Colleagues in Training: How Senior Faculty View Doctoral Education.

In 2008, Christ and Broyles, commissioned by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), set out to investigate the health of graduate education with the goal of creating a set of metrics to better assess doctoral programs within AEJMC schools. The study attempted to discover what graduate programs required for students in regard to teaching, service, and research. Christ and Broyles (2008) reported that of the 38 programs included in the study, nearly half (49%) encouraged its students to present research papers, and 16% required journal publications before graduation. More importantly, their findings uncovered the importance of mentoring in the success of graduate students. Christ and Broyles found that mentoring was the second most popular suggestion for preparing students to conduct research. Furthermore, mentoring was reported as the most important way to prepare students to teach as well as to become successful public servants. However, although their study was welcomed as heralding a new era for graduate programs, there is little published evidence that doctoral programs have adopted the suggestions put forth in their report.Since the Christ and Broyles (2008) report, most journalism and mass communication programs have remained focused on undergraduate education. Several researchers have simultaneously called for undergraduate curriculum reform and lamented the slow pace of change that the typical university culture supports (Masse & Popovich, 2007; Mensing, 2010). Recently, however, academics have again begun to consider the state of graduate education. Indeed, doctoral students are just a few years removed from the role of college professor. Intuitively, we understand that how we are taught (and what we are taught) as doctoral students can affect the way we view the role of a faculty member in future students' pursuit toward the doctoral degree.The purpose of this project, then, is to heed the call of Christ and Broyles's (2008) report and try to better understand our journalism and mass communication doctoral programs. Under the lens of Kalbfleisch's (2002) mentoring enactment theory, we examine how senior professors relate to their doctoral students. By conducting a survey investigating full professors' (n = 241) beliefs about what is important for students pursuing the PhD, we provide additional insight to Christ and Broyles's call for better understanding of graduate education within journalism and mass communication programs.Literature ReviewMentoring Enactment TheoryMentoring has long been viewed as important in students' academic success. In the oft quoted Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses, Arum and Roska (2011) paint a depressing picture of the lack of learning occurring on today's campuses. One of the few positive findings from their study is that students who have contact with their professors outside of classes do better than those who do not. Mentoring is one well-established way that this "contact" can occur. While Arum and Roska focus on undergraduates, the concept is clear: Mentoring is one key to students' success. The process of mentoring can be better understood by exploring mentoring enactment theory. Mentoring enactment theory is based on the premise that the mentor "has achieved personal or professional success and is willing and able to share covert and overt practices that have assisted him or her in becoming successful" (Kalbfleisch, 2002, p. 63). Senior professors are often deemed "successful" simply by their title, which usually implies success in teaching, research, and service, resulting in tenure and subsequent promotion to full professor.Mansson and Myers (2012) have used mentoring enactment theory to better understand the relationship between dissertation adviser and advisee, arguing that many scholars have viewed this relationship as one of mentoring. They posit that one of the roles of the advisee is to protect the adviser's reputation, to complete tasks assigned by the adviser and to discuss future goals. …