literature, immersing yourself in particular approaches, and then working out your own illuminating approach to your primary material. (I'm in a related field)

Sorry, I mean teaching in equivalent of third FULL Time year - when you're well established

I posted on your thread in HE, but just saw this and reading om's reply pointing out you'd not be likely to teach your subject until year 2 or 3 reminded me - I do know someone who got a teaching fellowship during her PhD, because she was already a trained school teacher. I never knew the details, but she was paid to do a certain number of hours and most of it was essay skills type stuff, and she did that from year 1. It might be worth seeing if that's an option?

Do you want to do a full time or part time PhD? If part time, and you want to continue teaching at least part time, you could consider doing one via the OU. I know a couple of people who did a part time PhD that way while also teaching a nearly full-time curriculum (though they didn't have young families) - you could certainly combine that with teaching, because the PhD work is mostly done around when it suits you, and it's all set up for distance learning.

Separately, I'd have thought that any part-time PhD would be combinable with supply teaching, because you'd be expecting to do something else with the time you're not putting into the PhD, and presumably there's some flexibility with supply teaching so you could take on less going into periods you know are likely to be more intense in your studies. Realistically most PhD students need some way of earning money, whether it's from university teaching, private tutoring, or some other job, and so even a lot of full time PhD students end up taking on other work if they are self-funded (which a lot of Humanities PhDs are).

I'm in literature (not English, but the working pattern is close enough), and most of your time is spent reading (primary sources and secondary scholarship) and thinking, which can be done pretty flexibly. That is a big advantage in terms of time management, but can also make it quite isolated compared to types of PhDs where you are working in a team or on a shared project. Teaching is not compulsory but many students take it on from year 2 of the PhD or so (different institutions have different rules about what PhD students will do and at what stage). Other than that, there might be a compulsory or semi-compulsory seminar at your institution that PhD students in that area are advised to go do, but this would only be once a week. Attendance at other conferences can be helpful, but is up to you.