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 A Report from the Committee compiled by Heather Nathans
After the February 2011 Executive Committee meeting, the New Paradigms Committee (comprised of J. Ellen Gainor, Kimi Johnson, Odai Johnson, Esther Kim Lee, Charlotte McIvor, Heather S. Nathans, and Sandra Richards) began designing a survey for the ASTR membership to gather information on a range of topics including:
- What (if any) significant changes institutions had made to their graduate programs in the past five years, or what changes they were planning for the near future.
- What aspects of their graduate training have been most useful to colleagues in preparing them for their careers (whether as professors or in a range of other professional careers).
- If/how programs were considering training students for careers outside academe.
- How ASTR can be most useful in navigating the changing aspects of training and professional development in the years to come.
We received 352 responses to the survey (which was administered via Survey Monkey). 27.6% of respondents were faculty teaching in doctoral programs; 29.8% were faculty teaching in BA/BFA programs; 5.4% were professionals working outside the academy; 37.2% were current graduate students or recent graduates.
OVERVIEW OF RESPONSES:
Faculty teaching in PhD Programs:
- Changes to doctoral programs: 51.4% of respondents report significant changes to their doctoral programs over the past few years; 48.6% report no significant changes. (Reported changes included: curriculum transformation, increased offerings related to professional development, an expanded focus on mentoring, increased interdisciplinarity, and collaboration with professional programs/theatres in their regions.)
- Program revisions: 64.7% of respondents report that their programs have identified specific areas for improvement in their doctoral programs; 35.3% report that their programs have not currently identified areas for improvement. Areas targeted for improvement include: Funding 62%; Time-to-degree 33%; Curriculum transformation 48%; Mentoring/Job prep 19%; Increase diversity of program (student body and course content) 19%; Providing additional professional opportunities/training 9%. Respondents identified the following steps their programs were taking to improve graduate education: Revisions to program benchmarks/requirements 43%; Enhanced advising to better prepare students for program success/job prep 38%; Fundraising/Funding reallocation 29%; Increased faculty collaboration/brainstorming on program structure 28%; Negotiations with university administration 19%.
- Job training: 38.1% of respondents report that their programs offer guidance for students seeking jobs outside the academy; 61.1% report that their programs do not currently offer this training.
- Priorities for the future: 32% of respondents identified mentorship as a significant priority for their programs (as an area to sustain and/or improve); 20% identified training for jobs outside academia as a significant priority for their programs; 12% identified curriculum revision as a significant priority for their programs.
Faculty teaching in BA/BFA Programs:
- PhD skills applied in current position: Respondents identified the following skills from their PhD programs as the most essential to their current positions: 57.7% course design; 53.8% working with students; 53.8% research; 46.2% collaboration.
- Top priorities for ASTR: Respondents identified the following as top priorities for ASTR in supporting faculty teaching in BA/BFA programs: 29% additional professional opportunities including professionalization workshops, online resources, leadership opportunities, publication guidance, and tenure and promotion support; 18% described the need for ASTR to embrace a wider, more flexible vision of the field so that scholars in small institutions (particularly those with a heavy emphasis on teaching and production) would still be included.
- Top priorities for doctoral training programs: 58% of respondents indicated the need for more mentorship at the graduate level in order to prepare them for their positions in liberal arts programs; 21% indicated the need for more guidance concerning the tenure and promotion process.
Professionals working outside academic departments:
- Career goals: Only 7.1% of respondents indicated that they had entered a doctoral program planning to seek a job outside an academic department. 92.9% replied that they had originally planned to pursue an academic position.
- PhD skills of use in jobs outside academic jobs: 80% of respondents said their research skills were among the most useful skills acquired in graduate school; 73.3% identified their editing skills; 46.7% identified their ability to teach and prepare teaching materials as a significant/useful skill in their current position.
- Top priorities for ASTR: Respondents noted that the most significant contributions ASTR could make in supporting professionals working outside academic departments included: networking opportunities, circulating data on professional training/employment opportunities, and developing collaborative relationships with non-academic programs or institutions likely to hire PhDs.
Current and recent graduates of PhD Programs:
- Career plans: Out of 113 respondents, 92.9% indicated they started a PhD program planning to teach (university or liberal arts programs); 55% indicated that their plans had changed since they began their graduate programs (largely due to the economy/job market).
- Job preparation in graduate training programs: 72.2% of respondents said getting help/support in locating jobs was a significant priority; 66.7% said help/support in preparing for job interviews was a significant priority;64.8% said preparing CVs and job materials was a significant priority.
- Students planning careers outside academic programs: 50.4% expressed an interest in dramaturgy; 47.8% expressed an interest in professional research; 41.8% expressed an interest in professional theatre work.
- Changing graduate programs: 26% of respondents reported that budget cuts have had a negative impact on their graduate programs.
- ASTR’s role: 55% noted the important role ASTR plays in facilitating professional and scholarly development (particularly through workshops and online resources).
At the 2011 annual ASTR conference, the New Paradigms group participated in several sessions, including a plenary session, a Career Session, and the state-of-the profession panel to discuss some of these survey findings and possible future steps with ASTR colleagues.
NEXT STEPS:
Based on the responses to the surveys and discussions at the annual meeting in Montreal, the New Paradigms in Graduate Education committee will pursue the following steps in 2012:
- Create a monthly mailing through the ASTR-listserv with resources on these issues made available to membership including links to relevant articles, award opportunities, job postings and more. This will be supplemented by a quarterly article from the New Paradigms committee in each new issue of ASTR Online on focused issues part of this more general conversation.
- Offer members the chance to initiate "ASTR Regional Exchange Meetings" in order to exchange information on new research projects or other issues of immediate concern to the fields of theatre and performance studies (such as funding, curriculum transformation, professional development, etc.).
- Devise a second survey that expands on the questions examined in our 2011 questionnaire. One recurring theme in the 2011 survey and the 2011 conference was the importance of gathering data on the current state of graduate education in theatre and making that data available to colleagues across ASTR.
The New Paradigms Committee welcomes all colleagues interested in participating in or contributing to our activities. Please send questions, suggestions, or offers to volunteer to
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 Heather S. Nathans is a Professor of Theatre at the University of Maryland’s School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies. She is also the editor for the University of Iowa Press’s award-winning series, Studies in Theatre History and Culture. |
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