Beyond the McNair Program: A Comparative Study of McNair Scholars' Understandings of the Impacts of Program Participation on their Graduate School Experiences

This study assessed the performance of a federal program designed to serve first-generation, low-income (FGLI) college students—the Ronald E. McNair Program. Using data from a midwestern liberal arts university we found that FGLI program participants are far more likely to be retained to the university and successful in terms of timely graduation and placement into graduate school than FGLI non-participants, even when controlling for academic ability and ambition.

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(Re)Forming Research Poetry

Qualitative Inquiry ◽

10.1177/1077800411423219 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 17 (9) ◽

pp. 887-896 ◽

Cited By ~ 23

Author(s):

Maria K. E. Lahman ◽

Katrina L. Rodriguez ◽

Veronica M. Richard ◽

Monica R. Geist ◽

Roland K. Schendel ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Doctoral Students ◽

Graduate School ◽

School Experiences ◽

Free Form ◽

Narrative Interviews ◽

Writing Ability ◽

Research Article ◽

International Doctoral Students ◽

The One ◽

Research Representation

In this article, the authors reflect on an experience with research representation in which they deliberately engage to push their notion of what research poetry might be. The authors discuss the experience that began when they examined approximately 50 in-depth narrative interviews of international doctoral students’ graduate school experiences. The article discusses a traditional thematic qualitative research article that was written and published on the basis of data derived from the aforementioned narrative interviews. In the next part of the experience, the one specific to this article, the authors compose three research poems of varying styles—free form, elegy, and haiku. The authors challenge their current research, representation, and poetic understandings by comparing and contrasting the traditional qualitative article to the nontraditional poetic representations. The final step of this process includes the authors’ methodological reflections on poetic representations in the areas of accessibility, power of compressed form, and writing ability or good enough research poetry.

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Defining the Graduate College Experience: What it “Should” versus “Does” Include

International Journal of Doctoral Studies ◽

10.28945/2102 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 10 ◽

pp. 057-077 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Patricia L. Hardre ◽

Shannon Hackett

Keyword(s):

Social Sciences ◽

Graduate Students ◽

Graduate School ◽

College Experience ◽

School Experiences ◽

Program Improvement ◽

Actual Experience ◽

And Performance ◽

Graduate Experiences ◽

Unrealistic Expectations

Gaps between expectations and actual educational experience may influence motivation, learning and performance. The graduate college experience (GCE) is shrouded in myth and legend that may create unrealistic expectations, while its reality includes elements of politics, economics and organizational psychology. This study examined 1,629 present and former graduate students’ perceptions of what their graduate school experiences should and did include. The sample was analyzed as a whole and also divided and tested for subgroup differences by: degree types (masters and doctorate); at four different points along their degree paths (entrance, midpoint, exit, alumni); and by disciplinary subgroups (hard sciences, social sciences, arts, interdisciplinary). Statistically significant differences were found between subgroups on perceptions of what the GCE “should” and “does” include separately. Further, within-groups comparison of what the graduate college experience “should” and “does” include showed significant differences for the whole group and all subgroups. In addition, the differences between graduate students’ expected and actual experience (should - does) negatively predicted overall satisfaction with their graduate experience. These contrasts of students’ actual and expected graduate experiences present potential to explain some of graduate students’ dissatisfaction and non-completion, and offer information to support program improvement and retention of graduate students.

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Renga, Research, Reflexivity: Poetic Representation

Qualitative Inquiry ◽

10.1177/1077800418788108 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 25 (9-10) ◽

pp. 826-829 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Maria K. E. Lahman ◽

Emilie Hancock ◽

Ahlam Alhudithi ◽

Tyler Kincaid ◽

Mel Lafferty ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Qualitative Research ◽

Doctoral Students ◽

Graduate School ◽

School Experiences ◽

Graduate Course ◽

Poetic Representation ◽

Way Of Thinking ◽

Way Finding ◽

The Way

In a graduate course dedicated to writing and representing qualitative research in varied ways members challenged themselves to create a renga, a Japanese form of cooperative linked poetry, around the topic of doctoral students’ graduate school experiences, employing imagery from natural elements. Along with creating a stanza of the poem each poet wrote a reflection as a way of engaging reflexively with the process. Areas of note included thinking in a new way, finding the way back to a way of thinking, the challenge in creating a poem, and power in the process and ensuing results.

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