Turning Doctoral Students into Faculty in Gerontological Social Work: The AGESWExperience

Abstract

Developing faculty interested in aging may help social work meet the needs of our growing aging population. However, doctoral students need a variety of supports to complete PhDs and become gerontological social work faculty. This study explored one program's role in supporting the development of social work doctoral students to faculty in gerontology. An email invitation was sent to all former participants (2010-2016 cohorts) of the Association for Gerontology Education in Social Work (AGESW) Pre-Dissertation Fellows Program (PDFP). The 38-question online survey consisted of Likert-type scales, multiple answers, and one openended question per section about the program's impacts on their academic career development in teaching, research, mentoring, and support. Forty-five respondents, representing all six cohorts, completed the survey. More than half reported that the PDFP contributed to their ability to publish their research (64.4%, n=29), grow their professional network (86.7%, n=39, and teach (55.5%, n=25). Doctoral programs provided different experiences than the PDFP, including mentoring, methodological training, professional development, networking, and peer support. Results suggest the PDFP provides content recipients value that supplements instruction received in their institutions. The program's ability to connect students to each other and to national leaders enhances their career development and socialization into academic roles.

Using Social Network Analysis to Assess Professional Network Development among AGESWPre-Dissertation Fellowship Program Participants

“…In the PDFP network analysis, we evaluated the types and size of professional networks reported by members of the 2010-2012 PDFP cohorts. This approach held the promise to expand on the findings from our previous study (Kusmaul et al, 2019) to delineate specific types of ties (i.e., relational cognitions associated with the level of comfort within a social tie and relational events such as communication and collaborations). The results of the PDFP social network analysis presented below provide an example of the types of findings an egocentric social network analysis can produce.…”

“…As we and others (Carman & Fredericks, 2018) have experienced, social network analysis is a powerful yet challenging methodology. In related evaluations of the PDFP, alumni reported that the program contributed to the development of their professional networks (Gibson et al, 2019;Kusmaul et al, 2019).…”

“…The invitation to participate in this study was the second in a series of recruitment emails the alumni received regarding studies of the PDFP. The first invitation was for a 38-question online survey examining effects of the PDFP in alumni's career development that was sent to all 2010-2016 cohort alumni (Kusmaul et al, 2019).…”

“…One of the study's research questions addressed the long-term effects of the program on alumni's career development. A key finding was that a large majority of the PDFP alumni agreed that the program had expanded their professional networks and that these networks enhanced their career development (Kusmaul et al, 2019).…”

“…In 2018, research entailing a retrospective survey of PDFP alumni from the 2010 to 2016 cohorts was conducted to evaluate aspects of the PDFP (Kusmaul et al, 2019). One of the study's research questions addressed the long-term effects of the program on alumni's career development.…”