A Study of PhD Courses and Curricula Across Schools of Social Work

Participants

The study population included all GADE-affiliated PhD programs in social work. The GADE organization was formed in the late 1970s to improve rigor and excellence in doctoral education in social work. The membership of GADE are primarily PhD programs in the United States and Canada, with the majority of social work PhD and Practice doctorate (DSW) programs in North America belonging to GADE. Universities were identified using the updated membership on the GADE website: http://www.gadephd.org/Membership.

Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria

DSW programs were excluded, resulting in a total of 85 potential universities in the sample. One program requested that no curriculum data be included, resulting in a total of 84 programs for course and curriculum coding and analysis.

Procedure

Two graduate research assistants gathered data on each program by searching written information available on each program’s official website, including general webpages and electronic student handbooks. All 85 PhD administrators were contacted to verify information and to provide data that was not available the website, with 80 confirming information and/or providing missing data. A survey that further included all PhD directors from participant PhD programs was also used to determine the use of GADE Quality Guidelines in their curriculum and to examine how each PhD program approached DEI in their curriculum. Microsoft Excel was used for the creation of a master spreadsheet with all universities, corresponding curriculum, and survey responses.

Data Analysis

For the purpose of this research study, an inductive, thematic, and a descriptive approach was used to code individual social work PhD courses obtained from participant universities to determine the numbers and types of courses offered in the individual social work PhD programs under study. In preparation for coding of the curriculum data, an initial list of categories and definitions to be used in coding specific courses in the program’s PhD curriculum (e.g., theory, research, epistemology, and pedagogy) was developed using curriculum areas from the GADE Quality Guidelines, other recent studies (i.e., Drisko et al., 2015), and the lead authors’ expert knowledge of PhD curricula. Lead authors have both been PhD program directors and leaders within the GADE organization. The definitions used for categories of courses in this study are available by request from the lead authors. The two research assistants were trained by one of the lead authors using the definitions to code the curricula across universities by applying the codes to five randomly selected PhD programs that served as pilots for the curriculum coding process.

All curriculum data that was obtained from the 84 programs was first double-blind coded. Following a modified, constant comparative approach, once initial coding took place, the categories and definitions were modified to increase understanding and consistency in coding as agreed upon by the different coders with an overall purpose to increase the accuracy in the coding of each PhD course. For example, “Theory” was split into “Theory—General,” “Theory—Micro,” and “Theory—Macro.” Similarly, when it became difficult to delineate between the level of statistics courses, the original categories of “Foundational Statistics” and “Advanced Statistics” were collapsed into “Statistics.” The original category of “History/Policy” was later split into two distinct categories: “History” and “Policy.” In some cases, new categories (i.e., “Practice” and “Grant Writing”) were added. All documents and materials collected for this research were maintained in a Box folder for easy reference and cross verification by researchers. All coding decisions were color coded and maintained in an Excel spreadsheet including detailed notes about the decisions made so that researchers could track and verify the coding decisions about the PhD courses.

The lead authors further coded the universities into R1: Doctoral Universities—Very high research activity (R1); Doctoral Universities—High research activity (R2); Doctoral/Professional Universities (D/PU); and other based on information from the Carnegie Classifications of Institutions of Higher Education rankings from 2018, a research project of the Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research, whether the program was a member of the AAU (American Association for Universities, Nd), and whether the program was in Canada or the United States (Center for Postsecondary Research, 2018). Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and through thematic analysis.

An emphasis in analysis was placed on achieving accuracy in coding and labeling of individual courses within the categories that accurately represented the course content for that course. A comparison was made between the two independent coders and any differences in coding were brought to a third coder for reconciliation. A fourth coder also independently checked all codes and categories of the data including the notes on decisions made about the coding of individual courses that were notated in the Excel spreadsheet. Questions and concerns were brought to the entire research team for consideration before final decisions were made on course codes and analysis. As described above, the definitions of various categories were strengthened during the study and categories were modified when necessary. The coding of the curriculum for each of the 84 programs was further sent to the PhD director of the individual programs via email and directors were asked to check and verify the coding for the individual courses within their PhD curriculum. Of 85 programs contacted, 80 programs responded to the survey questions and confirmed or updated the program data that was coded. Final coding was updated to reflect the changes indicated by the PhD directors. One university asked that we not include their course data in the final data analysis on courses because they were completely revamping their curriculum. For this reason, this program was removed from the final quantitative analysis of courses. However, the program’s response for the influence of GADE Quality Guidelines and university-level data were reported in the final analysis of those questions. Therefore, university-level information is available from 85 programs and course and curriculum data is available from 84 programs. All final data were aggregated and analyzed using descriptive statistics.

