Teacher Training for Political Science PhD Students in Europe Determinants of a Tool for Enhanced Teaching in Higher Education

Abstract

In this paper we examine the state of teacher training for political science PhD candidates in the European Union and make a comparison with the situation in the United States. We investigate the determinants of supply and demand of teacher training. On the supply side, we suggest that research orientation and quality assurance are factors that might enhance institutional willingness to provide training. On the demand side, we examine the influence of gender, career plans, year of study, and career status on student motivation to undergo teacher training. We find that about half of EU institutions offering PhD programs also provide some form of teacher training; this closely follows American trends. We also uncover that while research orientation has a significant positive effect on the willingness of universities to provide training in pedagogy, quality assurance does not. Of the four factors we put forward as potential influences on student demand for teacher training, only future plans have a significant effect. We argue that similarities in the situation of teacher training in the United States and the European Union make transatlantic dialogue in graduate education worthwhile. Moreover, the positive impact of teacher training on the quality of teaching and learning as well as the positive valuation of training by more than two-thirds of PhD students in our sample makes us conclude that teacher training should be more widely available.

Keywords:

• doctoral students
• European Union
• teacher training

Notes

^a We received 390 answers. Fourteen submitted replies (7 empty, 2 double, and 5 fake submissions, where “fake submission” stands for entries where responses to questions were mere gibberish or where answers lacked any internal consistency) were excluded.

∗Without excluded countries.

∗Malta, Cyprus, Luxembourg are dropped.

Source: Campbell and Rozsnyai (2002), Hämäläinen, Pehu-Voima, and Wahlén (2001), Rhoades and Sporn (2002), Vidal (2003), Barnabè and Riccaboni (2007), Papadimitriou (2006), ENQA (2006).

Note. ∗p < .05; ∗∗p < .01; ∗∗∗p < .001.

Standard errors are in parenthesis.

Dependent variable: demand for teacher training (yes = 1; no = 0).

Note. ∗p < .05; ∗∗p < .01; ∗∗∗p < .001.

Standard errors are in parenthesis.

Dependent variable: availability of training (yes = 1; no = 0).

Difference between old and new Europe is measured by a dummy variable (old/new) that takes the value of 1 if the state is an old member state and 0 if it is a new member state.

Even though there may be various departments offering political science doctoral degrees within a university, our data did not allow us to always consider this. Nonetheless, we are fully aware that the policies and programs in particular departments of the same universities may differ.

For instance, the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) has both Departments of Government and International Relations, the University of Tallinn has one institute for the study of international relations and political science, and the University of Aberystwyth has only an international politics department.

The correlation between the independent variables—research orientation and quality assurance—is not high (R ² = .45).