“How Can They Say No?”: Understanding the Perspectives of Power in PhD Advisor-Advisee Relationships

<p>In the advisor-advisee relationship, there is a hierarchy that is established between faculty and PhD students. This power dynamic is favorable for faculty but leaves students vulnerable to circumstances of power abuse. A symptom of power abuse is academic victimization— harassment that occurs within academia. However, while victimization is a problem, the core issue is whether all parties involved perceive and are aware of their own and each other’s power or lack thereof. Yet, research on PhD student and faculty perspectives of power is limited and the focus is often on the student perspective (Aguinis et al., 1996; Cook et al., 2018; Jones, 2013; Hemer, 2012). Therefore, to reduce the gaps in the literature, I applied Phenomenology and Consensual Qualitative Research (CQR) to collect and analyze student and faculty perspectives of power through the social media platform, Reddit and interviews. Findings of the data corpus indicated that students and faculty had varying levels of perception and awareness of power, which contributed to their understanding of intent and impact on student success. Theoretical implications of this dissertation offer insight on research and policy opportunities to investigate how power dynamics are understood in the advisor-advisee relationship.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Education, PhD

Level thesis:degree_level

Open Access Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

School of Educational Studies

Year dc:date.available

2024

Author dc:creator

• Kim, Shine

Contributors dc:contributor

• M. Gloria González-Morales
• Wallace Chipidza

• Doctoral Education
• Faculty Perspective
• PhD Student Perspective
• Power
• Reflexivity
• Education
• Higher Education

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/784

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarship.claremont.edu:cgu_etd-1806