Elvira Kalenjuk

The mental health crisis among doctoral students is of pressing concern, with high rates of anxiety, depression, and burnout that severely impact candidates’ academic performance and overall wellbeing. This conceptual narrative reflection on the field offers a novel contribution by reframing doctoral wellbeing as fundamentally relational and translating that lens into actionable recommendations at systemic, community, and individual levels. We synthesize evidence of the multifaceted and interdependent pressures experienced by doctoral students, including academic demands, student-supervisor relationships, financial insecurity, and cultural transitions. We also identify significant barriers to seeking help, the role of stigma, and systemic challenges within academic institutions that exacerbate mental health challenges for marginalized groups. Importantly, we demonstrate how these dynamics operate within institutional and policy environments that are characterized by complex funding models, inequity in access to campus counselling and healthcare, and the variable experiences of marginalized students. We emphasize the importance of supportive networks, intersectional identity considerations, and institutional structures in the experiences of doctoral students, illustrating how our own collaborative writing process enacted the very relational practices for which we advocate. Building on this relational understanding, we provide actionable recommendations to foster a more inclusive, supportive, and mentally healthy academic environment.

This qualitative study focused on educators’ perspectives of teaching students with dysgraphia. Dysgraphia can be referred to as a specific learning disorder (SLD) in writing and includes difficulties with handwriting, spelling, and/or composition skills. To explore the educators’ experiences, an interpretative phenomenological analysis method was implemented. This involved generating semistructured interviews and locating key concepts from these interviews, in tandem with researcher reflections. The results indicated that educators developed their self-efficacy in supporting students with dysgraphia on the job, augmented by self-guided and external searches for information about dysgraphia. The participants described their colleagues as generally unable to provide them with dysgraphia-specific knowledge due to a lack of awareness of dysgraphia within schools. Two of the three educators pursued Multisensory Structured Language training, departing the classroom to work in private tuition. Three teachers offered strategies for supporting students with dysgraphia, such as explicit, systematic, scaffolded, and repetitive instruction coupled with assistive technologies or lined paper and slant boards. The study concluded that dysgraphia-specific professional learning, coupled with collective efficacy, could proactively build teachers’ capacity and self-efficacy in supporting dysgraphia within an inclusive education context. These measures would more aptly support students with dysgraphia to reach their potential.

Children have the right to voice views on matters that impact their lives, including writing disability. In this study, five children diagnosed with dysgraphia used art‐based research to depict their experiences of dysgraphia. The children described the impossibility of transferring ideas from head to paper and the difficult emotions associated with writing. The results highlighted a symbiosis between writing and identity, with dysgraphia adversely impacting the children's identity development. The study highlights the value of using art to communicate children's perceptions, aligned with inclusive practices. The insights shared offers caregivers, educators, and others scope to develop affirmative writing practices.

The aim of this scoping review was to systematically map and summarise recent peer-reviewed research on children with dysgraphia between 2015 and May 2021. The research included the perspectives of children, carers, and educators. Dysgraphia is a largely unrecognised specific learning disorder (SLD) in writing that manifests as a disability in handwriting, spelling, and/or composition skills during child development. Data from 77 studies from across five databases were charted to address four key questions and to direct future research. The findings included: (1) limited representations of participants using mostly quantitative methods; (2) children aged 9–14 as suitable for research recruitment; (3) thematic prevalence such as handwriting, spelling, and technology; and (4) low rates of international research output. Thus, future research may focus on compositional difficulties or research participants (children with dysgraphia, carers, and educators) sharing their lived experiences of dysgraphia. This may lead to improved awareness, professional development, and enhanced teacher resources.