Making Navigation Visible I: How Reactive, Strategic, and Proactive Approaches are Influenced by Programs and Shape Graduate Student Experiences

Retention is a common metric of success for physics programs. However, retention mainly indicates student survival rather than thriving. This study explores how thriving emerges through navigation. From semi-structured interviews with physics doctoral students, we identified a range of responses to challenges from crisis-driven reactions to thoughtful and planned actions. We propose a model to describe three types of approaches – reactive, strategic, and proactive – that graduate students use to navigate challenges and trajectories in their graduate programs. Reactive approaches led to survival, whereas strategic and proactive approaches enable students to thrive. Students may use multiple approaches simultaneously or revert to reactive approaches depending on the challenges they face. We will articulate how different challenges impact which approaches are utilized. By differentiating between types of navigation and challenges, we propose that thriving is the result of context features and an active set of behaviors that students enact.