IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0160038.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Career Coaches as a Source of Vicarious Learning for Racial and Ethnic Minority PhD Students in the Biomedical Sciences: A Qualitative Study

Author

Listed:
  • Simon N Williams
  • Bhoomi K Thakore
  • Richard McGee

Abstract

Introduction: Many recent mentoring initiatives have sought to help improve the proportion of underrepresented racial and ethnic minorities (URMs) in academic positions across the biomedical sciences. However, the intractable nature of the problem of underrepresentation suggests that many young scientists may require supplemental career development beyond what many mentors are able to offer. As an adjunct to traditional scientific mentoring, we created a novel academic career “coaching” intervention for PhD students in the biomedical sciences. Objective: To determine whether and how academic career coaches can provide effective career-development-related learning experiences for URM PhD students in the biomedical sciences. We focus specifically on vicarious learning experiences, where individuals learn indirectly through the experiences of others. Method: The intervention is being tested as part of a longitudinal randomized control trial (RCT). Here, we describe a nested qualitative study, using a framework approach to analyze data from a total of 48 semi-structured interviews from 24 URM PhD students (2 interviews per participant, 1 at baseline, 1 at 12-month follow-up) (16 female, 8 male; 11 Black, 12 Hispanic, 1 Native-American). We explored the role of the coach as a source of vicarious learning, in relation to the students’ goal of being future biomedical science faculty. Results: Coaches were resources through which most students in the study were able to learn vicariously about how to pursue, and succeed within, an academic career. Coaches were particularly useful in instances where students’ research mentors are unable to provide such vicarious learning opportunities, for example because the mentor is too busy to have career-related discussions with a student, or because they have, or value, a different type of academic career to the type the student hopes to achieve. Implications: Coaching can be an important way to address the lack of structured career development that students receive in their home training environment.

Suggested Citation

  • Simon N Williams & Bhoomi K Thakore & Richard McGee, 2016. "Career Coaches as a Source of Vicarious Learning for Racial and Ethnic Minority PhD Students in the Biomedical Sciences: A Qualitative Study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(7), pages 1-19, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0160038
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0160038
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0160038
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0160038&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0160038?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Henry Sauermann & Michael Roach, 2012. "Science PhD Career Preferences: Levels, Changes, and Advisor Encouragement," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(5), pages 1-9, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Stephanie W Watts & Deepshikha Chatterjee & Julie W Rojewski & Carol Shoshkes Reiss & Tracey Baas & Kathleen L Gould & Abigail M Brown & Roger Chalkley & Patrick Brandt & Inge Wefes & Linda Hyman & J , 2019. "Faculty perceptions and knowledge of career development of trainees in biomedical science: What do we (think we) know?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(1), pages 1-31, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Giulio Marini, 2021. "The employment destination of PhD-holders in Italy: non-academic funded projects as drivers of successful segmentation," DoQSS Working Papers 21-16, Quantitative Social Science - UCL Social Research Institute, University College London.
    2. Corsini, Alberto & Pezzoni, Michele & Visentin, Fabiana, 2022. "What makes a productive Ph.D. student?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(10).
    3. Jeongeun Kim & Molly Ott & Lindsey Dippold, 2020. "University and Department Influences on Scientists’ Occupational Outcomes," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 61(2), pages 197-228, March.
    4. Margaret E Blume-Kohout & John W Clack, 2013. "Are Graduate Students Rational? Evidence from the Market for Biomedical Scientists," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(12), pages 1-13, December.
    5. Nora Hesse, 2015. "Students' Career Attitudes - How Entrepreneurial Are Prospective Scientists?," Working Papers on Innovation and Space 2015-03, Philipps University Marburg, Department of Geography.
    6. Marie K. Norman & Colleen A. Mayowski & Steven K. Wendell & Michael J. Forlenza & Chelsea N. Proulx & Doris M. Rubio, 2021. "Delivering What We PROMISED: Outcomes of a Coaching and Leadership Fellowship for Mentors of Underrepresented Mentees," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(9), pages 1-9, April.
    7. Jack Hart & Caleb C McKinney, 2020. "An institutional analysis of graduate outcomes reveals a contemporary workforce footprint for biomedical master’s degrees," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(12), pages 1-16, December.
    8. Hayter, Christopher S. & Parker, Marla A., 2019. "Factors that influence the transition of university postdocs to non-academic scientific careers: An exploratory study," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 556-570.
    9. Nathalie Duval-Couetil & Michael Ladisch & Soohyun Yi, 2021. "Addressing academic researcher priorities through science and technology entrepreneurship education," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 46(2), pages 288-318, April.
    10. Stefano Bianchini & Francesco Lissoni & Michele Pezzoni & Lorenzo Zirulia, 2016. "The economics of research, consulting, and teaching quality: theory and evidence from a technical university," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(7), pages 668-691, October.
    11. Ganguli, Ina & Gaulé, Patrick & Čugalj, Danijela Vuletić, 2022. "Chasing the academic dream: Biased beliefs and scientific labor markets," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 202(C), pages 17-33.
    12. Ana Sofia Morais & Wasilios Hariskos, 2018. "Academic coaching and decision analysis: Ways of deciding whether to pursue an academic career," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(11), pages 1-18, November.
    13. Carolina Cañibano & Richard Woolley & Eric J. Iversen & Sybille Hinze & Stefan Hornbostel & Jakob Tesch, 2019. "A conceptual framework for studying science research careers," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 44(6), pages 1964-1992, December.
    14. Massimiliano Tani, 2022. "Same degree but different outcomes: an analysis of labour market outcomes for native and international PhD students in Australia," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 56(1), pages 1-18, December.
    15. Baruffaldi, Stefano & Visentin, Fabiana & Conti, Annamaria, 2016. "The productivity of science & engineering PhD students hired from supervisors’ networks," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(4), pages 785-796.
    16. Sauermann, Henry & Roach, Michael, 2014. "Not all scientists pay to be scientists: PhDs’ preferences for publishing in industrial employment," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 32-47.
    17. Jacqueline E McLaughlin & Lana M Minshew & Daniel Gonzalez & Kelsey Lamb & Nicholas J Klus & Jeffrey Aubé & Wendy Cox & Kim L R Brouwer, 2019. "Can they imagine the future? A qualitative study exploring the skills employers seek in pharmaceutical sciences doctoral graduates," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(9), pages 1-12, September.
    18. Ganguli, Ina & Gaule, Patrick & Čugalj, Danijela Vuletić, 2020. "Biased Beliefs and Entry into Scientific Careers," IZA Discussion Papers 13475, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Eric S. Lin & Shih-Yung Chiu, 2016. "Does Holding a Postdoctoral Position Bring Benefits for Advancing to Academia?," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 57(3), pages 335-362, May.
    20. Clara Boothby & Staša Milojević, 2021. "An exploratory full-text analysis of Science Careers in a changing academic job market," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(5), pages 4055-4071, May.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0160038. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.