“I realised that, if I am dead, I cannot finish my PhD!”: a narrative ethnography of psychological capital in academia

Despite increasing quantitative evidence that there is a mental health crisis in doctoral education, there is a lack of qualitative research highlighting the voices of individuals experiencing mental illness. This study highlights the experiences of a second-year PhD student as she discovers that she is mentally unwell. The participant’s experiences are interwoven with the reflections and experiences of the researcher, a doctoral educator. Through narrative ethnography, this study highlights the need for doctoral educators to build an environment that fosters students’ psychological capital by helping them develop hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism. In this way, doctoral education environments can become more welcoming, compassionate, inclusive, and growth-focused. This study also demonstrates the benefits of employing narrative ethnography to improve educators’ pedagogical practices by helping them better understand their own lived experiences and those of their students.