Reading Rites: Teaching Textwork in Graduate Education

The ability to comprehend, discuss, and use disciplinary texts is central to graduate education. Although techniques for teaching writing have been well-discussed, and even incorporated into graduate curricula, the same is not true for techniques of scholarly reading, a crucial skill that is largely untaught and which students must learn independently or through shared culture. We argue that more explicit training in reading has potential benefits for graduate student education. Drawing on thirty-six in-depth interviews with students in the social sciences, we focus on the routines of managing academic reading, necessary for accessing information for research. Graduate students develop techniques and schedules that permit them to read rapidly or carefully, to read for different academic purposes, and to make information retrievable through notating. We suggest how graduate programs might incorporate reading education into the curriculum.     

Scholarship and Research in Social Work: Emerging Challenges

Abstract

One of the defining elements of a profession is its capacity to generate and transmit knowledge about practice. This paper reviews and assesses the state of scholarship and research in social work through diverse perspectives, among them research methods found in the core literature, the scholarly productivity of faculty and doctoral graduates, the research curricula in graduate programs, and the use of scholarship by practitioners. Finally it posits challenges for improving the profession's research training, scholarly production, and knowledge transmission.     

Scholarly Productivity of Social Work Graduate Programs

Abstract

This research compares the scholarly productivity of ten leading social work graduate programs with 35 randomly selected Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) accredited graduate programs. The data reports that, when comparing group averages, the ten leading social work programs had greater scholarly productivity than the 35 randomly selected programs. These findings were statistically significant. However, when comparing individual programs, a notable number of the randomly selected graduate programs had much higher rates of scholarly productivity than some of the ten leading social work graduate programs. The implications of these findings for social work practice and education are discussed.     

SCHOOL SELECTION PREFERENCES OF PUBLIC AND PRIVATE UNIVERSITY MSW STUDENTS: A RETROSPECTIVE STUDY

A convenience sample of MSW students responded to an Internet-based survey (N=2,289) retrospectively reporting their reasons for enrolling in a specific social work graduate program. Reponses indicate that MSW students who enroll in private graduate programs are younger and reported reputation-related and employment-related reasons for specific school selection more often than students enrolled in public schools. Students enrolled in public schools reported location-related reasons as more important. Bifurcation of the applicant pool into private and public preference-groups presents a recruitment challenge. Other findings include that enrollment rates are substantially higher than previously anticipated, which suggests that most applicants to graduate social work programs are likely to be admitted if they apply to multiple programs.     

Sociology as a vocation: Reputations and group cultures in graduate school

Graduate training in sociology involves more than meeting organizationally imposed demands such as satisfying departmental requirements, taking exams, and completing a dissertation. More central is the development of identity through institutional and interactional forces. We examine the experience of graduate students as tied to the social psychological processes associated with professional training. We consider the faculty-student relationship, identifying how student identities as future sociologists are negotiated and constructed within a reputation market linked to status politics. Through this process, graduate students construct frames of interpretation that make sense of a status system in which criteria for evaluation are often variable, uncertain, or undisclosed. To recognize how graduate students fit into their occupational routines, we build upon three core disciplinary constructs: identity, reputation, and group culture. This perspective permits graduate education to be grounded in sociological understandings, underlining the role of a sociological imagination. We propose strategies that sociology departments might follow to facilitate the professional socialization of graduate students, emphasizing the establishment of group culture and presentational norms. In the absence of these changes, we offer advice to graduate students on navigating their current programs.     

Factors influencing student selection of marriage and family therapy graduate programs

To understand which factors students consider most important in choosing a marriage and family therapy (MFT) graduate program and how programs met or did not meet these expectations of students over the course of graduate study, we conducted an online mixed-method investigation. One hundred twelve graduate students in Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education-accredited programs responded to an online survey assessing what factors led them to select a specific graduate program in MFT. In the quantitative portion, students ranked each factor (personal fit, faculty, funding, research, clinical work, and teaching) as well as characteristics of each factor in relation to its importance in their selection of an MFT program. Additionally, students indicated to what level their programs meet their expectations. In the qualitative portion, students described how they believed their chosen program was or was not meeting their expectations. Both doctoral and master's students ranked personal fit as the top factor affecting their choice of graduate program in MFT, but they differed on the characteristics of each of these factors and their importance in selecting an MFT program. Implications for this research include program evaluation and program advertising, and are consistent with the scientist-practitioner model.     

Comprehensive career planning: The VCU Career Connections Program

Individuals with disabilities who complete post secondary education programs must be prepared to plan and direct their long-term careers. Despite recent legislation, students with disabilities exiting higher education continue to face obstacles such as negative employer attitudes, architectural barriers, and lack of necessary services and supports when attempting to access employment and pursue their careers. This article describes a comprehensive career-planning program designed to enhance employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities as they graduate from higher education.     

