Paving the Pathway: Exploring Student Perceptions of Professional Development Preparation in Doctoral Education

Understanding PhD Latinx Career Outcomes: A Case Study

“…Throughout the literature, the most prevalent contributor to successful graduate experiences and transition to a career remains the role of mentorship (Choudhary & Jesiek, 2015;Ocasio, 2014;Solem, Kollasch, & Lee, 2013;Stroup & Kuk, 2015). The mentoring relationship is the key for all students; however, for Latinx students, it provides a foundation to support the myriad of obstacles facing students (DiMaria, 2015;Heflinger & Doykos, 2016). The mentor's role is to help students develop their research agenda and enhance their market-readiness.…”

“…Given the changes in the academic job market, to be more competitive and to provide broader inquiry to a particular discipline, more attention is needed in the development of interdisciplinary skill sets by seeking cross-disciplinary collaborations and more formally documenting these specializations through graduate certificates (Heflinger & Doykos, 2016; Smith, 2015; Solem et al, 2013). More recently, Cassuto (2015), Smith (2015), and Patel (2017) have described the emergence of curricular changes that support the development of professional identities, integrating professionalism (e.g., of the discipline, of graduate education), pedagogical training, coursework, and re-thinking what is needed for successfully meeting the expectations of the job market upon completion of the PhD regardless of career goal.…”

“…More recently, Cassuto (2015), Smith (2015), and Patel (2017) have described the emergence of curricular changes that support the development of professional identities, integrating professionalism (e.g., of the discipline, of graduate education), pedagogical training, coursework, and re-thinking what is needed for successfully meeting the expectations of the job market upon completion of the PhD regardless of career goal. As these curricular discussions have shifted activities at the department level, graduate schools and universities as a whole are focusing on professional development, which include areas teaching, grant writing, publishing, career planning, management, communications, internships, and public speaking (Denecke et al, 2017; Heflinger & Doykos, 2016). Accessibility and availability of these institutional resources have a measurable impact on student preparedness for the academic and nonacademic job market (Heflinger & Doykos, 2016; Tran et al, 2016).…”

Quantitative Preparation in Doctoral Education Programs: A Mixed-Methods Study of Doctoral Student Perspectives on their Quantitative Training

“…However, this expedited exposure to educational research can create anxiety for many doctoral students and is a challenging endeavor for university faculty and administrators (Eisenhart & DeHaan, 2005;Henson et al, 2010). Students who do report positive outcomes from their doctoral research training specifically identify research opportunities, internships, and publications as contributing to their perceived success as a graduate student (Heflinger & Doykos, 2016;Shih et al, 2016).…”

“…However, less focus in this area has been given to the perspectives of the students' themselves and their thoughts regarding their doctoral training. Previous studies have been conducted on EdD students and their interests in conducting research (see Kerrigan & Hayes, 2016), professional development for doctoral students at a research university (Heflinger & Doykos, 2016), and the perspectives of doctoral students in Mathematics Education on their quantitative training (Shih, Reys, & Engledowl, 2016). The current study continues this line of work by focusing on education doctoral students' perspectives of their doctoral training specifically in the area of quantitative methods, a topic that may arguably be the most unfamiliar to doctoral students with experience in the field of education (Eisenhart & DeHaan, 2005;Henson et al, 2010).…”