I’ve recently encountered a lot of disciplines/areas of research that I didn’t think existed before but, after thinking about it, I’d think “of course someone needs to figure that out”. It’s an interesting experience — and a sobering one, regarding what we take for granted. In any case, one such area I discovered today is graduate student well-being and success, through these two papers (that share the first two authors): Not just a phase: Exploring the role of program stage on well-being and motivation in doctoral students (Sverdlik & Hall, 2019) and The PhD experience: a review of the factors influencing doctoral students’ completion, achievement, and well-being (Sverdlik et al 2018; you can also read a highlight piece here). This post will include some summaries of their findings, my thoughts regarding them, and some of the factors I think made my own experience easier/harder than others’.
Supervisory relationship and communication
One recurrent theme in the review article is the mismatch between students’ expectations/ experiences with supervisors’ perceptions of those expectations/ experiences. Long story short, what students see as lacks of supervision, support, goal, departmental cohesion… are often perceived by supervisors to be a lack of student talent or willingness to work. For example, while both students and supervisors see a loss of motivation as a serious challenge, students tend to experience it as losing career direction and second-guessing their choice, whereas supervisors tend to see it as a consequence of lacking talents or perseverance. For another example:
Lovitts (2001) argues that attrition is often considered by members of the department a private choice made by students due to personal shortcomings such as the inability to measure up intellectually. This finding is in line with results showing supervisors to similarly attribute student failure largely to students’ personal characteristics (e.g., Ali & Kohun, 2006; Gardner, 2009; Herzig, 2002). – (Sverdlik et al 2018)
Pretty depressing, huh? Assuming supervisors have the best intentions (which many of them do) and remember how difficult graduate school was and want to help, why might this misunderstanding still happen? I think part of this is caused by students’ unwillingness (which is instilled in them by academic culture in general) to see or report failed attempts as progress. Suppose a student starts working on a problem on Monday. She reads 4 articles between Monday and Tuesday, writes 3 pages on Wednesday, talks with someone on Thursday who points her to another literature, spends all Thursday searching through that literature, reads 3 articles on Friday which basically tell her that her idea was a non-starter. When she meets with her supervisor Friday afternoon, and the supervisor asks “any progress on that idea you had?” She might just say “no, not really.” It then seems reasonable for the supervisor to assume that the student didn’t do any work.
Why would a student respond in this way? I can see a number of reasons. Some schools and some teachers have a “there’s no try; there’s do or don’t” attitude towards academic progress. If the student grows up in this environment, she is likely going to see reporting failure as meaningless and distasteful. Students may also do this if they don’t trust their supervisors enough to not scold them either for reporting failure or for not knowing this other literature in the first place. Finally, students who tend to be intimidated by authority (such as those from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds) tend not to share their “hunches” or “efforts” before they are ready to defend them. I certainly see this in myself — I will not share a thought unless I’ve rehearsed one (or more!) arguments I can use to defend its relevance in my head in a group setting. Some of my colleagues, on the other hand, are much happier with throwing things out there without thinking them through and retract them later when necessary. As a result, they voice many more thoughts than I do. I don’t know if I am seen as less intellectually capable as a result.
Scholarly socialization
[Ferrer de Valero (2001)] found high-completion/short-duration departments to focus on effective student socialization (e.g., facilitating supportive relationships with one’s supervisor, committee members, and peers), providing financial support, and information sharing (e.g., orientation courses, skill development). – (Sverdlik et al 2018)
“Scholarly socialization” is the idea that students need to learn the social rules of academia. They learn through a combination of formal communication and informal socialization. The sooner they learn the rules, the sooner they feel like they “belong”. Good departments clearly communicate formal expectations as well as provide opportunities to informally acculturate.
To better study this idea of a journey of becoming members of academia, Gardner (2007; “I heard it through the grapevine”: Doctoral student socialization in chemistry and history) divided the doctoral process into three phases: coursework, comprehensive examination, and dissertation. Pretty straightforward. The Not just a phase paper mentioned in the beginning talks about whether these phases “had an effect on students’ well-being levels”. Their hypothesis was:
Given the increasing isolation and lack of structure students experience as they progress through their doctoral programs — social–environmental factors that are positively correlated with psychological maladjustment in graduate students (e.g. anxiety, stress; Gordon, 2003; Stubb et al., 2011) — participants were specifically expected to report lower wellbeing at more advanced doctoral phases. – (Sverdlik & Hall, 2019)
The study contains a pretty sizeable sample from different nations and disciplines, most of whom are Caucasian females between 20-30 years of age. A variety of psychological/physical health and motivation assessments are conducted.
The finding is that basically, students in the coursework phase are the least stressed and most motivated. The comp and dissertation phases are less clear-cut: sometimes comp is more like coursework; sometimes dissertation is more like coursework; very often, their difference isn’t significant. The authors believe that the difference between (basically) pre/post advancement in well-being is caused by a loss of structure during advancement (or comp). As expectations become less clear, students experience a loss of direction.
What is interesting is that my own experience is pretty different from this trend. I was very stressed out in the first two years of my study and recovered greatly once I advanced to candidacy. This was perhaps because I took passing comp to mean that I was “officially good enough”. I also became increasingly aware of a lot of mental health issues and coping strategies as I progressed through my study.
The work that isn’t “work”
Most graduate students work as teaching assistants as a part of the financial package. Some enjoy this work; some do not. Regardless, it takes a toll — because, somehow, it’s not “work”.
I am currently not teaching, but working as a peer writing consultant for other graduate students and post-docs. There are two things I like about this job: first, I don’t have to think about it at all outside the hours. I check in when I start, and I start, and I check out after I’m done. It’s very refreshing for someone who is selected for and socialized to always think about work 24/7 (yes, I dream about work too). Second, I get to read wonderful research from different disciplines and talk to researchers from different backgrounds. I talk to them about why they choose to write it this way and what they’re trying to communicate. Every so often I suggest a rephrase or restructure, and they say “that makes so much more sense!” and it feels good.
Nevertheless, working and talking for 8 hours is exhausting. One day, I came home after 8 hours, sat in front of the computer and mindlessly browsed social media for a while, had dinner, realized it was dark outside, and said to my partner: “I didn’t do anything today.” To which he replied, of course, “you worked for 8 hours.”
But it didn’t feel like work — not because it felt like fun, but because it didn’t feel like the work I’m supposed to be doing. It’s not work I can cite when my supervisor asks “how’s work going?” or “have you done any more work since we last talked?”
Whether or not we enjoy this additional work, we are rarely appreciated for it. It does not count as professional development or factor into grad student equivalent of promotions (e.g., conference invitation, publication, supervisor confidence). It’s kinda like house chores, actually, except you can put off house chores when you need to focus on “real work”, but you can’t really put off this additional work.
It’s common to not feel appreciated as grad students. Part of this is ok. Academics are supposed to be intrinsically motivated. In fact, part of the finding in the review article is that students who were intrinsically motivated to pursue graduate careers regret their decisions less than those who were extrinsically motivated. I’m pretty intrinsically motivated to do my research on most days, but I’m not really intrinsically motivated to do this additional work that is not part of how “grad school” is sold. I get that it pays bills and all, but I have a lot of other options to choose from if I just need to pay the bills.
End of rant.
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感谢博主。对导师的指导预期与沟通，效果确实很重要。否则会轻易disappoint。