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Doctoral Attrition in Higher Education and Student Affairs Sarah Maddox

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Doctoral Attrition in Higher Education and Student Affairs Sarah Maddox University of Northern Colorado Scholarship & Creative Works @ Digital UNC Dissertations Student Research 8-2017 Did Not Finish: Doctoral Attrition in Higher Education and Student Affairs Sarah Maddox Follow this and additional works at: https://digscholarship.unco.edu/dissertations Recommended Citation Maddox, Sarah, "Did Not Finish: Doctoral Attrition in Higher Education and Student Affairs" (2017). Dissertations. 433. https://digscholarship.unco.edu/dissertations/433 This Text is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Research at Scholarship & Creative Works @ Digital UNC. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholarship & Creative Works @ Digital UNC. For more information, please contact [email protected]. © 2017 SARAH MADDOX ALL RIGHTS RESERVED UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN COLORADO Greeley, Colorado The Graduate School DID NOT FINISH: DOCTORAL ATTRITION IN HIGHER EDUCATION AND STUDENT AFFAIRS A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Sarah Maddox College of Education and Behavioral Sciences Department of Leadership, Policy, and Development: Higher Education and P-12 Education Higher Education and Student Affairs Leadership August 2017 This Dissertation by: Sarah Maddox Entitled: Did Not Finish: Doctoral Attrition in Higher Education and Student Affairs has been approved as meeting the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in College of Education and Behavioral Sciences in Department of Leadership, Policy, and Development: Higher Education and P-12 Education, Program of Higher Education and Student Affairs Leadership. Accepted by the Doctoral Committee ________________________________________________________________ Tamara Yakaboski, Ph.D., Research Advisor ________________________________________________________________ Matthew Birnbaum, Ph.D., Committee Member ________________________________________________________________ Vilma Cardona, Ph.D., Committee Member ________________________________________________________________ Mark Smith, Ph.D., Faculty Representative Date of Dissertation Defense: April 20, 2017 Accepted by the Graduate School ___________________________________________________________ Linda L. Black, Ed.D. Associate Provost and Dean Graduate School and International Admissions ABSTRACT Maddox, Sarah. Did Not Finish: Doctoral Attrition in Higher Education and Student Affairs. Published Doctor of Philosophy dissertation, University of Northern Colorado, 2017. Most students begin doctoral programs fully intending on completing the terminal degree. However, nearly half of the students who begin a doctoral program do not complete their degree. Attrition, or a decline in the number of students enrolled from the beginning to the end of a doctoral program, occurs throughout the degree. Some attrition is to be expected, and can be healthy. However, students may also choose to depart for negative reasons. Doctoral attrition is a relatively recent consideration in the literature, and previous literature had not considered the unique nature of higher education and student affairs programs. This dissertation study uses attribution theory to consider the research question: To what do people who voluntarily depart from doctoral programs in higher education attribute their departure? Through interviews of fifteen participants who chose to leave their doctoral programs, I developed four themes that led to the decision to depart: inflexibility of the degree, incongruence between program and participant goals, lack of advising and mentoring, and personal factors. In addition, I briefly address the impact of departure on the participants. In the discussion and implications section, I consider the role of attribution theory in the participants’ recollection about their departure, including locus of control, stability, and controllability. Further, I provide considerations and best practices for prospective and current students, higher education and student affairs iii programs, and graduate schools, including practical application of reference material and possible staffing considerations. Finally, I provide future directions for research on the important topic of doctoral attrition. Key Words: Doctoral Attrition; Higher Education and Student Affairs; Attribution Theory iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My journey to complete my doctorate has been long and fraught with a variety of obstacles. It is no mistake that my dissertation is entitled “DNF,” a commonly used running term meaning Did Not Finish that is often used in reference to a runner who did not finish a marathon they began. As “it’s a marathon, not a sprint,” is a phrase often used when talking about the doctoral experience, it seemed especially apt in this realm. To my participants: I appreciate your vulnerability regarding such a sensitive topic. I am honored you allowed me into your world, and humbled as you supported me toward completion of my own degree by sharing your stories of departure and cheering me along. To my cohort: I thank each of you for sharing this learning experience with me. Your willingness to share resources as you completed tasks before me, and your commiseration with me as we met in writing groups or via Facebook Messenger as we individually worked on this major undertaking. To the #sadoc community on Twitter: your support has been invaluable. From #statsjail to seeing each of you succeed in amazing ways, I’m glad to have had you along for part of this journey. Online community is real. To Carolyn Golz: You deserve a specific acknowledgment; your support throughout the culmination of this dissertation has been more important than you know. v You believed in me when I did not think I could finish this. Your edits were kind, thoughtful, and pushed me to great places. To my advisor Tamara: thanks for stepping in and supporting me through this. You challenged the heck out of me some days, but I know I would not have finished without your guidance. To my dissertation committee (Dr. Birnbaum, Dr. Cardona, Dr. Smith): I thank you for your time, energy, and effort in supporting me toward finishing this goal. Your guidance has made this document better. To my mother (Lora Lee Craddock, 1953-2015), who believed I could do anything I put my mind to: I’m sorry I didn’t finish this sooner. I wish you could have been here to see the culmination of all of my hard work. I know you’re proud of me. RIP. To my husband Kurt, who always supports any of my big life goals: thanks for listening to my complaints, ignoring my research talk, and letting us put off life so that we could both finish our degrees: there’s no one else I’d rather do this life thing with. I love you (unicorn vomit). Now let’s go live. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................ 1 The Challenge of Researching Doctoral Students .................................................. 4 Too Many Doctors…or Not Enough Jobs? .......................................................... 10 Purpose of the Study ............................................................................................. 13 Research Question ................................................................................................ 14 Importance of Study .............................................................................................. 14 Overview of the Study .......................................................................................... 17 CHAPTER II. LITERATURE REVIEW ......................................................................... 19 History of Doctoral Education .............................................................................. 19 History of Doctoral Degrees in Education ............................................................ 22 Doctoral Education Demographics ....................................................................... 26 Undergraduate Persistence and Retention ............................................................ 29 Master’s Degree Attrition ..................................................................................... 33 Admission of New Doctoral Students................................................................... 34 Socialization of Graduate Students ....................................................................... 37 Doctoral Persistence.............................................................................................. 41 All But Dissertation .............................................................................................. 46 Doctoral Attrition .................................................................................................. 47 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 63 CHAPTER III. METHODOLOGY .................................................................................. 65 Positionality .......................................................................................................... 66 Epistemology, Ontology, and Axiology ............................................................... 68 Theoretical Perspective and Framework ............................................................... 70 Methods................................................................................................................. 71 Validity, Reliability, and Ethics ...........................................................................
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