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Causality Of The Ph. D Program

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When students join a Ph.D. program they soon become members of a discourse community, which is a group of members that share the same values, goals, and lexis. Especially in the science disciplines the students become immersed in their group by exploring various research projects and conducting experiments that will hopefully propel their scientific curiosity exponentially before they graduate. The students are also not alone in this journey as they are under the tutelage and mentorship of an academic advisor. However, the relationship that exists between the two communities is one that is often embedded with feelings of tension and turmoil. Often this tension frequently results in many students leaving the lab before they graduate and …show more content…

Additionally, they indicated that the “feelings of discontent” they held for the lab stemmed from their PI (Mays). The students explained that they function daily in a community of approximately 10-12 members, and they all collectively report to the PI of the lab. Furthermore, grad student Smith explained that the PI presents himself as having great power over the students as he stated, “I think he wants us to believe he is this omnipotent figure.” Grad student Mays explained that when new students are accepted into the program they enter into a group of their peers that range in experience levels from apprentice to more advanced by the time they are reaching the end of the academic tenure. However, as each new student joins the group every fall they are not formally admitted into their lifestyle, but are instead unfortunately left to their own devices to interpret and understand the functions and guidelines of the lab (Smith). It is a process author Susan Gardner a researcher who studied the socialization process of grad students explained that this period can be categorized into the “[i]nformal stage…in which the novice learns of the informal role expectations transmitted by interactions with others who are current incumbents” (728). Furthermore, she adds that it is through socialization that can afford each student the ability to be successful in

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