A Note From the Guest Coordinator

• Published date: 01 January 2006
• Date: 01 January 2006
• Author: Áine M. Humble
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3729.2006.00351.x

A Note From the Guest Coordinator

From the time I started teaching university students

12 years ago, Family Relations has always been an

important source of information for me regarding

postsecondary pedagogy. Over the years, I learned

from many knowledgeable and insightful scholars

about the theories, techniques, and approaches they

had successfully used in their classrooms to stimulate

critical thought and sensitive reflection in students

regarding family issues. Gradually, I developed

a sense of confidence in how I was teaching and an

increasing awareness of who I was as an educator.

But my experiences of university teaching were

only at the undergraduate level, and my understand-

ing of who I was as an educator felt called into ques-

tion when I started working with graduate students

for the first time two years ago. I felt a different and

increased level of responsibility and accountability

in these new working relationships, and I realized

that neither teaching undergraduate students nor

having been a graduate student had necessarily pre-

pared me to teach graduate students. As I started to

turn my attention to pedagogical issues related to

graduate education, I also realized that all the help-

ful information I had paid attention to and learned

from, in journal articles and at conferences, had

focused exclusively on undergraduate education.

With this in mind, I turned to my old friend, Family

Relations, to fill this void, and the idea for this spe-

cial collection of articles was born.

I encourage readers to consider the articles in

this collection as a whole. Taken together, the seven

articles—(a) mentoring graduate students from

a feminist approach, (b) teaching family policy to

undergraduate and graduate students, (c) imple-

menting a distance-delivered master’s program, (d)

preparing PhD students to be future faculty mem-

bers and professionals, (e) revising a master’s degree

from a Vygotskian approach, (f) preparing students

to do quantitative research, and (g) revisiting the use

of classic works in graduate classes—provide

a glimpse into possible themes of a holistic and

responsive approach to graduate education. For

example, several articles point to the need to con-

sider how the current context in which graduate

education is occurring influences what is taught and

how it is taught. Readers may be asked to consider

whether ‘‘old(er)’’ models of graduate education still

apply in all situations. Conversely, there may be times

whenitisappropriatetoreturntoold(er)texts,such

as in the case of teaching about Black families. Educa-

tors are called upon to be responsive to graduate

student, community, and societal needs through

ways such as developing flexibly implemented dis-

tance programs, helping prepare students for more

than just traditional academic jobs, and responding to

both professional and personal concerns of students

through the nurturance of close working relationships.

The contributors also note that such pedagogical revi-

sions are not without their challenges. Consistent with

Family Relations’ applied focus, several articles provide

specific resources, in the form of annotated bibliogra-

phies, teaching strategies, and helpful web pages, to

assist with consideration of these issues.

I thank Joyce Arditti, Editor, for giving me the

opportunity to be involved with this project, which

has been a wonderful learning experience and helped

begin to answer some of my questions. Moreover,

my involvement has only reinforced for me the

need for much more attention to be given to gradu-

ate education issues and for it to be approached

from multiple angles. I call on readers to engage in

a broad range of research, examining issues such as

program development, implementation, and evalua-

tion; teaching strategies within the classroom; and

advising and mentoring approaches. This research

must also be conducted systematically and rigor-

ously. Just as we advise graduate students to build

and evaluate policies and programs on the basis of

sound theory and method, so too should the devel-

opment and revision of our graduate programs and

teaching strategies have similar foundations.

A

´INE M. HUMBLE

MOUNT SAINT VINCENT UNIVERSITY

Family Relations, 55 (January 2006), 1. Blackwell Publishing.

Copyright 2006 by the National Council on Family Relations.