EDGE Research

What is the purpose of graduate education in geography? What should it be? How does graduate education contribute to the development of expertise in geography? Why do some students excel in graduate programs while others experience difficulty adjusting to departmental culture and campus climate? These questions form the heart of the EDGE project and extend a dialogue undertaken in the past decade to stimulate reflective thinking about graduate education in America. Foremost among these efforts are the Preparing Future Faculty programs sponsored by the Council of Graduate Schools and the Association of American Colleges and Universities, the Assessment of Research-Doctorate Programs by the National Research Council, the Re-envisioning the Ph.D. project at the University of Washington, and The Responsive Ph.D. initiative of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation.

EDGE will build on the work of these organizations and also draw on a rich foundation of scholarship by geographers and scholars with expertise in professional development and higher education. Three areas of inquiry specify the aims of this research:

(1) Career preparation and pathways. What do geography graduates need to know and be able to do after they leave school? What factors influence decisions by graduate students to pursue or leave a particular career? How does the demand for geographic knowledge, skills, and perspectives vary across major employment sectors? Are geography graduate programs preparing graduates with the competencies that employers seek? EDGE is exploring these questions through detailed interviews and surveys with employer organizations and alumni from undergraduate and graduate geography programs. The results of this research will contribute to workforce development theory, but also can provide students, departments, and employers with practical advice for strengthening education, training, and career advising in graduate programs.

(2) Department environments. How do graduate students perceive the academic climate of their programs? Do student perceptions of academic climate vary on the basis of gender, race, sexuality, and research subfield? How does departmental culture affect the abilities and attitudes of graduate students? EDGE is developing a methodology to explore these questions in the context of MA/MS and PhD geography programs. This methodology will produce quantitative and qualitative measures of academic climate from the perspective of students, faculty, department chairs, and graduate deans. In practical terms, the results will provide graduate programs with advice for building supportive and intellectually engaging environments for students and faculty of all backgrounds.

(3) Professional development strategies. What is the value of addressing professional development within the context of an academic discipline such as geography? What can be done to help students grasp theoretical perspectives and practical knowledge needed to understand the interconnections among their teaching, research, and service? Through workshops, conference sessions, and visits to departments, EDGE researchers will meet with students and faculty to communicate the work of the project and share materials and ideas for enhancing graduate education in the discipline. This process is designed to initiate reflective conversations aimed at providing insights and understandings for a department about what is working and what areas are in need of improvement. It will also draw on the collective wisdom of geographers and professional development experts to develop resources that address the specific needs of graduate students, early-career faculty, and program administrators.

EDGE research manuscripts are scheduled for publication in the following journals:

1. Solem, M., I. Cheung, and B. Schlemper. Skills in professional geography: An assessment of workforce needs and expectations. Forthcoming, The Professional Geographer.

This study compares the skills of professional geographers and the needs of employer organizations across major sectors of the U.S. workforce. Following a series of focus groups, two surveys were developed to explore: (i) the extent specific skills were performed by geographers in different professional positions, and (ii) the value of and anticipated demand for those skills from the perspective of employers. Overall, respondents in the focus groups and both surveys emphasized the need for general skills ranging from time management and writing ability to information management and computer literacy. But employers also cited many geographic skills as being vital for enhancing the work of professionals in all types of organizations. Competency in field methods, the ability to work across disciplinary boundaries, and spatial thinking were three skill areas that characterized the work of geographic professionals irrespective of specialty.

2. Solem, M., J. Lee, and B. Schlemper. Departmental climate and student experiences in graduate geography programs. Forthcoming, Research in Higher Education.

This study explores how graduate students enrolled in M.A./M.S. and Ph.D. geography programs perceive the social and academic climate of their departments. A second objective is to understand how these students self-assess their own professional abilities, values, and goals, and whether these self-assessments differ across demographic and institutional contexts. The survey instrument for this research is based on data collected from graduate student focus groups and on validated constructs of academic culture and climate from previous research. T-tests, ANOVA, and regression analyses identified significant differences among graduate students and their perceptions of departmental climate when compared on the basis of gender, citizenship, race/ethnicity, disciplinary subfield, and institutional type. Interview data provide additional context for analysis of the survey data. The primary areas in which we detected differences in graduate students’ experiences were 1) diversity issues, 2) disciplinary and institutional cultures, 3) career planning and development, 4) financial matters, and 5) quality of the learning environment.