Independent Learning and Apprenticeship Relationships in Doctoral Education

• In Event: Roundtable Session 38
  In Roundtable Session: Conceptualizing Apprenticeship in Doctoral Education

Abstract

Despite the growing body of research on doctoral education, little is known about how doctoral students learn to do research. Much of the current literature attributes students’ learning to traditional apprenticeship relationships between students and advisors The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine how doctoral students learn to do research and to what extent, if any, do apprenticeship relationships facilitate students’ learning. Primary data was collected through semi-structured interviews with 10 faculty and 21 doctoral candidates from three disparate academic departments (bioengineering, comparative literature, and sociology) at one research university. This paper focuses on the role of independent learning in relation to apprenticeship relationships illustrating how becoming an independent researcher is contingent on becoming an independent learner.

Author

• Emma Maria Flores, University of Washington