Researcher Education in the Social Sciences: Canadian Perspectives About Research Skill Development

In the current climate, there is an increasing emphasis on skill development for research candidates across disciplines and across nations. In Canada, postgraduate education programs attempt to influence relevant skills and attitudes through students ’ engagement in coursework, independent research projects (e.g., a student thesis), and research assistant positions where students serve as apprentices and assistants on academic-led research projects. This presentation draws for a set of interviews with academics and postgraduate students to understand how these components of postgraduate education affect students’ development of skills and their self-identities as researchers. The interviews are specifically intended to uncover the ways that academics and postgraduate students perceive and experience researcher education and skill development in social science disciplines at one university. The presentation represents one of few Canadian studies of researcher development at the postgraduate level and provides a good complement to investigations from other nations