Café of Control: A Graduate Student Persistence Digital Ethnography

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  In Roundtable Session: Graduate Education Reimagined

Abstract

This study explores graduate student persistence through the analysis of anonymously shared experiences and grievances collected online. By examining the nuanced factors influencing students' persistence deliberations this study shifts the conversation away from assumptions of academic incompetence and toward a deeper understanding of why students voluntarily leave graduate study. This study additionally reframes withdrawal from graduate study not as failure, but instead as a rational response to structural impediments, relational challenges, and polycrisis. Findings highlight advisor/advisee relationship and how this relationship can take a nefarious turn towards abuse as a pivotal influence on graduate student persistence. Given the overlap in challenges faced across academic levels, these findings contribute to richer perspective on structural and relational dynamics within higher education.

Author

• Yvenord Mergilles, Florida International University