An Evaluation of Physical Fitness Parameters for Graduate Students

Abstract

Although graduate physical therapy students are taught the principles of fitness for incorporation into their professional lives, they have difficulty finding the time to implement these principles during graduate school. The authors studied 3 successive classes of graduate physical therapy students at the beginning and ending of their respective programs. They found that the women's percentages of body fat were significantly greater over the period of the study. The men's lower extremity strength decreased at the slower speeds (60 degrees/second), and the women showed increased strength at the higher speeds (180 and 240 degrees/second, respectively). Male grip strength significantly increased over the period of the study. To decrease students' percentages of body fat and increase their strength, the authors asserted that physical therapy students should be allowed more time to participate in fitness activities during their graduate school years.     

The impact of sociological orientation on pedagogy: A reconsideration of teacher training in sociology Ph.D. Departments

The emphasis in sociology Ph.D. programs continues to be on training researchers rather than teachers. This is a serious mistake, given the overwhelming proportion of students who go on to academic careers that require at least some time in the classroom. Departments that offer some type of graduate training in teaching focus almost exclusively on the students’ mastery of pedagogical strategies—tools, tips, and techniques for improving their instruction. But this approach neglects students’ assumptions about sociology as a discipline—or their sociological orientations—that underlie and inform their pedagogical choices. This paper explicates the relationship between sociological orientation and pedagogical practice, and asserts that graduate students need to consider their orientation to the discipline before stepping inside a classroom. This may be effectively accomplished through a required year-long seminar to be taken during the second year of graduate study. The first semester would be devoted to the issues, debates, and questions that currently characterize the discipline. The second would consider the “nuts and bolts” of teaching, and how pedagogical practice derives from sociological orientation. Students would also work as teaching assistants before, during, and after completing the seminar. They would then be required to teach at least one course of their choice before graduating. During this first teaching experience, each graduate student would work closely with a faculty mentor. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2003 annual meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society. I wish to thank Michael Lewis, Joya Misra, Afshan Jafar, Brian Kapitulik, and the editor of the American Sociologist for their help in improving this paper.     

Lessons Learned: Pedagogical Tensions and Struggles with Instruction on Multiculturalism in Social Work Education Programs

While the importance of multiculturalism to social work education and practice has been extensively theorized in the social work literature, very little empirical attention has been paid to the concrete experiences of social work students within the classroom. The socializing influence of pedagogy is one aspect of the professionalization process that must be considered in addressing issues of diversity and inclusion in graduate education programs. This article addresses this gap by describing and analyzing the narratives of 15 minority graduate social work students. It examines their perception and experiences with instruction on multiculturalism with the graduate curriculum and the meaning they assign to these experiences. Their narratives illuminate the myriad ways that the curriculum excludes minority students and reproduces social inequality. Social work education has a responsibility to eliminate racism and inequality from the content of its courses and in its teaching methods. The identification of these negative socializing messages may assist educators in structuring curricular and pedagogical practices that can facilitate the academic success of all students.     

The Path to Social Work: Contextual Determinants of Career Choice among Racial/Ethnic Minority Students

While the importance of multiculturalism to social work education and practice have been extensively theorized in the social work literature, very little empirical attention has been paid to the concrete experiences of social work students with instruction on multiculturalism. The experience of students within the multicultural classroom is one aspect of the professionalization process that must be considered in addressing issues of diversity and inclusion in graduate education programs. This article addresses this gap by describing and analyzing the narratives of 15 minority graduate social work students. It examines their perception and experiences with the graduate multicultural curriculum and the meaning they assign to these experiences. Their narratives illuminate the myriad ways that the curriculum excludes minority students and reproduces social inequality. Social work education has a responsibility to eliminate racism and inequality from the content of its courses and in its teaching methodologies. The identification of these negative socializing messages may assist educators in structuring curricular and pedagogical practices that are compatible with the multiethnic groups that both serve and are served by the profession.     

An evaluation of physical fitness parameters for graduate students

Although graduate physical therapy students are taught the principles of fitness for incorporation into their professional lives, they have difficulty finding the time to implement these principles during graduate school. The authors studied 3 successive classes of graduate physical therapy students at the beginning and ending of their respective programs. They found that the women's percentages of body fat were significantly greater over the period of the study. The men's lower extremity strength decreased at the slower speeds (60 degrees/second), and the women showed increased strength at the higher speeds (180 and 240 degrees/second, respectively). Male grip strength significantly increased over the period of the study. To decrease students' percentages of body fat and increase their strength, the authors asserted that physical therapy students should be allowed more time to participate in fitness activities during their graduate school years.     

Social Work Students' Perceptions of Poverty

ABSTRACT

Over a period of 14 years (1991-2004), graduate social work students (n = 2,213) in ten California schools were surveyed about their perceptions of poverty as they entered and exited their graduate programs. Entering students expressed preferences for societal/institutional change methods to address poverty, as opposed to methods of individual adaptation and were even more inclined upon graduation. Implications for social work education and practice are identified.     