Group for the Advancement of Doctoral Education Influence in Curriculum

Table 3 shows the responses for the GADE Quality Guidelines influence on PhD curriculum. Of 85 programs surveyed, 79 responded to the survey question: “To what extent were the GADE Quality Guidelines influential on the development of your current curriculum?” Of 79 respondents, over 40% (32 total programs) indicated that the GADE Quality Guidelines were “Very influential” or “Extremely influential” in the development of the current curriculum. Less than 13% (10 total programs) indicated that the GADE Quality Guidelines were “Not at all influential” or “Slightly Influential.” Nearly 18% (14 total programs) selected “N/A–Unknown” regarding the influence of GADE guidelines.

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Table 3.

GADE Importance Responses.

Survey response	(1)–Not at all influential	(2)–slightly influential	(3)–somewhat influential	(4)–very influential	(5)–extremely influential	N/A–unknown	No response
# Schools	5	5	23	22	10	14	6

In addition to responding to the Likert responses, a total of 17 programs provided additional qualitative context regarding their survey response. One hundred percent of programs (5 total programs) that indicated the GADE influence as “(N/A)–Unknown” and provided a qualitative response (5 total programs) indicated that the curriculum was developed prior to their assuming role as director. Of those that rated the influence of GADE as “(1)–Not at all Influential” and provided a qualitative response (2 total programs), both indicated an unawareness of the GADE guidelines.

Social Justice and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Content

Of 85 programs, 73 programs responded to an open-ended item about courses and curricula related to social justice and DEI content in PhD programs. Of those 73 programs, 67 provided a response to the survey item: “Does your program incorporate diversity, equity, and inclusion into the curriculum? If so, how? If not, is your department working to incorporate these into the curriculum?” Of 67 respondents, 65 indicated that diversity, equity, and inclusion content is incorporated into their curriculum or program, either implicitly or explicitly. In addition, 11 total programs indicated that they were actively working to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion content throughout their curriculum and program. Response themes were broken into 12 categories, described below. Responses were coded with multiple themes, as necessary. Thirty-one responses invoked one theme; 36 responses invoked two or more themes. The maximum number of themes invoked in a single response was four. The most commonly invoked theme was that DEI content is “infused,” “integrated,” or “foundational” to the program, with 41 total respondents citing this idea. The second most commonly invoked theme was that DEI content is implicitly or explicitly addressed in one or more specific courses, with 29 total respondents citing this idea. The third and fourth most common themes were that the program was committed to an active or ongoing effort to improve the incorporation of DEI content, and that DEI was central to professional development efforts such as lectures, workshops, and mentorship. These themes were both cited 11 times by respondents.

Discussion and Application to Practice

Both GADE Quality Guidelines and research studies on PhD curricula have indicated that PhD programs need to increase quality in preparation of PhD students as stewards of the social work discipline and have specifically emphasized courses in advanced research and statistics, theory, policy, history and social work profession, pedagogy, values and ethics, and knowledge of policy and evidence-based practices. Despite these good aims, studies that examine what PhD curricula are offered in social work education are rare. This study responds to this need to examine the types and numbers of courses that are being offered in PhD programs across different types of schools of social work and also examines the influences of GADE Quality Guidelines in the PhD curriculum. Compared to past studies this study shows a more detailed analysis demonstrating the numbers and types of courses across the 84 PhD programs whose data were analyzed.

