Doctoral Student Learning and Development: A Shared Responsibility

Abstract

Historically, student affairs professionals focused their work almost exclusively on undergraduate students. Doctoral faculty remained focused on the comprehensive needs of doctoral students. However, this situation is changing. Due largely to growth in numbers and diversity of graduate students, student affairs professionals at colleges and universities across the country are increasingly redefining their visions and their roles to include graduate students, including doctoral students. This research study focuses on the roles currently held by faculty in four fields of doctoral study (clinical psychology, nursing, educational administration, and electrical and computer engineering) at 12 universities in order to illuminate the comprehensive nature of the work currently being done by doctoral faculty. Interviews were conducted with 128 doctoral faculty, students, administrators, alumni, and employers. Findings detail the roles and responsibilities of faculty in four thematic areas: (1) scholarly activity and research productivity, (2) advising and mentoring, (3) selection and retention of students, and (4)defining and shaping of program culture. The findings from this study provide information that may be useful to student affairs professionals who plan to include doctoral students in their purview and who seek to better understand the work of doctoral faculty as they move in that direction.

The Role of Emotional Competencies in Faculty-Doctoral Student Relationships

“…The intention was not to present generalizable results but to provide a rich description of how we might understand what faculty and students do in their relationships from the perspective of emotional competencies. On the one hand, our findings mirrored other doctoral studies on the critical role faculty mentors play in the lives of doctoral students from both the student and faculty perspectives (Bair, Haworth, & Sandfort, 2004;Barnes & Austin, 2009;Eby & McManus, 2004;Gardner, 2009;Stallone, 2004). That is, our findings revealed faculty playing typical mentoring roles of showing concern, sharing information, and looking out for the best long-term interests of students.…”

“…There are major differences in advising and mentoring by discipline (Austin, 2002;Bair, Haworth, & Sandfort, 2004;Council of Graduate Schools, 2009;Golde, 2005;Jacks, Chubin, Porter, & Connolly 1983;Zhao, Golde, & McCormick, 2005) and by the institutional type and prestige of the program (Gardner, 2009;Sweitzer & Volkwein, 2009). The differences in the ways advisors and students interact may lead to differing cultural or behavioral norms that can affect student experiences (Zhao, Golde, & McCormick, 2005).…”

Modeling American Graduate Students’ Perceptions Predicting Dropout Intentions

“…While it is less technically profound than other psychological constructs, a factor that carries tremendous weight and credibility with students is their personal satisfaction with their educational experiences (Hardré & Hackett, 2015c). Previous research has linked satisfaction with the academic program to other variables, such as teaching and learning strategies used by faculty (e.g., Choi, 2016;Svinicki, 2004); mentoring style and communication (e.g., Orellan, Darden, Perez, & Salinas, 2016;Yang, Dunleavy, & Phillips, 2016); and disciplinary culture (e.g., Bair, Haworth, & Sandforth, 2004;Lovitts, 2001). Graduate students' perceptions of the quality of their academic programs influence their integration into their academic programs and relationships with faculty (Solem, Hopwood, & Schlemper, 2011), which can, in turn, influence their academic effort and attitudes (Sun & Richardson, 2012).…”

“…Across independent qualitative studies, graduate students indicate that faculty characteristics such as credibility and trustworthiness (individually and collectively), accessibility and caring, helpfulness, and interest in students' individual and collective success are positive and important attributes that also support student development and satisfaction (e.g., Barnes et al, 2010;Hardré & Pan, 2017;Rizzolo et al, 2016). In addition, departmental and disciplinary cultures critically influence students' satisfaction and success (Bair et al, 2004;Lovitts, 2001).…”

Peer Mentoring: Impact On Mentees And Comparison With Non Participants

“…Mentoring programs are based on theory that proposes the benefits of reducing feelings of isolation and developing a strong sense of self via support and positive role models 2 . Mentoring has been shown to benefit the protégé's sense of confidence, self-esteem and in educational settings, improve retention 3,4 .…”