Post-PhD Trajectories: Desperately Seeking Careers?

Autor/in	McAlpine, Lynn
Titel	Post-PhD Trajectories: Desperately Seeking Careers?
Quelle	In: Higher Education Review, 47 (2014) 1, S.4-35 (32 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0018-1609
Schlagwörter	Graduate Students; College Graduates; Education Work Relationship; Career Development; Longitudinal Studies; Qualitative Research; Foreign Countries; Social Scientists; Career Choice; Influences; Canada; United Kingdom + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Graduate Study; Student; Students; Aufbaustudium; Graduiertenstudium; Hauptstudium; Studentin; Hochschulabsolvent; Hochschulabsolventin; Berufsentwicklung; Longitudinal study; Longitudinal method; Longitudinal methods; Längsschnittuntersuchung; Qualitative Forschung; Ausland; Social scientist; Sozialwissenschaftler; Influence; Einfluss; Einflussfaktor; Kanada; Großbritannien
Abstract	The doctorate has traditionally been perceived as preparation for an academic career (teaching and research). However, the evidence suggests that this assumption no longer holds true since internationally more than half of all PhD graduates leave the higher education sector. Though there has been considerable research examining the ways in which the PhD prepares people for academic careers, how individuals perceive and navigate the transition to post-PhD academic and nonacademic careers is largely unexplored. Drawing on an eight-year longitudinal qualitative research program, this paper examines the career trajectories of 40 individuals after their PhDs: Canadian and UK social scientists and Canadian scientists. Nine broad career trajectories emerged. The evidence emerging from the somewhat novel methodology suggested the power of a nested contexts perspective, one attentive to the interplay of national, disciplinary and institutional influences in career opportunity structures. At the same time, individuals' horizons for action, their efforts to craft their positions to achieve their goals, played a powerful role as regards the choice of different opportunity structures. The results support the conceptualization of career trajectories as an integration of both subjective and objective perspectives. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01