Beyond Instructional Development: An Exploration of Using Formal Pedagogy Training to Benefit Perceived Quality of Life and Sense of Community in Graduate Students

The Association of American Colleges and Universities calls for improvements in teaching preparation in graduate programs as a transferable skill for future faculty. However, the amount of institutional and faculty support for these programs is limited. For the relatively few programs that exist, rarely do they have their outcomes assessed in a data-driven manner. This is disconcerting considering that participation in professional development can improve work-life balance, and graduate students often work long hours, suffer from mental health issues, and face increasing career competition. In this case study, we explore how two teaching development programs impacted pedagogical knowledge, perceived quality of life, and sense of community in graduate students at the University of California, Irvine. Using a mixed methods approach, we demonstrate that participants in our introductory quarter-long Developing Teaching Excellence course increased their pedagogical knowledge, and participants in both our introductory course and our advanced year-long Pedagogical Fellows Program reported having improved quality of life and sense of belonging. Most commonly, participants framed these pedagogical programs/courses as providing a safe and inclusive space to explore teaching in an interdisciplinary manner; a network of like-minded and supportive peers; and an opportunity to develop greater confidence in teaching, mentorship, and other aspects of graduate life such as conducting research and entering the academic job market. Taken together, our results indicate that providing a structured, nurturing environment for graduate students to develop their pedagogical knowledge and practice may lead to improved quality of life and sense of belonging.

The Health of the Classics Job Market during the Pandemic: A Long-Term Perspective

The pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic have led to a 60% decline in the scale of the academic job market in classics in Canada and the United States. Review of online job posting data stretching back to the mid-1990s shows that the health of this market correlates closely with that of the economy at large. While minor year-to-year economic fluctuations have a minimal impact on the job market in the long term, recessions fundamentally alter its character, with the market remaining depressed for years after the economy itself has recovered. Compounding this problem is the oversupply of PhDs flooding the market at present, a consequence of the long training period of graduate school, which keeps PhD output high for many years after a wave of undergraduate enrolment peaks. A third factor is the trend in academia to short-term positions with high teaching loads, which leads to fewer openings for permanent jobs and a diminished need for faculty. Taken together, current trends bode ill for the future of our discipline and pose an existential threat for many smaller programs.