Do you see me? The complex experiences of women of color MSW students

Universities have increased the number of female students of color. However, inconsistency remains in terms of the number of women of color in positions of power and privilege. This discussion attempts to forward the dialogue about the challenges as well as the resilience of female students of color based on the experiences of four female African-American students in a graduate social work program at a predominantly white institution (PWI). Participants shared their daily experience of isolation and exclusion in their graduate programs compared to their experience in Historically Black College or Universities (HBCUs). Participants also discussed the divide that exists in institutions, as well as the sustaining forces and implications for education and research.     

Transforming an MFT program: a model for enhancing diversity

Marriage and family therapy programs need to go beyond the typical practices of recruiting and retaining students of color. Marriage and family therapy educators must assume positions of leadership by transforming graduate programs to reflect a deep, active, systemic commitment to both diversity and social justice. In this article, we argue that it is through this type of transformation that programs become truly ready to support students of color and to prepare all therapists to advocate for equity in a diverse, often unfair society. This article offers a model that addresses readiness, recruitment, retention, assessment, and professional development from this perspective.     

The problems and prospects in the teaching of mixed methods research

There are pedagogical challenges USA students and instructors face within mixed methods classrooms. Instructors of mixed methods are often self-taught, lacking adequate training in both qualitative and quantitative approaches to research. Students are not often trained in both research approaches. These dual training gaps can result in deep pedagogical issues compromising students’ ability to fully understand mixed methods research praxis and leaving teachers feeling ill equipped to address students’ learning concerns. To tackle the myriad of challenges confronted in the mixed methods classroom requires structural changes to the current way graduate training programs in social research methods are organized and taught. Developing a team-based teaching approach to mixed methods research that provides students with instructors who have the requisite qualitative and quantitative knowledge can serve as a pedagogical model that can begin at least to address the current methods and methodological skills gap in the teaching of mixed methods research.     

Graduate education

Graduate training in sociology is an uneasy compromise between teaching new sociologists what would be good for them to know and doing what a graduate department’s various constituencies demand. Instead of worrying about teaching a core of materials, the graduate faculty instead should teach students what they know, and try to help students learn what they want to know, as they come to define that during the course of their studies. Instead of requiring courses, faculty should develop a continuing dialogue with students and incorporate them, formally and informally, in their work. His most recent book isDoing Things Together (1986).     

Research‐based teacher education for multicultural contexts

Graduate programs in education face the challenge of preparing teachers and specialists in education to work with English Language Learners (ELLs). Programs must be culturally responsive, while at the same time respecting state and federal standards for scientifically based practice according to best evidence. The focus of the present study is a graduate program in education that sought to prepare graduate students to address the needs of ELL students. Among the articulated goals of the program grant were that teachers enrolled would be able to: (1) use effective English for Speakers of Other Languages and bilingual educational strategies and methods; (2) use findings from testing, assessment and research functionally; and (3) promote multilingualism, and, in a broader sense, respect and equitable treatment of the heritages of home languages. The extent to which graduates of the master’s program who were working as teachers and administrators at the time of the study were able to make culturally competent connections with ELL students and to establish a repertoire of scientific evidence, based on research findings that they could then use to support their teaching theory and practice, is discussed. Findings reflecting the responses of 57 graduates of the program were as follows: (a) the training provided by the master’s program was rated as more useful than the in‐service provided by the state because its emphasis on research allowed graduates to judge the merits of proposed educational reforms and to clarify their own pedagogy; (b) the ability to cite research reports enabled graduates to be heard by colleagues and to depoliticize discussions regarding curricular reforms; (c) in developing their ‘communities of practice’, graduates made connections with others who had been trained in the use of scientific research in education. The study illustrates how a graduate education program focused on transformation and the encouragement of home language use can prepare teachers to work effectively in a political context of ‘evidence‐based practice’.     

An Evaluation of the Scholarly Productivity of Doctoral Graduates

Scholarly publication is becoming increasingly important in social work. Not only does publication reflect the knowledge development effort of the profession, but it apparently positively affects the careers of the authors. In the current study, the authors evaluated the scholarly productivity of 284 randomly selected doctoral graduates from 30 social work programs. The authors accumulated and aggregated for each program counts of publications appearing in the Source Index of the Social Sciences Citation Index.Findings indicated that the level of article productivity among doctoral graduates was normative. In addition, the productivity of doctoral program faculty was found to be related to the productivity of the program’s doctoral graduates. The authors suggest that perhaps productive faculty provide positive role models to their students; this mentoring relationship contributes to graduate productivity outcomes.     

Mindfully Increasing Quality of Life: A Promising Curriculum for MSW Students

MSW students may experience considerable stress during graduate school due to multiple life demands and the challenges of social work curricula, which often involves exposure to distressing client situations. Students' quality of life may be negatively impacted without sufficient tools to manage these stressful experiences. This paper presents evaluative findings of a course/module designed to enable MSW students in a university in the Southwestern United States to increase their quality of life and build stress coping abilities by incorporating mindfulness into their daily self care routines. Findings reveal that after completing the course/module, students reported increased quality of life even though perceived stress levels did not improve. Accordingly, mindfulness holds significant promise for bolstering students' ability to cope with the challenges of graduate school and preparing for professional practice.