Search for: All records

Background: Graduate education provides students with specialized skills needed to advance science and discovery and prepares future educators and role models for future generations of learners. Given the importance of graduate education, the estimate that more than half of the students who begin it do not complete their degrees is troubling. Existing scholarship suggests that this substantial attrition from graduate school is in part due to inadequate advising. To address this concern, it is important to examine students’ experiences with graduate advising. Purpose: This article presents a new model—the Model of Wholeness in Graduate Advising (MWGA)—that characterizes a range of students’ advising experiences. In so doing, it encourages faculty to move toward a more caring and wholeness-promoting framework in graduate advising. Research Design: To better understand the complexities of graduate advising and the various types of experiences—and relationships—that students have, desire, expect, and need to thrive both professionally and personally, this study included interviews with 42 Black male graduate students attending historically and predominantly White institutions (HPWIs). Thematic analysis revealed that students’ advising experiences included aspects of “ethics of care” (or degrees of care: whole, partial, empty). Iterative analysis of data led to the creation of the practice-informing model: the Model of Wholeness in Graduate Advising (MWGA). Findings: Although some students described experiencing positive interactions and teachable moments with their advisors, others painted pictures of demoralizing encounters and public shaming practices. Still others described advising experiences they did not have but would want. Accounting for this range, the MWGA denotes an upwardly moving relationship between degrees of care (i.e., empty, partial, whole) and students’ perceptions of their advising experiences and relationships (i.e., weak, basic, strong) in part shaped by students’ expectations for their advising experiences and relationships, and their lived experiences. Conclusions and Recommendations: The findings from this study, represented in the MWGA, illustrate theoretical linkages between students’ expectations of advising, the levels of their advising experiences and relationships, and degrees of care demonstrated by their advisors. Most notably, more elements of care tend to result in better lived advising experiences and relationships. For current and future faculty, moving toward a more caring and wholeness-promoting framework might start with recognizing the needs of students as whole people. Creating more caring advising experiences and developing more caring relationships may better assist students in progressing through degree completion, and doing so more fully whole. 

Background A growing body of research highlights the experiences of Black men students who successfully navigate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) educational pathways. Many Black men graduate students in engineering describe moments when their advisors, peers, and, at times, community members make them feel different because of their race and gender. Needed is a better understanding of what motivates Black men to persist in graduate school despite such challenges. Purpose This study advances a new theoretical model, “Black Men's Graduate Engineering Motivation” (BMGEM), to describe the overlaying factors and sources of motivation—and their interrelations—that influence Black men in engineering graduate programs to persist. Research Design To explore the motivational factors that influence Black men in graduate engineering programs at predominantly White institutions (PWIs) to persist, this study of 42 students used an eight-item demographic form, one-on-one semi-structured interviews, and follow-up focus groups. Data analysis was conducted using adapted grounded theory techniques. After the completion of data collection and multiple iterations of analyses (both inductive and deductive), existing conceptualizations of motivation were used to help make sense of data. The connection to existing literature, code development, their placement into categories, and placing categories into themes led to the creation of a substantive, practice-informing theory: Black Men's Graduate Engineering Motivation. Findings Data analysis resulted in the theory of Black Men's Graduate Engineering Motivation (BMGEM). The BMGEM explains the overlaying factors that influence individuals’ experiences and motivations to persist (i.e., sociocultural factors, personal factors, social identities, pre-graduate school experiences), and external and internal motivational sources that also influence students’ motivations to persist (i.e., desire to earn a graduate degree, desire to become an engineer, challenges during graduate school, peers, family members, [under]representation, self-coaching practices, career and professional goals). Conclusions and Recommendations The findings from this study inform future research, and practice-based strategies around broadening participation, that aid in Black men's progress through science and engineering pathways. With this new information, we charge engineering colleges to make true commitments to broadening participation, which means centering students—in this case, Black men—as contributors to STEM. In doing so, engineering colleges need to commit to helping Black men succeed. Assisting in their motivation to persist is a key to meeting this charge.