+Adjusting to the

Graduate Environment: A Focus on URM

Students in STEM

Tanya Figueroa and Sylvia HurtadoUCLA

Association for the Study of Higher EducationNovember 2014Washington, D.C.

+Purpose

This mixed methods study investigates the key supports and challenges that impact the ability of URM STEM students to adjust to the graduate environment.

+Conceptual Framework

This study adopts key constructs from

Nettles and Millet’s (2006) conceptual model of doctoral student experiences

Nora, Barlow, and Crisp’s (2005) integration model

Another likely important factor is the institutional context of students’ undergraduate institution

+Methodology – Data

Data come from a larger STEM retention project conducted by HERI

Qualitative data (focus groups)

Quantitative data2011 Post-Baccalaureate Survey

(PBS)DV: 9 item construct measuring

self-reported ability to successfully manage the academic environment

+Analysis: Mixed Methods

Exploratory multi-phase design

Constant comparative analysis Over 85% agreement in intercoder

reliability

Ordinary Least Square Regression to predict DV

+Results: Three central themes

1. General and context-specific transition issues (within the classroom and lab)

2. Issues relating to variable faculty support and guidance

3. Race issues and how they matter in graduate education.

+1) General and context-specific

transition issues

Lack of program structure. Many students reported feeling “lost”

and not knowing expectations during their 1st and 2nd years of graduate school

Several departments seemed to have adopted a ‘sink or swim’ approach to guiding graduate students.

+

One of the things that surprised me [in grad school] is there seems to be no structure at all… [to] know which classes count and which ones don’t. Which ones you should have or you shouldn’t have [taken]. How to link them to future research… You kind of learn that you have to be chasing people around [to find out] something and that’s not easy.

Brianna - Southwestern HSI, Industrial Engineering, Masters, Latina

+Learning lab culture/ research skillsLab culture affected how steep the

learning curve was with respect to conducting research

Effect of limited or no prior lab experience

Graduate research is different from previous research experiences

Having an undergraduate experience that better prepared students to write effectively

+2) Variable faculty support/guidance

Not enough guidance from faculty Provision of faculty guidance +

Being placed into a lab without much guidance from their Pis Frequency of conducting experiments or collecting data +

Felt intimated by professors -

Students learned to: Rely on peers, more advanced students, and carefully

selected professors for advice or research collaboration Advocate for themselves (which could be problematic)

+Cooper - Midwestern PWI, Chemistry, PhD, Black

You have to realize there are other people you can talk to – other professors that are much more helpful. But you have to be very careful because everyone’s friends in that department so they might say, “Oh, Cooper came and talked to me about this” and it’s gonna get back to [your advisor] and make her feel like crap. So like understanding your departmental politics when you ask questions [is important] – and I kind of feel like I shouldn’t have to be put in that type of position.

+3) How Race matters in Graduate Education

Compositional diversity mattered

Satisfaction: Representation of women +

Part of feeling welcomed was to see that faculty also cared about diversity

Multiple students at PWIs spoke about negative interactions with international peers

Agreement: International & domestic students work well together here +

+Chase, Midwestern PWI, Electrical Engineering, PhD, Latino

When [my advisor] first assigned me to a project he said, “Okay, why don’t you help so and so out with this project?” You know I tried. I emailed them a few times. Tried to set up a meeting. But just I felt kind of excluded from that. Like he didn’t really want me to help on it. I didn’t really directly feel like, oh, it’s a race thing or this or that. But you do notice that there’s like a, you know a clique of Koreans. They get together and they work on their projects with each other all the time and they collaborate. I kind of feel like, well, I need some help, too man. Then you ask a question and you get like the one line answer.

+Discussion/Conclusion

1. Lack of structure in STEM graduate programs is a problem!

2. Many students lack a sufficient amount of guidance from faculty advisors which only exacerbated feelings of being “lost”

+Discussion/Conclusion

3. Peers are invaluable to students’ ability to transition as they share information and resources.

4. Racial issues are still a problem – Importance of climate within the department

+Implications for Practice

Better attention to graduate education is needed

Departments and Deans must also shoulder more of the responsibility for improving training and degree progress