El 26 de Septiembre del año 2008 se llevó a cabo el IV Seminario de Investigación Doctoral organizado por el Área de Investigaciones y el Centro de Información de la Escuela de Postgrado. El objetivo de este seminario fue orientar y lograr que el doctorando esté en condiciones de elaborar su plan de tesis con énfasis en la selección de bibliografía de calidad a través del uso de herramientas digitales que la EPG y sus redes institucionales brindan a los doctorandos. El evento comenzó con la exposición del Dr. César Álvarez Falcón con el tema: “La Investigación Doctoral: métodos, técnicas y recomendaciones”. Posteriormente, la doctorando Liliana Alvarado expuso la “Tesis Doctoral: Alcances y experiencias”, luego la jefe del Centro de Información, María Elena Cáceres, presentó alcances y experiencias acerca del uso de herramientas digitales en: "La Biblioteca Virtual, ISI WOK y Refworks" . Finalmente, Alejandra Begazo enseñó directamente la utilización de las herramientas digitales a través del uso del "Sitkis y Netdraw".

Desmitificando la investigación doctoral

Thesis advisor: Audrey A. Friedman / Much of the research on doctoral students’ experiences is reported quantitatively from national studies across disciplines or in the form of abstractions about ways in which institutions might improve graduate education (e.g., Golde & Dore, 2001; Nerad, 2004). Qualitative, empirical research exploring the reasons for doctoral graduates’ career choices is limited, especially for doctoral students in the field of education. Given that ~ 50% of doctoral graduates pursue careers outside of academia, it might be beneficial for institutions of higher education to prepare their doctoral students for the careers they ultimately choose. After teaching high school English for seven years, I decided to pursue a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction because I thought I might want to become a teacher educator. My experience in the doctoral program challenged my expectations, and after completing coursework, I returned to the high school classroom. This dissertation sought to understand the experiences of doctoral students who earned PhDs in Curriculum and Instruction and chose to return to or remain in K-12 settings as opposed to pursuing careers in academia. I applied narrative inquiry (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000) and autoethnography (Denzin, 2014) as methodologies to present an exploratory, multiple-case study (Yin, 2014) of six graduates (and one almost-graduate) from a Curriculum and Instruction doctoral program. Written narratives, individual interviews, documents, and artifacts provided the data for this study. Findings reveal the factors that influence students’ experiences in the doctoral program, as well as their ultimate career choices, which include: a commitment to and passion for public education, the financial implications of pursuing a career in academia compared to one in K-12 schools, the specific requirements of the program (e.g., coursework, assistantship, and dissertation), the misconceptions upon entering the program, and the ability to share new knowledge within K-12 schools. Participants overwhelmingly agreed that the knowledge and skills they developed during the program impacted their practice in positive and powerful ways. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2019. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

The study examined doctoral students‟ perceptions of the doctoral support and services offered by Mississippi State University (MSU). The research design used was descriptive, non-experimental design. Validity of the online survey instrument was established by a panel of experts. Internal consistency and reliability was determined using factor analysis, Cronbach‟s alpha, and test/retest reliability which revealed that the instrument was consistent and reliable. Participants included 172 doctoral students in the seven colleges which offer doctoral programs and 172 doctoral alumni who had graduated within the last 5 years. Data was collected in fall 2009. Responding participants equaled 142 (41% return rate). The results of this study revealed that both current and alumni doctoral students had a moderately positive perception of the doctoral support and services offered by Mississippi State University. The doctoral program of study was considered to be effective and suitable; support and services were considered sufficient and appropriate; doctoral supervision was considered to be sufficient and appropriate by participants. The study showed that doctoral student‟s utilization of external sources of support and services was low, but was perceived as beneficial. The financial support provided was adequate to complete their degrees. Doctoral students funded their degrees primarily through employment. Participants considered that the perceived benefits of obtaining a doctoral degree outweighed the financial cost of its completion. Multiple regression analyses revealed that predictor variables of academic status, race, and college had significant effects on doctoral student‟s perceptions. Alumni had a significantly higher perception of the doctoral support and services than current doctoral students. Speculation as to possible causes of the difference included the psychological phenomenon of memory bias. In addition, Black/African American doctoral students provided a significantly less positive endorsement of doctoral supervision than their white counterparts. Furthermore, doctoral students from the College of Education provided a significantly less positive endorsement of doctoral support and services. This sentiment was supported by the narrative responses. Avenues of future research and recommendation for the university are discussed and presented.The study showed that doctoral student‟s utilization of external sources of support and services was low, but was perceived as beneficial. The financial support provided was adequate to complete their degrees. Doctoral students funded their degrees primarily through employment. Participants considered that the perceived benefits of obtaining a doctoral degree outweighed the financial cost of its completion. Multiple regression analyses revealed that predictor variables of academic status, race, and college had significant effects on doctoral student‟s perceptions. Alumni had a significantly higher perception of the doctoral support and services than current doctoral students. Speculation as to possible causes of the difference included the psychological phenomenon of memory bias. In addition, Black/African American doctoral students provided a significantly less positive endorsement of doctoral supervision than their white counterparts. Furthermore, doctoral students from the College of Education provided a significantly less positive endorsement of doctoral support and services. This sentiment was supported by the narrative responses. Avenues of future research and recommendation for the university are discussed and presented.

