A Framework for Navigating Post-Doctoral Career Opportunities for PK-12 Educators Post-COVID-19 Pandemic

Introduction

Doctoral programs offer a wide range of experiences that offer opportunities that extend beyond the classroom. Although doctoral students often face many challenges, when paired with a mentor, they can benefit from job placement prospects, research skills, research productivity, self-efficacy, and collaborative publications (Noona, Ballinger, & Black, 2007). Loban (2014) explains that good mentors have been described as assisting in breaking down social and political barriers and facilitating the mentee into leadership roles and senior positions with the university sector. Utilizing an introspective view and ethnographic approach, this chapter highlights the process of navigating the post-doctoral process through the lens of education professionals who are promoting publication and continued research by doctoral completers.

This chapter could be of particular interest to doctoral students, early career educators, and researchers serving as a tool that can provide insight into the need for doctoral completers to take advantage of opportunities which can lead to substantial contributions to the field of PK-12 education. By exploring topics such as career matching based on research interests, publication opportunities, and publishing in academic journals, readers will gain insight into strategies for designing a research agenda that is intended to enhance their PK-12 career path. The content of this chapter brings an awareness to the issue of navigating the pitfalls associated with publishing as a postdoctoral completer. According to van der Weijden, Teelken, de Boer, & Drost (2016), “most young academics like postdocs pay little attention to the possibility or the necessity of a career beyond academia.” Postdoctoral researchers are highly skilled and trained scholars that would benefit from assistance in combating the obstacles that prevent professionals in the PK-12 setting from making contributions to the field.

As educators work to highlight the critical research that is needed to support student learning, it is imperative that we understand that successful educators need opportunities to reflect critically on their own personal and professional experiences, their practices, and the needs of all of their students (Allensworth, et al., 2018).