Paths to the Professoriate: Strategies for Enriching the Preparation of Future Faculty (review)

Many aspects of the undergraduate experience receive considerable attention in policy and research circles. The graduate experience, in contrast, is often overlooked. Donald Wulff and Ann Austin as editors of this volume remedy this situation by pulling together some of the most current research on graduate education and, in doing so, address important gaps in what we know about the graduate student experience.

Paths to the Professoriate is a comprehensive resource for anyone interested in graduate education. In the tradition of edited volumes like those by Melissa Anderson (1998) and Leonard Baird (1993), the book brings together many of the most renowned scholars in the field. This book is distinct, however, in that it focuses on the top studies and policy initiatives in the areas of graduate education and future faculty preparation.

Beginning with the editors' introduction and overview, the book is organized into three additional parts: "The Research," "Strategies for Reform," and "Synthesis, Lessons, and Future Directions." The book accomplishes its goal of providing "useful information, resources, lessons, and recommendations for academic leaders and faculty members who are committed to doing their best to prepare the future professoriate" (p. 13).

Austin and Wulff's Part 1 orients the reader by providing an overview of the book as well as the factors that have contributed to today's concerns about graduate education. Part 2 shifts to an empirical perspective. Chapters 2 through 7 highlight the major studies done about graduate education, adding to the already existing studies with an emphasis on future faculty preparation. The studies included are representative of the diverse research and methodologies in the area of graduate education. What is interesting about this section of the book is that the chapters are all based on existing research but with a new twist—that of faculty preparation. For example, Chris Golde and Timothy Dore offer a new perspective on their famed Ph.D. study (chap. 2), illuminating the findings related to preparation for academic careers. Wulff, Austin, Jody Nyquist, and Jo Sprague's qualitative study on the development of graduate students as teaching scholars is the focus of Chapter 3, followed by the National Association of Graduate and Professional Students' national survey of doctoral students (chap. 4), presented by Adam Fagen and Kimberly Suedkamp Wells. Chapter 5 features a study by James Soto Anthony and Edward Taylor that emphasizes African American graduate students' socialization to academic careers. Barbara Lovitts's work on doctoral student attrition and retention (chap. 6) is followed by Maresi Nerad, Rebecca Aaneurd, and Joseph Cerny with a new look at the "Ph.D.'s—Ten Years Later" study (chap. 7).

The multiple research traditions included in this section as well as the wide range of studies are strengths of the book. It is helpful to have such an inclusive synthesis of existing research. Furthermore, the emphasis on faculty preparation gave each study a fresh, new perspective that has not been previously highlighted.

Part 3, "Strategies for Reform," highlights the many initiatives and efforts to change graduate education and future faculty preparation that have arisen in the past decade. Pat Hutchings and Susan Clarke begin the section with a discussion of the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (chap. 8), followed by a focus on the "Preparing Future Faculty" program by Anne Pruitt-Logan and Jerry Gaff (chap. 9). The University of Washington-based "Re-Envisioning the Ph.D." project is the highlight of Chapter 10 by Jody Nyquist, Bettina Woodford, and Diane Rogers. Robert Weisbuch offers a synthesis of the "Toward a Responsive Ph.D." program (chap. 11), and George Walker's overview of the Carnegie "Initiative on the Doctorate" follows (chap. 12). The final chapter in this section by Karen Klomparens and John Beck focuses on Michigan State University's conflict resolution program, designed with graduate students in mind...