The Impact of a Teaching Peer Support Group on Doctoral Student Instructors: A Collaborative Autoethnography

Social work doctoral education is centered on preparing students for research and publication. Most doctoral students, however, will have some responsibility for teaching during their time in PhD programs, and preparation for this role varies widely between programs. Many programs offer limited opportunities for doctoral students to practice the tenets of experiential learning theory, where they reflect, think, and act on their teaching practice to develop the related competency. This collaborative autoethnography examines the effect of a peer support group for doctoral student adjuncts at a large public university in the Northeastern United States during the spring 2021 semester. We reflect on our experience in the group: its effect on our teaching, the gaps it filled in our learning, and its effect on the isolation we felt during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. We coded and analyzed our personal reflections, which elicited three themes: isolation, support and camaraderie, and pedagogical reflexivity. We end with a discussion relating these themes to the literature and implications for social work doctoral education.