Samantha Breslin & Friedolin Merhout
Abstract
Accommodating Gender and Disciplinary Background in Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Education
This project investigated dynamics of belonging, teaching satisfaction, and differential treatment in the Master’s program in Social Data Science (SDS) – a novel, interdisciplinary MSc program. The focus on these outcomes was motivated by two complementary drivers. On the one hand, the program’s own success in terms of recruiting highly motivated and skilled students, retaining them throughout the education, and graduating them in time and well prepared for the labor market depends on student’s experience in the program. On the other hand, the MSc in SDS is part of a growing class of post-graduate education programs combining technical and social sciences which is increasingly relevant for contemporary societies but needs to reckon with established inequities around disciplinary and gender norms in academia and private industry.
To assess the focal dynamics, we fielded a four-wave panel survey to the first cohort in the MSc in SDS asking students to share their experiences in both closed- and open-ended format at regular intervals throughout the first year. The project reports the results of the survey using both descriptive visualizations to illustrate dynamics over time and provides context for the observed patterns from the open-ended responses. Overall, the program has overcome the inequities established across disciplines and fostered an environment where students do not feel that they are discriminated against based on gender. However, students’ varied disciplinary and methodological backgrounds lead to potentially problematic divergences in teaching and learning experiences and feelings of belonging, which the program responsibles will have to monitor. Similarly, the survey finds indications of potential unintended consequences in terms of men’s feelings of belonging and interest in teaching throughout the course of the program.