A sense of disillusionment grips many doctoral students as they face financial distress, lack of adequate mentorship, concern about job prospects, and other challenges. The Old Testament book of Malachi is a little-recognized resource for students struggling with feelings of disillusionment. Malachi's audience faced disappointment after joyfully…

Early career researchers' journey (i.e. doctoral researchers and post-PhDs) is increasingly challenging, but little is known about how they live and interpret their significant experiences, that is how they attribute meaning to these experiences and their associated feelings. Moreover, research about how doctoral researchers and post-PhDs deal…

This study focuses on differences in the scholarly search approaches of researchers and students in contemporary information environments by examining use of academic resources and elements in search results (such as title or abstract) to identify scholarly search knowledge and skills. To examine how users select documents for different search…

Seeking to support graduate student writers, writing centers at research universities have developed highly successful dissertation camps over the past 15 years. Previous research from North American dissertation camps has demonstrated significant benefits from these camps, as dissertation writers developed new writing habits and increased their…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine how doctoral students in the biological sciences understand their research skill development and explore potential racial/ethnic and gender inequalities in the scientific learning process. Design/methodology/approach: Based on interviews with 87 doctoral students in the biological sciences, this…

In this article, we deal with our need to "speak truth to power" as we examine the liminal space in which we find ourselves. We look back at a mas' camp pedagogy, that comes out of lessons learned from the work in Trinidad and Tobago's Carnival mas' camps. It is a kind of collaborative learning that values the heritage knowledge and…

Critical thinking in university studies is the cornerstone for the development of research processes at the doctoral level; it becomes the vector of this action, whose processes in the management of learning will require that the competencies understood are developed by teachers and students, for the achievement of the goals proposed by the actors…

Racial or ethnic isolation may negatively impact physics graduate students' academic and professional experience. An interview study with 16 doctoral students who were considered to be particularly at risk of such isolation found that (i) the students interviewed are mostly not the only member of their racial or ethnic group in their programs;…

Comprehensive exams, or "comps," are a staple of doctoral programs as a way for students to express their understanding of material, synthesize their learning, and apply that learning to their fields of study; further, comps are deemed a rite of passage prior to advancing to the dissertation stage of the doctoral degree. Literature…

Background: Graduate education literature tends to focus on faculty careers with little attention to industry careers. However, more than one-third of U.S. engineering doctorates enter industry. Purpose: Our purpose is to understand engineering graduate students' interest in industry, academia, and government careers as it relates to their…

Research indicates academic integration and social integration are predictors of doctoral student persistence at any program stage. However, researchers have not defined, operationalized, and measured academic or social integration consistently. Further, no instruments exist that measure academic and social integration of doctoral students in…

First-year Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) students entering a problem-based learning (PBL) program are faced with a number of pedagogical challenges, including the development of self-directed learning skills, resource unfamiliarity, and group dynamics. These challenges can make learning anatomy in a self-directed manner less efficient.…

In Chapter 1, I investigate whether the presence of peers from the same country of origin affects the success of international doctoral students. I use unique, administrative data on higher education enrollment and leverage variation in peer composition across cohorts within a program. Results indicate that a 10 percentage point increase in the…

Through surveys and interviews of 433 doctoral faculty and students, we explore professional self-care practices and related issues of academic guilt, imposter syndrome, and burnout. We argue that self-care should be included as a professional practice, taught and modeled, to prepare doctoral students for careers as functional and healthy faculty.

There has been a significant change in the cultural zeitgeist as of late. It has been especially noticeable in the academy over the past several years with the discipline of social work being no exception. In this essay, I will situate myself in a vulnerable position and will write about my disillusionment in the discipline I was proud to join a…