Retaining Each Other, Too: A Conversation About Peer Relationships and Doctoral Persistence and Retention

Abstract

Existing scholarship suggests that the most significant relationship in graduate education is between a student and their faculty advisor. While this relationship is important, equally important is the relationship between the student and their peers. Supportive peers can see, understand, support, and counteract the challenges of navigating the complex and often hidden curriculum of graduate school. This chapter highlights the experiences of three Black men who committed to support each other from matriculation in graduate school through graduation with the highest terminal degree—the doctorate. In doing so, they intentionally counteracted the role strain of underrepresentation in the academy and adapted—through the implementation of care and generativity—to ensure one another’s academic and professional success. This powerful story exemplifies the intentional and consistent rejection of hegemonic Western practices of competition to instead promote Black male possibility and professional progress. Today, all three Black men hold doctoral degrees, are making progress in their respective educational careers, and use their professional influence to further promote care and generativity to future generations. This chapter provides a demonstration to others committed to rejecting the expectations of competition in favor of collective Black care and support that this approach can succeed.