DIGEST-Volume10.4-FULL

13 TPC Digest Cian L. Brown, Anthony J. Vajda, David D. Christian P ursuing a doctoral degree in counselor education and supervision (CES) can be a daunting task. Although there are some levels of certainty, there is also a great degree of uncertainty, especially with regard to recognizing the valuable experiences that will inevitably lead to career opportunities, satisfaction, and success. CES doctoral students can expect to develop core areas such as counseling, supervision, teaching, leadership and advocacy, and research and scholarship. Happenstance Learning Theory (HLT) provides a framework through which the planned and unplanned experiences—and those degrees of uncertainty—of doctoral students can be understood. For example, mentorship and career development throughout the course of the doctoral program impact students’ experiences. Previous research indicates that research and scholarship are highly emphasized factors for impacting career opportunities and success for potential and current CES faculty. However, the exact expectations for publishing and scholarship in CES remains unclear. To better understand potential implications for faculty, programs, and doctoral students looking to enter academia, research must continue exploring CES publication and scholarship trends. According to HLT, career development is the result of numerous planned and unplanned experiences over the course of life in which people develop skills, interests, knowledge, beliefs, preferences, sensitivities, emotions, and behaviors guiding them toward a career. For CES doctoral students, HLT is particularly pertinent in that while many enter programs with clear career aspirations, these career goals often remain fluid, changing and developing throughout the training process. Although this drive to reach predetermined goals can serve as motivation, individuals who have made firm career decisions tend to focus on experiences that affirm their choices and overlook or fail to engage in unplanned experiences not related to their career goals. Using HLT, CES faculty and programs can provide better learning environments and mentorship experiences through planned and unplanned activities. From this lens, faculty can encourage students to engage in planned experiences aligned with their career aspirations while also being open to potentially formative unplanned experiences, especially related to research and scholarship. R esearch experiences, both planned and unplanned, will vary across programs and depend on a multitude of factors, one of which might be the Carnegie classification of the institution in which the program is housed. Although previous researchers have asserted that doctoral-granting institutions are more likely to emphasize publishing, research has yet to establish this as fact by comparing actual publication trends across a variety of institution types. The authors of this study examined the publication trends of 396 CES programs accredited by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs based on Carnegie classification by exploring 5,250 articles published over the last decade in 21 journals published by or affiliated with the American Counseling Association. The results of this study can be used to inform the training and preparation of doctoral students in CES programs through an HLT framework specifically regarding their role as scholars and researchers. The authors present implications and argue the importance of programs and faculty providing research experience for doctoral students in order to promote career success and satisfaction. Cian L. Brown, MS, NCC, LPC, BCN, is a doctoral candidate at the University of Arkansas. Anthony J. Vajda, PhD, NCC, is an assistant professor at the University of Arkansas. David D. Christian, PhD, LPC, is an assistant professor at the University of Arkansas. Correspondence may be addressed to Cian Brown, University of Arkansas, 751 W. Maple St., GRAD 117, Fayetteville, AR 72701, clb061@uark.edu. Preparing Counselor Education and Supervision Doctoral Students Through an HLT Lens | TPC Digest The Importance of Research and Scholarship