Advice to Master's Students for Successfully Navigating an Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies Program

Over 40 years ago, Stearns (1987) published a note in the Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America titled, “Some modest advice for graduate students,” prompting a playful rebuke by Huey (1987) titled, “Reply to Stearns: Some acynical advice for graduate students.” Since then, numerous additional papers have been published that describe the graduate education process, a few of which provide advice directly to graduate students. The majority of these papers target doctoral students, specifically those who ultimately seek academic positions (e.g., Baker and Lattuca 2009, Boden et al. 2011), despite that the rate of postdoctoral academic employment in U.S. physical and life science fields dropped by more than five percentage points between 2009 and 2014 (NSF 2015). Further, only a fraction of these papers describe the graduate education experience from the graduate student perspective, and those that do only address doctoral students (e.g., Graybill et al. 2006, Moslemi et al. 2009). In our review of the literature, we did not find any publications that address master's student education, despite that the great majority of US graduate students pursue master's—not doctoral—degrees. In 2016, 90% of first-time U.S. graduate students were enrolled in programs leading to a master's degree or graduate certificate, and 83% of graduate degrees awarded in 2015–2016 were master's degrees (Okahana and Zhou 2017). Over the past 30 years, higher education programming in the U.S.A. and Canada has become increasingly interdisciplinary (CFIR 2005, NSF 2010). Rhoten and Parker (2004) found that 62% of graduate students from five university-based programs funded by the NSF Environmental Research and Education portfolio were involved in at least one interdisciplinary collaboration. As interdisciplinary undergraduate and graduate programs become more common, a vast body of literature has emerged in which higher education researchers evaluate how effectively these programs train students to integrate and apply interdisciplinary content (Klein 1996, Weingart and Stehr 2000) and to conduct rigorous and meaningful interdisciplinary research (Metzger and Zare 1999, Rhoten and Parker 2004, Schmidt et al. 2012). Nonetheless, most of the literature about interdisciplinary graduate education, including all the “advice literature,” addresses programming at large to mid-sized traditional universities that have received NSF Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) funding (e.g., Moslemi et al. 2009 [Cornell], Graybill et al. 2006, Schmidt et al. 2012 [University of Washington], Boden et al. 2011 [Eastern and Western State Universities], Collins 2002 [Arizona State University], Newswander and Borrego 2009 [two unspecified IGERT programs]). We are not aware of any literature about, for, or by interdisciplinary graduate students at small liberal arts schools such as ours, Antioch University New England in Keene, New Hampshire. The unprecedented rate and spatial scale of human alteration of the environment (MEA 2005) and deeper appreciation for environmental complexity increasingly require environmental professionals to work across traditional disciplinary boundaries (Collins 2002, Wake 2008, Perz et al. 2010, Schmidt et al. 2012). Interdisciplinary education and training are necessary to effectively address complex, global, 21st century environmental problems (Palmer et al. 2005, Ehrenberg and Kuh 2009). It is no longer sufficient for graduates to be competent in their narrow environmental discipline; to be prepared for the technical, fast-paced, and interdisciplinary world of environmental management, students must also be strong science communicators and work effectively with disciplinarily and culturally diverse stakeholders (Reich and Reich 2006, Schmidt et al. 2012). Further, non-academic conservation professionals (e.g., land use and natural resource managers) must be able to move deftly among a wide variety of projects involving various ecosystems and taxa depending upon ever-changing conservation priorities, funding sources, and project collaborators. In this paper, we discuss the unique challenges and opportunities of navigating an interdisciplinary environmental studies master's program. Interdisciplinary master's students have unique teaching, learning, and employment training needs that warrant special consideration in the literature. By focusing specifically on interdisciplinary master's students who become professionals in non-academic environmental settings, we make a unique contribution to the “advice literature” that will be relevant to an increasing number of graduate students, particularly those at small liberal arts universities like ours. While this paper is structured as advice to master's students in interdisciplinary STEM programs, our advice will likely also be useful to graduate students in other interdisciplinary master's programs, doctoral students pursuing non-academic careers, and even interdisciplinary graduate faculty. Collins (2002) defines interdisciplinary education as, “teaching, learning, research, or