Doctoral students’ identity development
The education of doctors in the United States involves a three-step process in professional scholarly identity development. In the process, students learn the nature of teaching skills, research, academic career, and language in the field. The first stage is made up of the coursework for the first year, in the second stage, students pass candidacy exams to complete the coursework and begin developing the proposal for the dissertation and dissertation itself. In the final stage, students complete their dissertations. The first and the third stages have been extensively focused on by research, as opposed to the second stage which is the critical stage involving a transition from dependence to independence by moving from course structures into a self-directed and isolating period (Gardner, 2009). In this stage, academic identities, professional voices, and scholarly independence are developed in a process characterized by personal and professional identity, challenges, experiences, advancing goals, performance, relationships, and types of support.
Doctoral experience’s most crucial dimension is the development of identity despite the fact that this process has eluded a lot of empirical studies. A lot less research attention has focused on the influence of the relationship students develop with others on identity development during graduate studies. This paper examines the relationships of students with others in the process of development of identity during the second stage in the transition to self-regulating academics. The paper discusses the role of the relationships developed by students in terms of purposes and outcomes by focusing on three themes on identity development relationships, namely, advice and support, development of student identity during training, and development of identity during practice.
General advice and support
General Support and advice is one of the ways themes around the role of relationships developed by students during stage 2. This is the stage in which many a student rely on in the development of relationships that help them navigate the challenges in the stage.
The second stage basically involves due dates, syllabi, coursework, and faculty, peers, and administrator consistent interactions. Students in this stage are faced with a lack of structure as one of the problems that relationships developed help them wade through. Students overcome lack of structure problems through the relationships they develop with educational counselors or overseers and progressive students. Academic advisors students, for instance, help students in developing task writing schedules as advanced students share with them their strategies including daily and weekly goals of writing, habits of support, and successful writing (Smith & Hatmaker, 2014).
Another problem faced with isolation since students are not in the classroom in this stage, a factor that reduces their interaction with the members of the community. These relationships help students deal with isolation as they helped keep them on task. Gardner (2009) argues that these relationships bridge the gap between the students and the educational community and inform students on professional developments, events, and opportunities. These relationships also help students manage negative emotions and challenges in stage 2.
These relationships also help students develop key experiences that are crucial in incorporating them into the community and in the process of developing distinctiveness (Gardner, 2009). These key experiences include brown bag lunches, research assistantships, student organization meetings, and teaching assistantships that are associated with the career.
Students’ lack of relationship connections miss out on key experience opportunities and even question their sense of belonging. The relationships are, therefore, crucial in keeping students sane and connecting them to resources including knowledge, support, and parallel process mastery behavioral strategies for identity development.
Student identity development
This means that students as organizational newcomers are expected to know what is expected of them and must develop the abilities and strategies to meet those expectations to enable them to perform their roles effectively. Interaction with mentors, peers, family members, and friends is crucial in this process referred to as role learning(Gardner, 2009).
One of the ways relationships help students during role learning is through the creation of awareness of transition. Students in the second stage struggle with self-doubt as they transition from being used to classrooms and interactions with the academic community. Relationships and interactions with advanced students help them get the support and advice they need during their engagements with parallel identity development as scholars and students. These relationships help students become comfortable and overcome fear and undue stress.
Impression management is one of the fruits of relationships students develop with the academic community, advanced students, and instructors as students are not confident as to who they have become. They are in fear of embarrassment despite the increased knowledge and abilities (Baker & Pifer, 2011). Through this, they learn how to interact with faculty to share ideas and create intellectual discourse opportunities. Another way these relationships help is the development of networks and collaborations that help them develop confidence and achieve success early in their professions.
Scholar identity development
The identity development topic is increasingly gaining research and academic practice attention. Students in the second stage are aware of the transitions, develop experiences and gain insights into preparations of becoming scholars. They are also able to articulate their own identity development (Rayner, Lord, Parr & Sharkey, 2015). The relationships helped students shit the short-term goal focus on exam dates and assignment due dates, beginning and end of semesters to long-term goals such as completion of dissertation and dissertation proposals which do not have due dates and graduation and academic employment. The relationships also helped students develop collaborations with scholars in their fields of interests, assistant professors and dissertation community members selection. It also helped them have a clear preview of faculty career when they become faculty members.
Discussion
The understanding or relationship development during doctoral student training experience is crucial in managing challenges and issues that face students during stage 2 of their doctoral learning. It also helps draw the attention of stakeholders to this important phenomenon these relationships inform learning and role enactment. These relationships, just like the structure and climate of the program, are important components of the doctoral student education experience. It is important that a collective understanding is developed on doctoral education and professoriate preparation based on theory and research to provide all involved in the practice preparation with facts on how to understand and sustain upcoming scholars, in and out of classrooms. Strategies should, therefore, be developed to acknowledge the doctoral students' needs and concerns on their transition through the educational stages and identity development so as to be independent scholars.
References
Baker, V. L., & Pifer, M. J. (2011). The role of relationships in the transition from doctoral student to independent scholar. Studies in Continuing Education, 33(1), 5–17.
Gardner, S. K. (2008). “What’s too much and what’s too little?”: The process of becoming an independent researcher in doctoral education. The Journal of Higher Education, 79(3), Gardner, S. K. (2009). Conceptualizing success in doctoral education: Perspectives of faculty in seven disciplines. The Review of Higher Education, 32(3), 383–406.326–350.
Rayner, S., Lord, J., Parr, E., & Sharkey, R. (2015). ‘Why has my world become more confusing than it used to be?’Professional doctoral students reflect on the development of their identity. Management in Education, 29(4), 158–163.
Smith, A. E., & Hatmaker, D. M. (2014). Knowing, doing, and becoming: professional identity construction among public affairs doctoral students. Journal of Public Affairs Education, 20(4), 545–564.
