The Formation of Scholars
Rethinking Doctoral Education for the Twenty-First Century
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This groundbreaking book explores the current state of doctoral education in the United States and offers a plan for increasing the effectiveness of doctoral education. Programs must grapple with questions of purpose. The authors examine practices and elements of doctoral programs and show how they can be made more powerful by relying on principles of progressive development, integration, and collaboration. They challenge the traditional apprenticeship model and offer an alternative in which students learn while apprenticing with several faculty members. The authors persuasively argue that creating intellectual community is essential for high-quality graduate education in every department. Knowledge-centered, multigenerational communities foster the development of new ideas and encourage intellectual risk taking.
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As I begin my own journey into doctoral education, this was a very interesting read about the current state of doctoral education. Organized around Carnegie Mellon University's Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate (CID), the author puts forth the CID's thoughts on the evolution of how doctoral coursework and the dissertation are presented. How much time do doctoral programs spend talking about their purpose? What is the purpose of doctoral education?
Written as a pseudo-textbook, it presents data and findings from a series of workshops facilitated by the CID. Program experimentation with such things as portfolios, cross-departmental research, etc. are all presented and ultimately advocated for pushing the doctorate into the future.
I appreciate the notion that the doctorate is not just for those wanting to perform research in academe. While that is a worthy pursuit, the benefits of PhD holders in private industry are numerous. Together with PhDs in higher education, these individuals can truly push the boundaries of what it means to be a scholar.
