Envisioning the Future of Doctoral Education – Preparing Stewards of the Discipline: Jossey-Bass/Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

The development of students as "stewards of the discipline" should be the purpose of doctoral education. A steward is a scholar in the fullest sense of the term--someone who can imaginatively generate new knowledge, critically conserve valuable and useful ideas, and responsibly transform those understandings through writing, teaching, and application. Stewardship also has an ethical and moral dimension; it is a role that transcends a collection of accomplishments and skills. A steward is someone to whom the vigor, quality, and integrity of the field can be entrusted. The most important period of a steward's formation occurs during formal doctoral education.

Envisioning the Future of Doctoral Education is a collection of essays commissioned for the Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate. The question posed to the essayists in this volume was "If you could start de novo, what would be the best way to structure doctoral education in your field to prepare stewards of the discipline?" The authors of the essays are respected thinkers, researchers, and scholars who are experienced with and thoughtful about doctoral education.

The essays in this lively and provocative volume focus on six fields of study: chemistry, education, English, history, mathematics, and neuroscience. Three commentaries look across the broad themes of the essays and consider the implications for action for institutional leaders, faculty members, and graduate and postdoctoral students.

Each of the book's essayists considers the goals and purposes of doctoral education in their particular field and offer new and invigorating ideas about the doctorate. Taken together, the essays in the volume provide opportunities to compare and contrast doctoral education among the disciplines. The essays provide ideas for fruitful practice, a perspective on doctoral education as a larger enterprise, and visions of what is possible for the future.