Thesis advisor: Heather Rowan-Kenyon / This study's purpose was to compare the lived experiences of doctoral women studying Education, a prototypically female field, with women studying Engineering, a prototypically male field to illustrate the phenomenon of doctoral degree progress in the two fields. Using critical feminist theory and Valian's (1999) concept of gender schemas, this study examined doctoral education culture in Education and Engineering and how these cultures influence women's doctoral student experiences and in turn their degree progress (Tong, 2009). Although women represent over 50% of doctoral student enrollment and degrees earned, gender disparities exist in Education and Engineering. Once enrolled, women are proportionally more likely to complete Education doctorates and less likely to complete Engineering doctorates (Council of Graduate Schools, 2008; Gonzales, Allum, and Sowell, 2013; Nettles and Millett, 2006). This trend is important because it implies there is something about Education and Engineering doctoral environments that make them more and less conducive for women's success, respectively (Gardner and Mendoza, 2010). This study used a qualitative interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) approach to capture the essence of women's doctoral degree progress by interpreting the lived experiences of 10 Education and 11 Engineering doctoral women (Smith, Flowers, and Larkin, 2009). After 63 in-depth interviews and two focus groups, four themes emerged. Overall, the Education women reported fewer positive doctoral experiences and more barriers to degree progress than the Engineering women due to the funding and research assistantship structure, the faculty advisor relationship, and the department environment. Both groups of women described doctoral education culture as proactive, independent, and competitive - characteristics more consistent with masculine gender schemas. Doctoral education culture also reflected the feminine gender schemas of flexibility and collegiality/collaboration, which were more apparent in the prototypically masculine Engineering field than in the prototypically feminine Education field. Implications for how doctoral education can be re-conceptualized, delivered, and researched are provided, calling for the incorporation of more feminine gender schemas into doctoral education culture in order to promote and achieve gender equity. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2014. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

Thesis advisor: Karen Arnold / Students in doctoral education view mentoring as the most important aspect of their educational experience (Golde et al., 2005). Mentoring can affect student retention and dissertation completion (Cronan-Hilllix et al., 1986) and is typically received from the student's advisor. However, many Black and Latinx doctoral students do not receive the critical feedback they need from faculty to develop their academic skills (Williams, 2018). Given reported problematic faculty interactions within the traditional mentoring model (Johnson-Bailey et al., 2008), peers offer an alternative source of support. Few empirical studies examine the effects of peer mentoring for doctoral students of color. This qualitative study examines how six Latinx and Black doctoral students engage in peer mentoring and how they perceive its effects on their doctoral experience. The maximum variation sample includes students in five disciplines who were enrolled in one of three research universities in the Northeast. Critical race theory (Bell, 1992; Crenshaw et al., 1995) was employed to frame institutions of higher education as sites of deeply ingrained racism that inform how Black and Latinx doctoral students receive support from formal institutional sources (e.g., faculty, institutional offices). During semi-structured interviews, students discussed how they drew on their own community cultural wealth (Yosso, 2005) to create networks of support with peers, and the ways that peers provided them with much-needed guidance. Findings reveal how peers played a profoundly important role in helping students overcome significant challenges in their program while providing key information. Students often received multiple, simultaneous forms of support from a single peer, including social/emotional, academic, and financial-related. Peers provided different forms of navigational capital (Yosso, 2005) to students, pairing them with tools and resources needed to maneuver through complex systems that were not designed for their success. Data also illuminated how students received resistant capital (Yosso, 2005) in order to manage numerous challenges. Findings point to the benefits of facilitating peer mentoring for Latinx and Black doctoral students, along with significant improvements in institutional support services and advising structures. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2022. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

