building a research culture in a #highered institution
TRANSCRIPT
Presentation at the Operational Planning Workshop, Department of Business Management,
University of South Africa (Unisa) 6-7 February 2017, Pretoria
Image credit: https://pixabay.com/en/buildings-sky-clouds-123780/
Building a research culture in a
#highered institutionBy Paul Prinsloo
Research Professor in Open Distance Learning
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I do not own the copyright of any of the images in this presentation. I hereby acknowledge the original copyright and licensing regime of every image and reference used. All the images used in this presentation have been sourced from Google and were labeled for non-commercial reuse.
This work (excluding the images) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Image credit: https://pixabay.com/en/empty-abandoned-messy-grunge-scene-863118/
How do we think about building a research culture in a context where
Image credit: https://pixabay.com/en/empty-abandoned-messy-grunge-scene-863118/
• The playing field is not level – but gendered, raced and embedded in geopolitical and disciplinary contestations and networks
• Criteria such as citations are increasingly suspect as citations, reputation and impact are not necessarily linked
• Your gravitas as a researcher is increasingly dependent on the amount of funding you secure
• Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) are accused of mission and ethics creep and the excruciating impact of the proliferation of reporting to an increasing number of stakeholders
Image credit: https://pixabay.com/en/empty-abandoned-messy-grunge-scene-863118/
Some examples…
Page credit: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/female-professors-pay-price-academic-citizenship
Page credit: https://www.buzzfeed.com/kellyoakes/if-male-scientists-were-written-about-like-women?utm_term=.mjerpnKMm#.gnPAKXZQ2
Page credit: https://aminer.org/mostinfluentialscholar/ml
Page credit: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0166149&from=timeline&isappinstalled=0
Page credit: https://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/2017/jan/27/unsackable-senior-staff-make-life-even-harder-for-junior-academics?CMP=share_btn_tw
Page credit: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/funding-for-innovation-ranking-2016
Page credit: http://science.sciencemag.org/content/312/5779/1441
Image credit: https://pixabay.com/en/confused-muddled-illogical-880735/
There is therefore a real danger that our strategies and interventions are misguided due to misunderstanding the field; underestimating the complexities of becoming and being a researcher-in-context; and/or succumbing to the
often empty institutional rhetoric regarding building a research culture
Some preliminary remarks
Image credit: https://pixabay.com/en/lost-places-stairs-staircase-1943678/
Context is everything
Image credit: https://pixabay.com/en/pier-wooden-lake-ocean-sea-quiet-407252/
Disclaimer: I acknowledge the impact of my own intersectionality of race, gender, age, role,
privilege and academic/disciplinary expertise/field on making sense of ‘building a
research culture’
Research looks different between…
Image credit: https://pixabay.com/en/pier-wooden-lake-ocean-sea-quiet-407252/
• ‘Types’ of higher education institutions – eg distance education, comprehensive institutions & research intensive institutions
• Disciplines – eg mathematics, economics and sociology• Where you are in your career and where others are in their
careers• Different intersections of race, age, gender, family
responsibilities, teaching and supervision loads & networks (whether scholarly, institutional-political, industry)
Image credit: https://pixabay.com/en/building-reflection-window-glass-922529/
Institutions and individuals often see their rankings & citations as a true reflection of their standing and
gravitas in a particular field.
