The purpose of this report on Arkansas STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) program activity is to inform education and policy makers about the need to prepare and graduate more students with degrees in STEM related fields as defined by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Arkansas is witnessing a significant…

This dissertation analyzes the nearly 100,000 foreign students who attained science and engineering (S&E) doctorates in the five fields of physical sciences, life sciences, engineering, mathematics and computer sciences, and social and behavioral sciences at American universities from 1994 to 2005. Two models are presented. In the first model…

Heidi Safia Mirza, Penny Jane Burke, Jennifer Lavia, Gloria Gordon, Helen Gunter and Barbara Ann Cole each tells her story of completing doctoral studies at a particular personal and professional stage in her life. Their narratives reveal their experience of the resultant life changes and will speak to people who are at different stages in their…

The problem was that a private college of education had been experiencing a trend of lower registrations from its current roster of students. The purpose of this study was to identify factors that contributed to students' nonpersistence and develop a retention plan. The 7 research questions attempted to determine what demographic, preentry…

This article, drawing on ethnographic study in a chemical physics research facility, explores how notebooks are used and produced in the conduct of laboratory science. Data include written field notes of laboratory activity; visual documentation of "in situ" writing processes; analysis of inscriptions, texts, and material artifacts produced in the…

The purpose of this discussion is to explore a graduate intervention that was aimed at promoting the understanding, empowerment, and skills building of doctoral students in education. Addressed are mentoring and learning frameworks, background issues, the pedagogical context, study details, thematic results, and implications. The authors offer a…

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…