Abstract
Policies and practices within institutions are often built on taken-for-granted practices (without the benefit of evidence) or result from external calls for accountability (perhaps accepted without evidence to challenge such calls) that exacerbate the documented tensions and challenges reported by doctoral students and pre-tenure academics. We suggest there is a need for evidence-based perspectives to support the rethinking of certain doctoral policies and practices, and perhaps to challenge external drivers that are placing increasing demands on academics and we have been particularly attentive to this possible use of our research findings. In this chapter, we provide four examples of our efforts to use our research findings in this way. We hope they may stimulate reflection amongst those in academia, including administrators and more senior academics, about how such evidence might influence institutional change towards more research-informed practice and policy, and perhaps lead to challenges of external calls for particular forms of accountability.
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Notes
- 1.
The studies have led to a series of presentations and publications, a list of which can be found at http://doc-work.mcgill.ca.
- 2.
In Canada, and more generally in North America, full-time academics are often hired into “tenure-track” positions as assistant professors; these positions are secured 5–6 years later if the individual is deemed worthy of “tenured” status. However, the tenure system is coming into question and has been discontinued at some institutions in the United States.
- 3.
Students sometimes approach professors to design an individual course involving just one student and the professor or perhaps two or three students and the professor. Usually this is done because the student has a special interest in a professor’s area of expertise or it could be that a desired course is not available at that time.
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McAlpine, L., Amundsen, C. (2011). Challenging the Taken-For-Granted: How Research Can Inform Doctoral Education Policy and Practice. In: McAlpine, L., Amundsen, C. (eds) Doctoral Education: Research-Based Strategies for Doctoral Students, Supervisors and Administrators. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0507-4_11
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