‘Me, a teacher?!’ – Professional role identification and role activation of psychology PhD students
Studies in Graduate and Postdoctoral Education
ISSN: 2398-4686
Article publication date: 17 June 2019
Issue publication date: 25 June 2019
Abstract
Purpose
Developing professional identities as both researchers and teachers is core to doctoral students’ growth. Given the primacy of research for the university career, this study aimed at answering the following questions: how much do doctoral students identify with the teacher compared to the researcher role? Can the teacher role identity be purposely activated?
Design/methodology/approach
In an experimental study with 167 psychology PhD students, trait role identification was measured using a questionnaire. Afterward, participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions differing in the picture material (research vs teaching pictures vs a mixture of both) provided for creating a collage reflecting their roles. Subsequently, answers to open questions were coded and quantified as indicators of state role identity.
Findings
As a trait, doctoral students identified more strongly with their researcher role than with their teacher role. Teacher role identity as a state was successfully activated when doctoral students engaged with teaching pictures compared to the other conditions.
Practical implications
As the researcher role seems to be the default setting for PhD students, activation of the teacher role has the potential to benefit work satisfaction of PhD students and the quality of their teaching.
Originality/value
Taking both long- and short-term identification processes in PhD students into account is a promising new approach. Besides, quantitative data are added to the field of qualitative insights on PhD students’ professional roles.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. We would like to thank Dr. Celeste Brennecka for language editing and Nicola Hohensee for help with data coding.
Declaration of interest: Both the author and co-author do not have any interests that might be interpreted as influencing the research. Applicable ethical standards were followed in the conduct of the experiment. This manuscript has not been published previously and is not under concurrent consideration.
Citation
Hillbrink, A. and Jucks, R. (2019), "‘Me, a teacher?!’ – Professional role identification and role activation of psychology PhD students", Studies in Graduate and Postdoctoral Education, Vol. 10 No. 2, pp. 109-125. https://doi.org/10.1108/SGPE-03-2019-0031
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited