Confronting Barriers Through Strategies and Mindsets: How Dissertation Chairs Support Minoritized Doctoral Candidates to Persist

• In Event: Expectations and Experiences in Advising, Mentoring, and Supervising in Graduate Education

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to understand how dissertation chairs in social science fields at the 12 highest ranked institutions in the US support minoritized doctoral candidates to persist to degree completion. Attributional theory and Tinto's (1993) theory of doctoral persistence underpin the conceptual framework for this study. Findings from this study could increase faculty knowledge base and practice, as well as improve systems and processes that inform how faculty across social science disciplines support not only minoritized students, but all students in doctoral programs to persist through the dissertation phase and increase the diversity, representation, and scholarly contributions of people who hold doctorate degrees.

Author

• Kimberly Jamison, University of North Carolina - Wilmington