Australian PhD graduates’ agency in navigating their career pathways: stories from social sciences

IF 3.6 1区教育学 Q1 EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH Higher Education Pub Date : 2024-01-26 DOI:10.1007/s10734-024-01181-6

Binh Ta, Cuong Hoang, Hang Khong, Trang Dang

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Abstract

Despite limited opportunities for tenured academic positions, the number of PhD graduates in Social Sciences has steadily risen in countries with developed research systems. The current literature predominantly portrays PhD graduates as victims, either of the higher education system or of their own optimism in pursuing an academic career. This paper takes an alternative stance by spotlighting the agency exhibited by PhD graduates in Social Sciences as they deftly navigate their career pathways amid the constrained academic job market. Specifically, we adopt an ecological perspective of agency to explore how PhD graduates in Social Sciences exercise their agency in navigating their career from the beginning of their PhD candidature until up to 5 years after graduation. We employ a narrative approach to delve into the employment journeys of twenty-three PhD graduates. Within this cohort, we select to report four participants from four Australian universities, each possessing distinct career trajectories. Our analysis highlights agency as the link between various personal and institutional factors that shape our participants’ career trajectories. Based on this finding, we offer recommendations for practice and policy changes that appreciate PhD graduates’ agency.

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澳大利亚博士毕业生在职业发展道路上的能动性：来自社会科学的故事

尽管获得终身学术职位的机会有限，但在研究体系发达的国家，社会科学专业的博士毕业生人数一直在稳步上升。目前的文献主要将博士毕业生描绘成受害者，或是高等教育体系的受害者，或是他们自己追求学术生涯的乐观主义的受害者。本文从另一个角度出发，着重分析了社会科学博士毕业生在受限的学术就业市场中巧妙地找到自己的职业道路时所表现出的能动性。具体而言，我们从生态学的视角来探讨社会科学专业的博士毕业生是如何行使他们的代理权，从开始申请博士学位到毕业后 5 年的职业生涯。我们采用叙事方法，深入研究了 23 名博士毕业生的就业历程。在这批毕业生中，我们选择了来自澳大利亚四所大学的四名参与者进行报告，他们各自拥有不同的职业轨迹。我们的分析强调，代理是塑造参与者职业轨迹的各种个人和机构因素之间的纽带。基于这一发现，我们提出了有关实践和政策变革的建议，以鼓励博士毕业生的能动性。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Higher Education EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH-

CiteScore

10.70

自引率

12.00%

发文量

160

期刊介绍： Higher Education is recognised as the leading international journal of Higher Education studies, publishing twelve separate numbers each year. Since its establishment in 1972, Higher Education has followed educational developments throughout the world in universities, polytechnics, colleges, and vocational and education institutions. It has actively endeavoured to report on developments in both public and private Higher Education sectors. Contributions have come from leading scholars from different countries while articles have tackled the problems of teachers as well as students, and of planners as well as administrators. While each Higher Education system has its own distinctive features, common problems and issues are shared internationally by researchers, teachers and institutional leaders. Higher Education offers opportunities for exchange of research results, experience and insights, and provides a forum for ongoing discussion between experts. Higher Education publishes authoritative overview articles, comparative studies and analyses of particular problems or issues. All contributions are peer reviewed.