Trends and Prospects: Comparative Studies in Doctoral Education—a Look into How Doctoral Programs Navigate Legislative Landmines

Dear Colleagues,

I am excited to announce a new Special Issue in the Journal of Education Sciences. This Special Issue aims to explore the current social political environment in which we find ourselves operating. Legislative policies vary per state; however, most can agree that the current political environment, as experienced by university professors and administration, is unstable and uncertain. This uncertainty forces professors and university administration professionals to grapple with and attempt to make sense of continuing their missions of teaching relevant subject matters amid the chaos. This environment is chaotic as students consider how to continue their fields of study when they include issues of race, equity, and sometimes even history. Students are renegotiating their dissertation topics and questioning the choice they made years ago to study areas that are now restricted.

Academic freedom is on the line now more than ever before. This Special Issue examines the experiences and impact of restrictive legislation in doctoral programs. We aim to collect articles spanning the entire country as well as doctoral program areas so that we can better understand how the social and political landscape impacts the experiences of doctoral students, university faculty, and university administration professionals.

Possible topics to be included are as follows:

1. Academic freedom: for whom?
2. The role and future of DEI at the university and in doctoral programs.
3. How does the exclusion of CRT impact doctoral dissertations?
4. How does the exclusion of CRT impact teaching?
5. Affirmative action: does race matter in higher decision making?

This Special Issue is significant and timely. It will contribute meaningfully to the conversations on issues that are currently shaping the reality that university students, faculty and administration professionals across the country must contend with.

Dr. Lisa Bass
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Education Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• doctoral programs
• academic freedom
• equity/DEI