2019 Annual Conference

Graduate Student Education

Concurrent Session (45 minutes)

This session will illuminate the findings from a study that explored faculty advisors' lived experiences in advising graduate adult learners at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). The findings of this study can increase understanding of faculty's experiences in the advisor/advisee relationship with graduate adult learners.

The target audiences for this session include faculty, graduate students, and academic adminstrators.

From this session, participants will be able to: (1) understand the differences between prescriptive, developmental, and intrusive approaches to academic advising; (2) recognize the nurturing culture that exists among student-faculty relationships within HBCUs and why the developmental academic advising approach is most complementary to HBCUs; and (3) develop strategies for practice, policy, and research with regard to advising graduate adult learners within HBCUs and other contexts of higher education.

Academic advising in higher education has been shown to be a significant factor for the successful retention and persistence of undergraduate and graduate students. While much literature exist on developmental advising and undergraduate students, not much has been explored as relative to faculty advising graduate adult learners at historically Black colleges and universities. This exploratory study addressed this gap in the academic advising literature. This study was conceptually framed within developmental advising focuses on the whole person (Grites & Gordon, 2000) and is grounded in forging an advisee/advisor relationship that recognizes and is responsive to the unique needs of graduate adult learners (Bland, 2003). The findings of this study can increase understanding of faculty’s experiences in the advisor/advisee relationship with graduate adult learners, provide some contextual understanding of academic advising of graduate adult learners at HBCU, and provide an impetus for further research in this area. During the session, we will present on the following themes of(a) individual and group interaction with advisees, (b) virtual advising, and (c) time constraints. Additionally, we will discuss why professional development emerged as a noteworthy category.  We will conclude the session with offering recommendations for practice, research and policy. 

The first 30 minutes will consist of us providing an overview of our study and shedding light on the findings that emerged from the study. The remaining 15 minutes will be devoted to engaging in a meaningful discussion with attendees.