Development of researchers is one of core components of the GADE Quality Guidelines for PhD programs in social work (Petr et al., 2015). Competency in research training including the numbers and quality of research and statistics courses has been a main concern of many PhD educators and GADE since the 1990s. This study indicates that all program included courses in different types of research with 81% of the programs offering standalone courses in statistics. These findings stand in comparison to Rubin and Davis’ (1981) survey of 33 doctoral programs (predating the GADE Quality Guidelines) where they found 91% (30 programs) required research courses, of which 85% focused on research methods and only 70% addressed statistics. This study contributes to knowledge about the variability and the types of different research methods courses that focus on content such as general and foundation methods, quantitative, qualitative, research practicum, and so forth that are offered in social work PhD programs. For example, on average, about one general research methods course is offered in R1 universities and two general methods courses in R2 universities and less than one course in R3, and on average three general methods courses in other types of schools. The numbers of statistics and advanced statistics courses provide the most evidence for the increased numbers of courses within PhD programs. In R1 universities, an average of two statistics courses and in R2, R3, and other universities, one to two statistic courses are provided in 81% of the PhD programs. The overall numbers of courses show increases in focused research coursework compared to some past studies (Anastas, 2012; Drisko et al., 2015), or may show higher numbers because of our detailed methodology. For example, in comparison to Drisko et al. (2015) study that reported the numbers of research and statistics courses range was 1–6 (mode 2) for all research and statistics courses, our detailed study found that social work PhD programs in the United States offered an average of six courses in research and statistics.

This study is also complementary to the GADE Directors survey conducted by Lee et al., (under review) and shares data that indicate coverage of research and statistics in comparison to earlier studies. In the GADE survey, for example, two courses on the average were reported to be offered in statistics and this is similar to what was found here. Different than the Lee et al., this study found that approximately one course in qualitative research was only being offered in 75% of the PhD programs instead of all programs and that the offering of the qualitative research was not consistent across all programs. R3 programs offered more courses on the average in qualitative research than R1 and R2 programs. Our study differed from the study of Lee et al., as we focused on entire courses focused on a content area, while Lee et al. reported what PhD directors indicated was covered at least somewhere in a course. Thus, while Lee et al’s., finding was that qualitative research is included somewhere within a course in all social work PhD programs, our study found that only 75% of PhD programs actually have a course dedicated to qualitative research. Likewise, like Lee et al., who found more courses included at least some content on quantitative research than qualitative research, ours found that programs had more entire courses focused on quantitative methods compared to qualitative methods.

This study further showed some other trends in the research training across PhD programs that have implications for strengthening research within the PhD education and in particular research for the social work practice and profession. GADE Quality Guidelines indicate that research training needs to be for social work practice and not just specific to other social science disciplines (Harrington et al., 2014). This study found that coursework in important areas such as measurement, literature reviews and meta-analysis, program evaluation, and intervention research were being offered in less than 20% of the PhD programs. These research methods are important to the domains of the social work professionals that often work in health and mental health and other areas of direct services that often rely on research methods that include measurement, interventions, and program evaluation. A need to focus more on intervention research has been pointed out in the past (Fraser, 2004) and this study does not indicate that considerable progress has been made in specific training in intervention research across most PhD programs. In addition, lack of education in grant writing has implications for expertise in extramural funding and the specific skills and expertise to carry out independent research projects.

Knowledge of the social work profession is one of the core components of the GADE Quality indicators for excellence in PhD programs (Petr et al., 2015). The current GADE Guidelines states that doctoral graduates are expected to possess an understanding about social work and will become the stewards of the social work profession. This study of PhD curricula, however, did not find that most current PhD programs offer courses on social work profession, history, policy, social justice, values and ethics, or other areas that may distinguish PhD education and research training from other disciplines and toward the social work profession. Courses on social work history were almost absent from the PhD curriculum with only 23.8% of the programs offering any coursework on history. Policy was only taught in 57% of the PhD programs, which is in line with earlier studies documenting the paucity of policy content in doctoral education (Lightfoot, Gal, & Weiss-Gal, 2018), and in stark contrast to the Rubin and Davis (1981) study (predating the fourth version of the GADE Guidelines) that indicated that 88% of programs had courses on policy. Likewise, only about one quarter of PhD courses offered a course dedicated to history. Social justice content is recommended by GADE Guidelines but social justice and/or DEI was not covered in specific, dedicated courses except in 7% of programs. An open-ended follow-up question showed that instead of offering courses on DEI, that PhD programs followed an integrative, infused or implicit curriculum approach and themes covered indicated a mission toward DEI and concerns for improving the current DEI curricula with 11 programs explicitly indicating that they were currently working on improving their curriculum in this area.

