Rethinking Doctoral Education

Some years ago I was talking with the chair of a department. It was a STEM field, but I won't be more specific than that. I asked the chair what his goals were for the department's doctoral program. He said that they wanted all of their PhD graduates to secure faculty positions at top 25 research universities. I then asked him how many of their graduates were landing those spots at the moment. He said, "Oh, none of them."

Way back in 2001, Chris Golde and Timothy Dore authored a report for the Pew Charitable Trusts titled "At Cross Purposes: What the Experiences of Today's Doctoral Students Reveal about Doctoral Education." The report was based on a survey of over 4,000 doctoral students at 27 different universities, and it somewhat famously identified "a three-way mismatch between student goals, their training, and their actual careers.

"A doctoral program training its students for top 25 research university positions but seeing none of its graduates obtain those positions? That's a pretty serious mismatch.

It's been nearly 25 years since the "At Cross Purposes" report. Has doctoral education improved? Well, maybe, but the mismatches are still significant according to Leonard Cassuto, professor of English at Fordham University, co-author with Robert Weisbuch of The New PhD: How to Build a Better Graduate Education, and this week's guest on the Intentional Teaching podcast. Cassuto and Weisbuch note in their book that maybe 10% of the students who enter a PhD program in the humanities are likely to end up in research-focused faculty positions, in spite of the fact that such programs are designed to lead to those positions.

Again, that's a pretty serious mismatch.

Why is doctoral education like this? And what can higher education do about it? On this week's Intentional Teaching, Leonard Cassuto shares some answers to those questions. He argues for doctoral education that is student focused, career diverse, and community engaged as a way forward. In the interview, he describes what such programs could look like and what it would take to build such programs. And he draws some interesting connections to his latest book Academic Writing as if Readers Matter.

Joining me for this interview is Emily Donahoe, associate director at the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at the University of Mississippi. Emily heads up the center's programs and services for graduate students and thus knows the doctoral education landscape very well. When I had the chance to interview Len Cassuto on this topic, I recruited Emily to help me ask him good questions!

​You can listen to our conversation with Len Cassuto here, or search for "Intentional Teaching" in your favorite podcast app. And if you haven't already subscribed to Intentional Teaching in your favorite podcast app, what are you waiting for?

Centers for Teaching as Centers for Resiliency

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I'm very proud to have a chapter in the new book Recentering Learning: Complexity, Resilience, and Adaptability in Higher Education, edited by Joshua Kim, Maggie Debelius, and Edward Maloney. The book features chapters from a diverse group of academic leaders about lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic that can be applied to higher education's teaching mission in future turbulent times. And aren't all the times turbulent these days?

My chapter is co-authored with Matthew Kaplan and Mary Wright, and it's titled "Centering Resilience: Principles for Academic Leaders and Teaching Center Directors." In the chapter, we draw on our experiences leading centers for teaching and learning during the pandemic to advise academic leaders (provosts, deans, and such) on leveraging teaching centers to build resiliency among their faculty and students. I'm biased, but I think every provost should read our chapter and take its advice to heart.

If you'd like a preview of the chapter, Josh Kim let Matt, Mary, and me take over his Learning Innovation blog on Inside Higher Ed last month to answer three questions about centering resiliency. You can read our responses here, and you can order Recentering Learning from Johns Hopkins press here and campus-mail it to your local provost.

Thanks for reading!

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