The hats they wear: defining and articulating the enactment of the graduate program director role
Journal Article
Overview
abstract
; Purpose; To enable innovation and change within graduate education, there is a need to explore all levers for change. This study aims to define one such lever: the role of faculty who lead graduate programs [i.e. graduate program directors (GPDs)]. These faculty shape departmental structures and support the overall graduate student experience.; ; ; Design/methodology/approach; Semistructured interviews were conducted with seven GPDs from across the USA. Probability to proportion sampling, along with purposive sampling, allowed us to gather a diverse sample of engineering GPDs and capture the breadth of GPDs’ roles and responsibilities they hold within their programs. An open coding methodology with thematic and categorical analyses was used to examine the GPDs’ descriptions of their roles and responsibilities within their programs.; ; ; Findings; The combined analyses produced six task-based categories described as “hats” that GPDs used to respond to student needs and programmatic responsibilities: Administrator, Guide, Mediator, Delegator, Confidant and Change Maker.; ; ; Originality/value; To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this work provides one of the first papers to clearly define the GPD role and actions taken from the perspective of those who hold the position. The identification of hats offers a foundation for faculty to better conceptualize the role, administrators to consider how they might support faculty training and transitions into this role, and scholars to meaningfully integrate GPDs in change efforts that aim to improve graduate education.;