problem-solving that integrates several disciplines to create a unified outcome that is sustained and substantial enough to enable a new discipline to develop over time. Practically speaking, completing (the interdisciplinary project) requires the joint effort of investigators from two or more disciplines. Integrating the diverse expertise of the participants is the key to success” (p. 76). When professionals transcend disciplinary gaps, interdisciplinary collaboration can foster new insights and methodologies and “give birth to new hybrid disciplines that are more analytically sophisticated” (NIH 2005). Such is the field of environmental studies, a multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary academic field that explicitly addresses human interactions with the environment to solve complex environmental problems. The field of environmental studies is distinguished from environmental science by its systematic integration of the life and physical sciences, social sciences, and humanities. Over the past 10 years, we have seen tremendous growth in the number of interdisciplinary undergraduate and graduate environmental studies programs throughout the USA and Canada. Interdisciplinary graduate programs are structured in myriad ways. In a fully integrated, interdisciplinary program, students may be required to take foundational courses in life and physical sciences, social sciences, leadership development, and humanities. Most coursework includes exposure to knowledge and methods that cross disciplines, students from different disciplines take courses and conduct projects together, and faculty help students to integrate various disciplines (Newswander and Borrego 2009). In contrast, other interdisciplinary graduate programs may require students to take one or two interdisciplinary seminars that integrate disciplines, while the remainder of students’ coursework is pieced together from traditional departments and programs at their university (Newswander and Borrego 2009). Many higher education researchers have described the attitudinal and logistical obstacles to interdisciplinary programming embedded in traditional university settings (e.g., Graybill et al. 2006, Moslemi et al. 2009, Newswander and Borrego 2009, Boden et al. 2011). For a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of these contrasting interdisciplinary program structures, see Newswander and Borrego (2009). Antioch University (AU) was founded in 1850 on the principles of social, economic, and environmental justice. Democracy, progressive education, and social justice remain at the core of programming at all five of our campuses (Yellow Springs, OH; Seattle, WA; Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, CA; and Keene, NH). Antioch University New England (AUNE) in Keene, NH, provides exclusively graduate education and is composed of five departments: Clinical Psychology, Applied Psychology, Education, Management, and Environmental Studies. The interdisciplinary values of the AUNE Environmental Studies (ES) Department are central to our mission, which states, “The Department of Environmental Studies educates visionary, pragmatic leaders in a collaborative interdisciplinary setting that is founded on academic excellence and the principles of environmental justice and sustainability.” Students in the ES Master of Science Program can major in one of six concentrations: Advocacy for Social Justice and Sustainability, Conservation Biology, Environmental Education, Science Teacher Certification, Self-designed Studies, and Sustainable Development and Climate Change (Table 1). Full-time (“Core”) ES faculty include four ecologists, one environmental manager, three environmental educators, three social scientists, two environmental creative writers, one physical geographer, and one environmental advocate. The faculty co-author of this paper (RT) is a soil and sediment ecologist, and the six student co-authors are ES master's students concentrating in Conservation Biology; AD studies terrestrial plants, BF studies sharks, JH studies aquatic plants, SL studies birds, and TM and RS study turtles. Baker and Lattuca (2009) describe graduate education as a process of both knowledge and skills acquisition (professionalization) and professional identity development (socialization). Weidman et al. (2001) define graduate student socialization as “the processes through which individuals gain the knowledge, skills, and values necessary for successful entry into a professional career requiring an advanced level of specialized knowledge and skills” (p. iii). Thus, to optimize learning and professional preparedness, graduate students must acquire knowledge and skills appropriate to their disciplines, invest time, energy, and esteem in their graduate programs, and involve themselves in the activities customary to their professions (Weidman et al. 2001, Austin and McDaniels 2006, Baker and Lattuca 2009, Newswander and Borrego 2009). Interdisciplinary graduate students must also develop cultural competence within and outside their disciplines, as well as within and outside their dominant social groups (Reich and Reich 2006). Thus, the advice we give here to interdisciplinary