By Rachel Whitton, Curriculum Manager: Professional Studies & Education at Warrington & Vale Royal College and Research Further Scholar
Becoming a Research Further Scholar has been just an amazing experience from the start. From the moment I attended the first webinar, back in September 2021, I knew I wanted to be part of an emerging group of FE practitioners, being supported to explore and share their research within the FE sector and fellow scholars. What an absolute honour to be chosen alongside like-minded professionals bringing educational theories to life within their college working lives! But alongside the excitement came that overwhelming feeling of imposter syndrome. Will I be good enough to do this alongside my peers?
Imposter syndrome is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary (2023) as the “persistent inability to believe that one's success is deserved or has been legitimately achieved as a result of one's own efforts or skills”. However, while there is no standard definition of the phrase, “imposter phenomenon” (Craddock et al., 2011) the term was first coined by Clance and Imes (1978) whose research focused on successful women who were respected professionals within their own fields. On reading this article, I instantly identified with their observations, as personal experience of inadequacy and feeling unworthy resonated. They discovered that most imposters fell into two categories: the first one is being part of a family where the imposter has been led to believe that a sibling is more intelligent than them, so they set about proving them wrong through academic endeavours and seeking validation.
However, with the family still unimpressed, the imposter self-doubts and imposter syndrome creeps in. The second is where the imposter has been brought up to believe that she is superior and can achieve anything she wants. When the imposter realises that actually, they cannot consistently achieve these high standards, whilst obligated to fulfil family expectations, self-doubt slips in, and they jump to the conclusion that they are not bright, and therefore an intellectual imposter. Falling into the first category, my own academic journey began several years ago with the desire to prove to myself and others that I was not an imposter and was worthy of a seat at the table. I look back and question who I was trying to impress. Family, friends, colleagues, the FE organisation I worked for or just simply myself?
