ABSTRACT
When students enter academia, they are expected to learn material following department and university curricula. In addition to the official curriculum, which clearly states learning outcomes and goals, there is a hidden curriculum (HC) composed of all the behaviors, norms, values, and implicit understandings that are not explicitly taught but rather gained through prolonged exposure to the culture of a particular institution, department, or field. The hidden curriculum can present barriers to students in adjusting to and succeeding in higher education. The hidden curriculum of graduate education is often racialized because it mirrors social dynamics found in society writ large. In order to address the negative impacts of the hidden curriculum, there needs to be a cultural change away from assuming that students will adapt to higher education alone. Instead, the process of adapting should be recognized as ongoing and aided by those already familiar with group expectations and norms. During this project, we will lead a 5-day orientation program for incoming graduate students to directly address assumed knowledge of how to be a successful graduate student and the barriers faced when transitioning into graduate school.
Project Lead
Ankur Desai
University of Wisconsin - Madison
Project Lead
Alicia Hoffman
University of Wisconsin - Madison
GOALS & RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1. How does discussing and implementing transparent expectations for incoming graduate students impact retention, sense of belonging, and academic progress in the early years of a graduate degree?
2. Do structured community-building activities help create a sense of belonging in the student cohort and the department as a whole?
METHODS
The main portion of this study will involve voluntary participation by graduate students from the incoming cohort in a 5-day orientation program discussing aspects of the HC. All incoming graduate students, regardless of participation in the HC orientation, will be given a pretest and posttest to evaluate their sense of belonging and preparedness for graduate school. To help account for systematic bias due to the opt-in nature of the study, we will also survey current graduate students in the department and evaluate historical time to degree and program retention. To evaluate the orientation program and improve for future cohorts, semi-structured interviews will be conducted with 3-4 participants who completed all 5 days of the orientation.
CONTRIBUTION TO PROJECT GOALS
This study will unpack another important moment of gatekeeping in doctoral education and how it can be reimagined to be more equitable. It extends research that examines how our ways of construing who is “qualified” in doctoral education may present disproportionate barriers to students from historically underrepresented backgrounds. We’ll identify from this work both problems inherent in common evaluation practices as well as cases of PhD programs that have moved to models of examination that center as much, if not more, on student development than on gatekeeping.
FOCUS AREA WITHIN GRADUATE EDUCATION
Doctoral student socialization, retention, time to degree
INVESTIGATORS
Ankur Desai, University of Wisconsin - Madison
Alicia Hoffman, University of Wisconsin – Madison
Zoë Brooke Zibton, University of Wisconsin - Madison