“How Can They Say No?”: Understanding the Perspectives of Power in PhD Advisor-Advisee Relationships
Date of Award
2024
Degree Type
Open Access Dissertation
Degree Name
Education, PhD
Program
School of Educational Studies
Advisor/Supervisor/Committee Chair
Guan Saw
Dissertation or Thesis Committee Member
M. Gloria González-Morales
Dissertation or Thesis Committee Member
Wallace Chipidza
Dissertation or Thesis Committee Member
Wallace Chipidza
Terms of Use & License Information
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Rights Information
© 2024 Shine Kim
Keywords
Doctoral Education, Faculty Perspective, PhD Student Perspective, Power, Reflexivity
Subject Categories
Education | Higher Education
Abstract
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.
ISBN
9798382747897
Recommended Citation
Kim, Shine. (2024). “How Can They Say No?”: Understanding the Perspectives of Power in PhD Advisor-Advisee Relationships. CGU Theses & Dissertations, 784. https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/784.