The Carnegie study and initiative on PhD education and the science of social work were used to shape the current GADE Guidelines. In an article on the doctoral education and the science of social work, Fong (2012) states the position taken from the Carnegie Initiative on PhD education that PhD students need to be good scholars that includes the understanding of theory and disciplinary knowledge to be a good scientist (pg. 535). This study of social work PhD curricula, however, suggests that PhD students receive little training in theories or social interventions taught in social work programs or in the construction of knowledge for social work practice and related disciplines. Like previous studies (Anastas & Congress, 1999; Drisko et al., 2015), this current study showed a lack of education in both theory including critique of theories, and philosophy of science with and only 20% of PhD programs offering any courses with in-depth coverage of macro or micro content and 44% programs offering a course in Philosophy of Science. Current PhD coursework and curricula could potentially impact knowledge and critical analysis for human behavior, pedagogy, policy and practice interventions, and practices based on evidence, which are all suggested in the GADE Guidelines. One of the core components of GADE Guidelines is the development of educators. Yet, there is a lack of consistent education in pedagogy across programs (67%), and trends toward little or no practice experiences and preparation to work on the current issues that social workers address in society (Berzoff & Drisko, 2015; Goodman, 2015). These trends in social work PhD education have implications for teaching in social work schools and for preparation of future leadership of the social work profession.

Finally, this study looked at how influential the GADE Guidelines were on PhD curricula from the perceptions of the directors of PhD programs. The results were very mixed ranging from programs who were influenced by these guidelines, about 40% to about 10% who were not influenced and may not have heard of the guidelines. Disturbing was the numbers of PhD directors that said the GADE Guidelines were “not applicable” or did not know (14 directors). These findings suggest that GADE may want to help directors better communicate to faculty the contents and purposes of the GADE Guidelines and given the turnover in PhD leadership, on the average every 3 years, deans may want to provide a better understanding of the development of their own PhD curricula as it is related to GADE Guidelines and the social work profession. Data from this study indicate that the GADE Guidelines, although developed to improve excellence and rigor in PhD education are not followed in many aspects (e.g., theory, policy analysis, social work history and profession, and knowledge of evidence-based practice). The findings of this study suggest that PhD education is not delivered consistently across the content areas recommended and that there may be gaps in courses and curricula that are needed. It is recommended that social work educators and leaders within the PhD education need to evaluate their PhD curricula from the perspective of GADE Guidelines and especially from the perspectives of the mission of producing future scholars and leaders for the social work profession. Social work educators may also want to revisit the goals and purposes of the PhD degree and establish well-defined framework and learning outcomes in relationship to the social work profession. Relevant frameworks and learning outcomes have been recommended in studies conducted in higher education as a means for improving PhD education (Denecke et al., 2017).

Limitations of the Study

This study has several limitations that may limit its’ scope and findings. First, it is possible that not all courses were accurately coded to cover the breadth of curricula even though care was taken in the collection of courses and the coding process including constant comparisons, multiple coders, and the verifying coding with PhD directors who were familiar with the courses. Another limitation to this study is that it did not calculate inter-rater reliability between the coders but instead relied on a modified constant comparison method only. This study did not examine syllabi in depth, and it is possible that the analysis of content in courses may have changed if more in-depth analysis would have been completed on syllabi and course objectives. This study relied on courses offered by schools of social work and described in their curriculum. PhD students, however, may take independent study courses and curriculum in other departments on the average of nine credit hours as has been reflected in other studies (i.e., Lee et al., under review). Coursework may go beyond what was described in the curricula and courses examined, and thus, all learning in PhD programs may not be reflected in this study. This study also did not examine implicit curriculum and how PhD students may learn from other program supports or the mentoring of faculty. Despite these limitations this study represents a needed analysis of PhD curricula.