Doctoral Students’ Perceived Barriers that Slow the Progress toward Completing a Doctoral Dissertation: A Mixed Analysis

The non-completion of doctoral degrees has been a concern due to its economic, social, and personal consequences. In the current study, the researchers investigated perceived barriers of select doctoral students in completing their doctoral degrees by utilizing a fully mixed sequential mixed research design. The quantitative and qualitative data were concurrently collected using identical samples (n = 205) via a Reading Interest Survey questionnaire. A sequential mixed analysis revealed 6 emergent themes: external obligations (36%), challenges to doctoral-level researchers (34%), practical/logistical constraints (23%), emotional concerns (15%), program structure (9%), and support for completion (8%). Also, 3 meta-themes were identified (i.e., dissociation, external/internal barriers, and institutional/personal barriers), which aided in explaining the relationships among the 6 primary themes. Implications of the findings are discussed

Survival Strategies: Doctoral Students’ Perceptions of Challenges and Coping Methods

The purpose of this collective case study was to use a critical dialectical pluralistic (CDP) philosophical lens to investigate select doctoral students’ perceptions about the challenges that they encountered while in a doctorate program and the coping strategies that they found effective in mitigating these challenges. A major goal of CDP is to empower research participants maximally by giving them the role of participant-researchers. Participants were 10 doctoral students enrolled at a Tier-II university in the United States, who were selected via convenience sampling. Each student participated in a face-to-face interview with a member of the research team—consistent with a CDP approach. A qualitative-dominant crossover mixed analysis was used wherein both quantitative and qualitative analyses were used to analyze the qualitative data, with the qualitative analysis phase being dominant. The qualitative analyses (e.g., constant comparison analysis, classical content analysis) revealed the following five themes: compartmentalization of life, outside support systems, justification for participation in program, emotional status, and structure of program. These themes indicated that although challenges are plentiful, particularly in terms of balancing one’s academic life with other obligations, participants found support and encouragement from family, friends, and other doctoral students to be the most beneficial coping strategy. These findings have important implications for the structuring of doctoral programs

SELF-PERCEPTIONS OF ADJUNCT FACULTY ABOUT THEIR ROLES AT A SELECT COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM

The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative study was twofold (a) to understand better adjunct faculty instructors’ self-perceived roles within their positions at a select community college system and (b) study to understand better the emphasis that these adjunct faculty members placed on different aspects of these roles in terms of their levels of performance and effectiveness. An additional purpose was to build on the qualitative body of research for understanding the roles and experiences of adjunct faculty members in community college systems. This study was conducted using Harré & van Langenhove’s (1999) positioning theory, Holmes’s (2013) claim-affirmation model of modalities of emergent identity, and Leech and Onwuegbuzie‘s (2010) 13-step process for qualitative research. Following the completion of 12 interviews with adjunct faculty members at the select community college system, data was analyzed through multiple methods (i.e., constant comparison analysis, classical content analysis, correspondence analysis, nonverbal behavior analysis). Seven themes emerged from the initial qualitative analyses: background experiences, motivation and rationale, position description, strengths of adjuncts, challenges experienced by adjuncts, culture of the institution, overall cares and concerns. Further, five meta-themes emerged from the additional analyses: employment fatigue, concern and care for student growth, providing a service, appreciation of position, and career-enders. It was hoped that findings from this study would help administrators of community college systems to understand better the experiences and needs of the different categories of adjunct faculty so as to better assist these populations in attaining success. Additionally, it was hoped that findings would strengthen the knowledge base of the use of adjunct faculty in the community college setting. Future areas of research to explore in this topic are also contemplated