Abstract
Developing faculty interested in aging may help social work meet the needs of our growing aging population. However, doctoral students need a variety of supports to complete PhDs and become gerontological social work faculty. This study explored one program’s role in supporting the development of social work doctoral students to faculty in gerontology. An e-mail invitation was sent to all former participants (2010–2016 cohorts) of the Association for Gerontology Education in Social Work (AGESW) Pre-Dissertation Fellows Program (PDFP). The 38-question online survey consisted of Likert-type scales, multiple answers, and one open-ended question per section about the program’s impacts on their academic career development in teaching, research, mentoring, and support. Forty-five respondents, representing all six cohorts, completed the survey. More than half reported that the PDFP contributed to their ability to publish their research (64.4%, n = 29), grow their professional network (86.7%, n = 39, and teach (55.5%, n = 25). Doctoral programs provided different experiences than the PDFP, including mentoring, methodological training, professional development, networking, and peer support. Results suggest the PDFP provides content recipients value that supplements instruction received in their institutions. The program’s ability to connect students to each other and to national leaders enhances their career development and socialization into academic roles.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
10-29-2019
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1080/01634372.2019.1686097
Repository Citation
Kusmaul, Nancy; Wladkowski, Stephanie P.; Hageman, Sally; Gibson, Allison; Mauldin, Rebecca L.; Greenfield, Jennifer C.; and Fields, Noelle L., "Turning Doctoral Students into Faculty in Gerontological Social Work: The AGESW Experience" (2019). Social Work Faculty Publications. 8.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/csw_facpub/8
Notes/Citation Information
Published in Journal of Gerontological Social Work, v. 62, issue 8.
This is an Accepted Manuscript version of the following article, accepted for publication in Journal of Gerontological Social Work. Kusmaul, N., Wladkowski, S. P., Hageman, S., Gibson, A., Mauldin, R. L., Greenfield, J. C., & Fields, N. L. (2019). Turning doctoral students into faculty in gerontological social work: The AGESW experience. Journal of Gerontological Social Work, 62(8), 828-845. https://doi.org/10.1080/01634372.2019.1686097
It is deposited under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.