"Needs Analysis of Recent Foreign Language Graduate Program Alumni"
Dissertation Title: Needs Analysis of Recent Foreign Language Graduate Program Alumni
Dissertation Committee Members: Dr. Jill Castek (Chair), Dr. Suzanne Panferov Reese, Dr. Beatrice Dupuy, Dr. Adriana Cimetta
Abstract: Professional learning plays a pivotal role in fostering continuous growth and improving the skills and knowledge of graduate students in FL programs to better prepare them for their careers post-graduation. However, of those who start a doctoral degree program, roughly half complete their degree (Cassuto, 2013), and of those who do, the majority will not stay in academia (Cornell, 2020) due in part to the dearth of positions available (Grigoli, 2022). Despite this, the professionalization of graduate students remains focused on preparing graduate students to be professors (Thompson et al., 2012; Byrnes, 2011). Within foreign language (FL) graduate programs specifically, some arguments have been made that suggest graduate student professionalization should focus more on teaching skills development (Dupuy & Allen, 2012; Ryshina-Pankova, 2011; Thompson et al., 2012). This kind of teacher training and professional development has been shown to be beneficial for graduate students as teaching is a skill that is meaningful both immediately for those graduate students who are also Teaching Associates and long-term as teaching as a skill can be transferred to other areas such as management. The potential benefits of this kind of teacher training and professional development have been explored in the literature (Paesani, 2020; Zapata, 2020; Crane, 2015). However, it is largely unknown what FL graduate program alumni go on to do in their careers post-graduation, how effective the professionalization opportunities have been long-term, and what needs alumni from these programs still have.
This study sought to examine this gap in the research by viewing the professionalization process as one of professional learning (PL) through a needs analysis examining alumni and faculty perspectives on PL for alumni and graduate students. The collection and analysis of triangulated data sources encouraged the development of a more complete understanding of perspectives both from alumni through a survey and semi-structured interviews and from faculty through another survey and reflection prompts. A thematic analysis process (Braun & Clarke, 1989) was employed using a constant comparative approach (Strauss & Corbin, 1990) followed by a cross-data analysis (Creswell, 2009). Eight themes and several tensions between perspectives were identified. Implications and recommendations for the PL of graduate students are discussed.
