PhD Spotlight w/ Tania Jones

Wellington School of Business and Government

Tania Jones, MinstD

1) What is your research and how did you arrive at the topic?

?My research is looking at the involvement of volunteers in an organisation and the possible pathways and barriers for that to occur. I was embedded in a single site of a secondary school for an academic year in 2023 for ethnographic data collection. I’m investigating the involvement of parents as volunteers within and with the school as a context for looking at the very aptly named concepts of Volunteerability and Recruitability and the organisational affordances that are present and how the concepts interact for volunteer involvement.

For me it’s really interesting to be researching something I am involved in and passionate about, and that’s how I came to my topic. I noticed a change in the ways parents could be involved in the schools my children were attending. I’m a committed volunteer in a number of ways, but education is a special interest area for me. I helped out at kindergarten and primary school as many NZ parent do, but when my children started high school there were less opportunities to be involved, and less parents who were involved. The simplified version is that I wanted to know what was going on and why.

2) What has the process been like, how far through it are you, what’s next?

?It has certainly been a journey! My entry to the PHD programme was through the Postgrad Cert Research pathway since my M.Ed had been completed many years before. It was daunting coming to face-to-face lectures as a student again for that, but it was very helpful an enabled me to make the shift from the type of thinking and writing I had been doing in my business, into the academic frame and level of critical inquiry that I would need in the PhD programme.

Choosing the topic for my PhD research was equally daunting, with the complex areas of both education and volunteering being combined through a Management lens. My Supervision team (Karen Smith and Jane Bryson) have been amazingly patient and supportive during the entire process, including the application to the programme to begin with. Having them as my coaches and cheerleaders has been wonderful and I can’t thank them enough for all the support and guidance they have given me so far, during what has been challenging times for them and the University too.

I have loved diving into the literature and exploring ideas and the way other scholars have applied their understandings. It has been tricky coming to Management without going through a BCom or similar process but all the academics in WSBG I’ve connected with have been very willing to offer advice, direction and ideas. An important part of the process is connecting into the ‘community of scholars’, so other PhD students, academics here at VUW, academics in your field from other university’s in NZ and overseas, as well School professional staff as well. (Offering up home baking in appreciation of their support helps cement connections too) Attending workshops and conferences has helped with figuring out where my research sits too.

I am in my third year of my PhD, so in the midst of writing the thesis document, spinning out my findings and firming up my ideas. This part doesn’t come as naturally as the data collection phase where I was talking to and hanging out with people. It’s a new way of working that I’m still getting used to, but the word count is slowly growing, and progress is being made. 2024 is mostly writing and editing focused. Next for me is a conference presentation in July which is very exciting, and some other opportunities later in the year for sharing my research in other sectors. After submission in 2025 what’s next is a bit of a mystery and will depend on what the employment market looks like then, but any role will definitely be volunteering and impact focused.

?3) What’s your favourite thing about Wellington?

Wellington has a wonderfully walkable centre city and all the perks that go with being a capital city, but I think the hidden gem is Upper Hutt city. We’ve lived there for nearly ten years, and it has been the fabulous location that has drawn in some very cool developments like NZCIS and Lane Park Studios and of course Brewtown. So, it’s very easy to run into famous sporting or film personalities around Upper Hutt now. Surrounded by bush clad hills and easy access to the river, a relaxed and gorgeous place to be. Plus, it's mostly flat and has better weather than Wellington!