Susan K. Gardner

What's Too Much and What's Too Little?: The Process of Becoming an Independent Researcher in Doctoral Education

The transition to independent scholar, while necessary in doctoral education, is nevertheless often difficult for students. This study details the transition to independence through the lens of socialization in three developmental phases, as witnessed by 40 doctoral students in the disciplines of chemistry and history at two institutions.

Contrasting the Socialization Experiences of Doctoral Students in High- and Low- Completing Departments: A Qualitative Analysis of Disciplinary Contexts at One Institution

To better understand how high and low doctoral completion rates affect the socialization process of doctoral students at one institution, 60 doctoral students in 6 disciplines were interviewed. Findings highlight differential socialization experiences between high and low completion departments and among developmental phases of the student experience.

Conceptualizing Success in Doctoral Education: Perspectives of Faculty in Seven Disciplines

The term “success” in higher education has been used widely to describe multiple outcomes, practices, and variables. In doctoral education, in particular, the study of success is paramount as only 50% of those students who enter doctoral education actually complete the degree. The definition of success, however, remains elusive. This study explored the concept of success in doctoral education as expressed by faculty advisors in seven different disciplines. Findings highlighted differences between disciplinary cultures and between departments with high and low completion rates. Implications for policy, practice, and research are included.

“Those invisible barriers are real”: The Progression of First-Generation Students Through Doctoral Education

Using the conceptual framework of social capital, this study outlines the experiences of 20 first-generation students currently enrolled in doctoral degree programs. The framework highlights those structures and processes that offer tacit knowledge to students about how to pursue higher education. For students who are the first in their families to attend college, this knowledge is often elusive. Through individual interviews, data were collected to understand student isolation, financial challenges, and sources of support. Implications for institutions are offered.

Doctoral student attrition in the stem fields: An exploratory event history analysis.

The STEM fields, otherwise known as the Sciences, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics areas, have become the focus of multiple studies and funding initiatives in recent years. Despite these efforts, lingering concerns exist about who enters, who is retained, and who completes the doctorate in STEM fields. This study utilizes discrete-time event history analysis to model doctoral attrition for 10,088 individuals, in 56 STEM departments, at one research-extensive institution, located in the South, over a 20-year period. Results show that the odds of attrition are the greatest in the first year. Additionally, the odds of attrition are greater for females, Asians, and for those who belong to a hard-applied science major (versus a hard-pure major). The odds of attrition are lower for married students and for those who have higher relative GRE scores than their peers in the same program. The findings of this study provide a deeper understanding of the relationship between particular characteristics of doctoral students and programs on attrition rates over time.

The Part-Time Doctoral Student Experience

Although scholarly interest in doctoral education has increased dramatically over the last two decades, much of this attention has focused on the experiences of doctoral students who are enrolled full-time in their programs. This study explored the experiences of 10 part-time doctoral students in different disciplines. Through semi-structured interviews with these students, we found that many of the issues surrounding these part-time doctoral students involved concerns related to balance, support, and fitting the mold of a “traditional” doctoral student. Importantly, while some of these issues are consistent with the experiences of full-time doctoral students, the experiences of part-time doctoral students are more complicated and required sustained and flexible efforts to adequately address. We conclude by suggesting both institutional and empirical efforts to better understand the complicated experiences of part-time doctoral students as well as to develop multi-faceted initiatives to support the experiences of this growing doctoral student population.

Faculty Perspectives on Doctoral Student Socialization in Five Disciplines

Socialization has become a common framework through which to view the doctoral student experience. A growing body of literature has examined the student perspective of this socialization experience but the perspective of the faculty member has been relatively absent in these discussions, despite the vital role they play in the process. Sixteen doctoral faculty members in the disciplines of engineering, oceanography, psychology, history, and a self-designed interdisciplinary program at one institution were interviewed to determine their perspectives on the doctoral student socialization process and their role in it. Using Bragg’s (1976) and Weidman, Twale, and Stein’s (2001) framework of socialization to analyze these interviews, findings emerged regarding faculty perspectives often on programmatic and structural components but rarely on the role of peers or their own informal role in the socialization process. Implications for policy, practice, and future research are included.

Keeping Up with the Joneses: Socialization and Culture in Doctoral Education at One Striving Institution

Institutional prestige is an inherent part of higher education in the U.S., resulting in rankings that often become the rationale for resource allocation. Interviews with 38 faculty members and 60 doctoral students led to a better understanding of how prestige-seeking influenced their views of doctoral education at one institution.

Paradigmatic differences, power, and status: a qualitative investigation of faculty in one interdisciplinary research collaboration on sustainability science

Interdisciplinary research collaborations are fraught with challenges, including the need to overcome paradigmatic differences. The current study sought to understand how 25 faculty members involved in an interdisciplinary endeavor related to sustainability experienced these differences. Using Biglan’s classification and Becher and Trowler’s conceptualizations, the study found issues related to disciplinary status and hierarchy between the soft and hard scientists involved in the project.

Women Faculty Departures from a Striving Institution: Between a Rock and a Hard Place

The quest for institutional prestige in the academic hierarchy has become a common phenomenon among universities in the United States. At the same time, the institutions that choose to embark on such a journey (referred to as striving institutions) have not been closely examined to determine how such efforts influence the different constituencies in the institution. This study examines how one striving environment impacted the departure decisions of 11 women faculty members through the lens of gendered organizational theory. Findings demonstrated that issues related to gender discrimination, a lack of work-life balance, and reduced resources resulted in decisions to depart.