Starting Where We’re At: Developing a Student-Led Doctoral Teaching Group

The necessity and utility of standardized or formalized teacher training in doctoral programs has been debated, documented, and problematized across a range of academic disciplines. If doctoral education is the site of preparation for future university faculty, what are the teaching expectations of newly minted faculty in the applied disciplines, and what are the supports available to them to help them prepare for this role? The lack of formal courses on teaching in social work PhD programs encouraged the authors to create a doctoral pedagogy group aimed to support student educators’ development for current and future roles as social work educators. This paper chronicles the group’s development and structure, discusses the challenges and opportunities faced, and suggests a future agenda to support doctoral students in their role as educators.