Graduate Students' Perception of Research
Brief Summary
DROOG, Alissa; WEAVER, Kari D.; BRADY, Frances. Along for the Journey: Graduate Student Perceptions of Research. College & Research Libraries, [S.l.], v. 85, n. 6, p. 826, sep. 2024.
Interviews with nineteen graduate students (Masters as well as Ph.D programs) in an extensive variety of fields (counseling, education, psychology, engineering, public health, biology, policy administration, anthropology, and kinesiology) yielded the following:
Six themes emerged from a thematic analysis of the semi-structured interviews: 1. research is abstract; 2. research is an odyssey; 3. social support makes or breaks the student experience; 4. research is an emotional continuum; 5. interplay between identity and values; 6.(information is problematic.
The implications for shifts in library practice were presented:
The findings of this study show a need for librarians working with graduate student research to decenter the database, to join students on their journey using an affective lens, and to emphasize pedagogy that increases connection and social support across disciplines. Although participants knew they were talking with librarians, they did not discuss database struggles. Instead, they discussed challenges around biases in information, knowing when they had enough, how to deal with too many relevant results, and refining topics. Graduate student research experiences show the need to decenter database demonstrations in information literacy instruction.
Additional details are provided here. While a relatively small study, the information community may find the article to be of interest.