Sanding a slippery genre

Making sense of the kappa in STEM

Abstract

In this roundtable, we will discuss the role of the kappa, the framing text in a compilation thesis, in STEM doctoral education. Based on two runs of the new course Framing your research – thesis frames and knowledge contribution for doctoral students at LTH and a focus group discussion with experienced examination committee members and supervisors, we argue that the kappa is an emergent genre still open for negotiation, but that this often goes unnoticed by doctoral students, supervisors, and examiners alike.

The result, as gleaned from our preliminary observations, can be a missed learning opportunity, where many doctoral students search for a convention that is but a mirage, hindering them in using the kappa to independently contextualize their doctoral project. To address this situation, we call for a reckoning of what the kappa is and what it can be and ask for your assistance in this task.