Graduate Education in U.S. Geography: Students’ Career Aspirations and Faculty Perspectives

Abstract

The career aspirations of U.S. graduate geography students and how these are perceived by faculty and addressed in departmental curricula and programs have important implications for sustaining and enhancing geography's position in higher education in the current period of economic, political, and social change. Recent interdisciplinary research on academic socialization identifies differences in expectations between students and faculty as an important factor affecting departmental climates, completion of graduate degrees, and assessments by graduates of their preparation for the workforce. Based on qualitative analysis of interviews conducted in five doctoral and five master's departments selected to reflect a range of programs across the United States, we found considerable difference between students' aspirations and faculty perceptions. Approximately half the doctoral students interviewed were considering careers in academia, although many were also considering opportunities in other sectors or were uncertain of their future directions. Students in master's departments were predominantly interested in careers outside academia. Doctoral faculty and curricula tended to stress preparation for researchoriented academic careers. Master's faculty generally recognized students' aspirations and adapted curricula to meet them, especially by the provision of internship programs. We take into consideration campus location and the gender, ethnicity, and international origins of students. The results suggest improving graduate programs and advising by aligning them with student career plans and aspirations.

Experiencing Graduate School: A Comparative Analysis of Students in Geography Programs

“…It was undertaken to complement prior work investigating how geography graduate students perceive academic climate, their conceptions of diversity, and their aspirations for entering graduate school (Solem, Cheung, and Schlemper 2008;Solem, Lee, and Schlemper 2009;Schlemper and Monk forthcoming). Whereas this prior research was based on largescale surveys and qualitative case studies of graduate programs, this study relied on structured logging of graduate student experiences over a period of six months to capture the more detailed aspects and nuances of life and work in graduate programs that have an impact on students and their professional development.…”

Professional Development in Teaching and Learning for Early Career Academic Geographers: Contexts, Practices and Tensions

“…they operate as a centralized location providing decentralized services). The extent to which departments forge relationships with such centres is variable (Monk et al, 2001). In Nigeria, generic programmes at the institutional level appear to be the more common approach, though the National Universities Commission ofers online courses on pedagogy.…”

“…Additionally, GFDA-organized workshops have been ofered at regional and national geography conferences of the Association of American Geographers; GFDA fosters a culture of support, highlighting the interconnections between teaching, research and advancing the scholarship of teaching and learning across the discipline (Solem & Foote, 2006;Foote, 2010). Following on from GFDA, the Association of American Geographers received funding from the National Science Foundation for the Enhancing Departments and Graduate Education in Geography (EDGE) project that conducts research Monk et al, 2001), ofers workshops at national and regional conferences and has published two books with related web-based activities; one addresses career development for early career academics and the other focuses on teaching geography at the university level (Solem & Foote, 2009b;. Introducing both generic and discipline-based perspectives, these initiatives aim to foster widespread change, a challenging task in a context of the large, decentralized academic world of the USA.…”

Rethinking the PhD in geography: overview and introduction

“…Whilst some PhD students are furnished with an opportunity to teach (often tied to funding), training and mentoring is not always sufficient and teaching portfolios are not always structured to permit breadth of opportunity or a planned progression in skill acquisition. Moreover given that significantly more PhD awards are made each year than there are faculty hires, many students also graduate without the hope of securing an academic position and yet with little nous of how to plot a career beyond the academy (Å kerlind and McAlpine 2009;Solem et al 2013;Monk et al 2012). Beyond acquiring theoretical literacy, methodological expertise, and empirical knowledge in their chosen field of enquiry, critics variously assert that students who graduate from PhD programs (Nerad 2004;PruittLogan and Gaff 2004;Solem et al 2013):…”