master's students includes both professionalization and socialization to help them optimize their graduate education and professional preparedness. By their nature, interdisciplinary programs are problem-based rather than discipline-based (Klein 2005). Because environmental problems are global and complex, traditional disciplinary training does not adequately prepare students to be effective environmental leaders and change agents (Campbell et al. 2005, NSF 2010). However, disciplinary depth is still necessary to identify and pursue relevant environmental questions and advance ecological understanding (Pickett et al. 2007). Thus, successful master's students cultivate depth while strategically seeking breadth. During the first year of your interdisciplinary program, read deeply and widely and pay attention to environmental problems and questions that resonate with you most deeply. Talk about these environmental problems and questions with anyone who will listen and provide feedback, and strive to understand who is involved in and affected by them. Use your capstone (e.g., thesis) requirement to explore your chosen environmental problem or question deeply; become an expert in your discipline. At the same time, strategically plan coursework, internships, course projects, and community involvement to help you understand a wide variety of systems, taxa, and stakeholders. It is also important to act strategically when you first begin researching graduate programs. Some graduate universities require prospective students to coordinate with professors and apply to a particular laboratory, whereas other schools, such as Antioch, have students apply to a preferred concentration rather than identify an advisor at the onset. The latter is particularly helpful if you are unsure of your desired field of study, as it allows you to develop a question in tandem with your first year of coursework. On the other hand, beginning your graduate career already belonging to a laboratory may provide more guidance in developing a research question; however, this approach may restrict your research options. Whichever approach you choose, pursue your passions but remain flexible; a wide variety of academic and professional opportunities may lead you down unexpected yet fulfilling paths. Throughout your environmental career, you will work with government agency scientists and administrators, faculty collaborators, educators, community stakeholders, and students, technicians, and interns. Prepare yourself for the highly collaborative nature of environmental work. Use your interdisciplinary graduate program to learn about your leadership style and to practice collaborative problem-solving. Seek courses and trainings in leadership development that attract students from diverse disciplinary and cultural backgrounds. Many interdisciplinary programs will require (or at least provide) leadership-training courses, but if one is not available in your department, explore opportunities in business or management programs at your university or a nearby university. Take advantage of short-term (e.g., weekend) leadership development workshops, and leadership and science education workshops at conferences. You may also create your own leadership-training opportunities by introducing and coordinating courses (including Supervised Independent Study courses you design yourself), seminars, and events in your department or on campus (Moslemi et al. 2009). For example, students in the AUNE-ES master's program regularly serve as teaching assistants in of our master's courses, as well as research assistants on funded faculty assistants the to field and and students professors for opportunities to content to their For example, co-author SL has workshops that on the use of spatial to conservation and has on and BF have leadership experience and advanced their skills their as teaching assistants for and TM have field experience with Antioch faculty on research (e.g., and foster leadership and identity development and you to practice professional Interdisciplinary career can be than disciplinary career interdisciplinary graduate students must become with the professional and develop skills to their expertise to a variety of stakeholders et al. 2011). Environmental professionals must effectively complex and processes to stakeholders and the as well as of their discipline to project from other disciplines. 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SL has in interdisciplinary that from community projects to academic research and TM is with on research at The most effective interdisciplinary programs are and provide students and faculty with diverse opportunities for teaching and learning and is both and social, and graduate students must gain not only knowledge, but also identity and within their professional and Lattuca 2009). of your graduate program, department, and university as of and with which to to gain the most from your graduate you you may be of such a and seminars, even if the does not directly to your to learn new of new and diverse of environmental problems and et al. 2006, Reich and Reich 2006, Moslemi et al. 2009). 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