Parte 1 de la exposición sobre los puntos escenciales para generar una tesis doctoral óptima

Parte 2 de la exposición sobre los puntos escenciales para generar una tesis doctoral óptima

This thesis explores the lived experience of women with children, i.e. ‘mothers’ undertaking part-time doctoral study and considers the challenges and conflicts that arise from what Brown & Watson (2010) describe as ‘dual lives’, managing the doctoral student role with the roles of mother and worker. The research aimed to consider extant conceptualisations and understandings so that alternative discourses could emerge, viewing the part-time doctoral experience through the lens of mothers. This was undertaken through the analysis and application of conceptual frameworks that fuse Communities of Practice (Wenger 2008), Self-Determination Theory (Deci & Ryan 1985), Self-Categorization Theory (Turner 1987) and Lived Experience (Manen 1990). The marginalized voices of ‘Mothers doing doctorates’ provide a new perspective on the ‘non-traditional’ PhD student experience, allowing a deeper understanding of the challenges facing this ‘community’ by identifying and analysing key themes of identity, motivation, feelings and beliefs within a framework of communities of practice. Identifying Wenger’s Communities of Practice as a framework for discussion, a model was developed in relation to the field data to understand the women’s experiences of part-time PhD study. This model focused on four key areas: learning as belonging, learning as becoming, learning as doing and learning as experience. Each area related to a major theme in the women’s experience, that of identity, motivation, the student experience and their own feelings and perceptions about themselves and the process. The findings determine the process of studying for a PhD provided the women with a means of identity expression that had previously been stifled through the adoption of the role of being a ‘mum’. Through part-time doctoral study, this sense of re-awakening both intellectually and personally provided women with a renewed sense of positivity and confidence, demonstrating a resistance against the dominant ideology that dictates women’s ‘natural’ place is in full-time motherhood (Hughes 2002). It provided them intellectual stimulus and allowed them a voice, that the mother role had smothered as it was not in-keeping with the in-group identities highlighted by the women as central to their public and private domain. The academic development of the women helped them to ii see themselves as ‘worthy’, strengthening their own identity as they developed a redefined sense of self. In securing data from thirty-five women, this research provides an original insight into the experiences of an obscured and marginalised group. The combination of narrative and autoethnographic methods has surfaced original data that highlights the experiences and impact of part-time PhD study on women with children. The contribution to current thinking around part-time PhDs is the critique of extant normative practice, this research illustrates and exemplifies how these existing processes marginalise mothers doing part-time doctorates and points to new approaches in practice.

The mission types of 105 current doctoral programs in higher education and the extent to which their missions have changed since a similar study was conducted by Dressel and Mayhew in 1974 was studied. The curricula offerings of these programs by degree type (e.g., Ed.D. & Ph.D.) were compared with Fife’s 1991 findings. Finally, the study examined the various modes of instruction (e.g., classroom, online, cohort, blended) these programs utilize. The population was the 131 U.S. higher education doctoral program coordinators or directors who were identified using the ASHE Higher Education Program Directory. A total of 46 hosted Ed.D. programs and 59 hosted Ph.D. programs for a combined total of 105 doctoral programs. An electronic survey, developed by utilizing an expert panel and the cognitive interviewing technique, was sent to each participant. A total of 46 hosted Ed.D. programs and 59 hosted Ph.D. programs for a combined total of 105 doctoral programs. A total of 77 institutions (59%) returned usable questionnaires, and six other universities (5%) indicated their doctoral higher education programs no longer existed. Twenty-three of the responding institutions identified with a research-focused mission; 25 institutions identified with a practitioner-based mission; and 28 institutions identified with both types of missions. Pearson r correlation analysis revealed no statistically significant relationship between degree type and course offerings (r = .123, p = .05). However, ? 2 revealed that, compared to Ed.D. programs, Ph.D. programs enrolled significantly more full-time students (? 2 (3) = 14.504, p < .05). Through further analysis, a core of nine courses emerged for more than 75% of all higher education doctoral programs. Those courses are general administration of higher education, finance of higher education, legal studies, history of higher education, philosophy and theoretical foundations of higher education, teaching/learning in higher education, student affairs administration, college student research, and a dissertation seminar. Nearly 80% of all doctoral programs utilize some form of alternate delivery method (e.g., online, cohort, blended) in addition to traditional classroom instruction. Furthermore, Ph.D. programs employ larger full-time faculties, conduct more research, obtain more external funding, and publish more scholarship than Ed.D. programs.