Educational supports and career goals of five women in a graduate astronomy program

Abstract

The topic of women in graduate education has been central to many calls for action in increasing diversity and inclusion in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The field of physics has been particularly resistant to change in the significant overrepresentation of men, while also being similar to the field of astronomy which has a higher overall representation of women than many other physical sciences. Little research has been done in the field of astronomy to better understand how women can be supported in other physical sciences. This paper presents an analysis of five women students in a U.S. astronomy graduate program. The results indicate the women in this study relied on student-student collaboration to succeed through their coursework and exams, while faculty and post-doctorate support were critical for their research perseverance. Furthermore, the career goals of these successful students indicate the importance of considering multiple life goals in determining a student's pathway, and potentially suggests that the way faculty careers progress needs to be reconsidered if the field wants more diverse faculty and role models.

The Level of Education of Graduates in Romania in the Context of Globalization

“…Modern education and training programs meet the requirements of the labour market in terms of a high degree of skills. The exchange of knowledge and ideas between students and faculties is possible through the internationalization of tertiary education [13]. Quality of the educational process has become a goal pursued at all levels.…”

“…Getting a good job is not just based on the university education receive. Training in higher education should also be taken into account as students prepare for a variety of non-academic careers [13]. It is found that, in order to develop appropriate work habits, during the studies, graduates need training and volunteering internships [14,15].…”

LGBT+ physicists qualitative experiences of exclusionary behavior and harassment

“…The field of physics education research has done robust work looking at the experiences of women in physics [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] with some work focusing on students of color [19][20][21][22][23]. A portion of this literature has examined the harassment experiences of women in physics and addressed issues of chilly climates [2,24,25].…”