In the Visibility Project, professional organizations have worked to gain recognition for the disciplinarity of writing and rhetoric studies through representation of the field in the information codes and databases of higher education. We report success in two important cases: recognition as an "emerging field" in the National Research Council's…

In this overview, I comment on the strong theme of the need to define and improve the quality of doctoral education in marriage and family therapy that pervades the three essays. Deficits in research training are the central concern, although the essayists take different perspectives on the nature of the research training needed. The different…

Postmodern institutional interactions in Australian universities, among students and staff, entail negotiation of identity, legitimacy, and "social capital". For many international students, this happens in an additional language and culture, in English. The case study presented here profiles four international non-English speaking…

This article describes successes and challenges of the first implementation of an online Ed.D. program that impacted students' professional growth and practice. Based on an analysis of student survey comments, student interviews, and faculty interviews at the end of the first year, program improvements were made for future cohorts. Lessons learned…

The first article in this special issue is about the doctoral programs, the suppliers of new doctoral graduates in special education. It focuses on one component of a larger effort, the Special Education Faculty Needs Assessment (SEFNA) project, which investigated many aspects of the supply of new doctoral graduates as well as the demand for new…

Environmental problems are generally complex and blind to disciplinary boundaries. Efforts to devise long-term solutions require collaborative research that integrates knowledge across historically disparate fields, yet the traditional model for training new scientists emphasizes personal independence and disciplinary focus. Growing awareness of…

The mentorship experiences of recent clinical psychology doctorates reporting a primary mentor in graduate school were assessed by means of a survey. Among 518 responding psychologists, male graduates were significantly more likely to have a same-gender mentor, and female graduates were more likely to report receiving support from mentors of both…

School psychologists increasingly are called on to assess academic, behavioral, and social functioning of students with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), as well as advocate for and assist in the development, implementation, and evaluation of evidence-based instructional strategies across a wide variety of education contexts. In this study, we…

Interventions such as the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program (McNair Scholars Program) are among the national strategies for promoting doctoral degree attainment amongst first-generation college students from low socioeconomic backgrounds or groups underrepresented in graduate education. This study aimed to understand how…

Interdisciplinarity has become a growing emphasis in the U.S. higher education and the prevalence of interdisciplinary doctoral programs is one indicator of such growth. Despite this growth, the experiences of individuals within interdisciplinary doctoral programs have been largely unexamined in the literature. This paper examines a self-designed…

Prominent challenges facing contemporary community colleges are enhancing leadership capacity and serving their diverse student populations. While doctoral education constitutes a mainstay strategy for developing community college leaders, community college professionals face constraints accessing doctoral programs. The innovation of an…

This document highlights the major findings of a four-year study about the supply and demand of special education college and university faculty. The Special Education Faculty Needs Assessment (SEFNA) project concluded its data collection efforts in July of 2011. This national study continued the work of previous efforts that found the shortage of…

Writing occupies a key role in doctoral research, because it is the principal channel students use to communicate their ideas, and the basis on which their degree is awarded. Doctoral writing can, therefore, be a source of considerable anxiety. Most doctoral candidates require support and encouragement if they are to develop confidence as writers.…

Concerns have been raised in the Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) doctoral education literature regarding: (a) the narrowness of research preparation, (b) the emphasis on disciplinary silos, (c) the lack of competitiveness and innovation within and beyond academia, and (d) the role of graduate assistants. These concerns mirror those in…

Maori (indigenous) doctoral students in Aotearoa New Zealand face challenges not usually experienced by other doctoral candidates. We draw on data from in-depth interviews with 38 Maori doctoral candidates and argue that because of the tensions between academic disciplinary knowledge frameworks and knowledge drawn from te ao Maori (the Maori…