These reflections are, however, approximations and skewed representations due to the structures and epistemologies underpinning and upholding the
mirrors
Image credit: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panopticon
The increasing number of reporting and auditing regimes result in researchers feeling as if they are
being constantly watched, monitored and assessed, even when they are not…
Image credit: https://pixabay.com/en/logistics-stock-transport-shipping-852936/
The reality of being a researcher/doing research increasingly resembles an assembly line with the emphasis being on the number of boxes produced, and not, necessarily the content
of the boxes
Image credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/timrich26/3308513067
Doing research and disseminating research findings constitute a minefield of contesting understandings of knowledge and knowledge generation in and between different disciplines, contesting narratives between the global North and South, a quantification fetish and the
commercialisation of knowledge production and dissemination
Image credit: http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Dismemberment
Researchers are also torn between different initiatives and pet projects of the different portfolios representing research, teaching, community engagement and academic citizenship…
Image credit: https://pixabay.com/en/cobweb-network-spin-nature-1576419/
Being, becoming a researcher and doing research are therefore fragile notions and
enactments and are found at the intersections of structural, raced and gendered
arrangements in a particular institutional and geopolitical contexts
Final preliminary remark
Image credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Football_pitch_spanish_metric.svg
Understanding developing and supporting research as ‘field’
Image credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wembley_enggermatch.jpg
The way management sees the field of research
• Institutional reputation, league tables, & standing and funding
• Attracting high quality scholars and students
Image credit: http://maxpixel.freegreatpicture.com/Field-Ball-Feet-Player-Sport-Soccer-Football-1141186
The way researchers see the field of research
• Messy• Slippery• Competitive• Biased i.e.
quantitative/ qualitative, Global North vs Global South, editors and reviewers as gatekeepers
Image credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Women's_Soccer_-_USA_vs_Japan_(1).jpg
The way researchers see the publishing process
• Increasingly competitive• Dependent on the interpretation
of rules by different referees• Different sets of rules depending
on the field• The limited space/time to score a
goal
Image credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2-3-2-3_formation.svg
The first step to building a research culture is a critical and caring understanding of the field
Image credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lauren_Cheney_on_the_ball.jpgImage credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2-3-2-3_formation.svgImage credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Referee_Mark_Geiger_advantage.jpgImage credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Samuel_Radlinger_(Hannover_96)_-_Austria_U-21_(02).jpgImage credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tom_Cleverley_goal_vs_MLS_All-Stars.jpgImage credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/bartek2205/4483232496
• The player: Her skills & dispositions
• The field: Discipline, institution – what is acceptable
• Her position on the field: (In)experience, quantitative/ qualitative
• The referee – Rules & implementation of the rules
• The goal - definition• The prize – what is the prize?
How to score, what are the rules, according to whom and what is the prize?
29
[(habitus)(capital)] + field = practice/agency
My habitus - how my context (past and present) (and my understanding thereof) shaped and still shape me
The capital that I have acquired in the process (or not)
The field – the context in which I find myself in. This is not a neutral space, but is, itself, shaped by various structures, and agencies of individuals and collectives
My practice/agency and my understanding thereof…
Adapted from Bourdieu, P. (1984). Distinction: a social critique of the judgment of taste. Richard Nice (trans). Cambridge: Harvard University Press
Exploring researcher agency
The player: Her context, history & dispositions
• Gender, race, socio-economic circumstances (past and present)
• Locus of control, self-efficacy• Academic background, standing and networks (past and
present)• Parental/care responsibilities• Research expertise and understanding of the field• Quantitative and/or qualitative/mixed methods
Her position on the field
• Departmental/institutional position/location
• Career trajectory• Disciplinary context• Institutional context and delivery modes• Teaching and research expectations and
workloads• Team composition and team role• The state of the field –
enabling/disempowering• What the other players expect of
her/how the other players see her
The referee – rules & implementation of the rulesMultiple levels of refereeing: • Disciplinary & inter/trans disciplinary gatekeepers • Networks that include and exclude• Journal editors• Reviewers
Multiple sets of rules: • Disciplinary/ epistemological• Technical• Research methodologies• Disciplinary traditions and conventions• Publication conventions (eg referencing styles)
The goal - definition• Publication in a preferred or accredited
journal – ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’• Monographs• Chapters in books• Conference presentations
Let us also consider…• Alternative digital forms of scholarship e.g. blogs, sustained
engagement in micro blogging networks?• Open and peer reviewed scholarship • How our current practices of privileging closed (behind pay
wall) publications sustain the commercialisation of our research
Image credit: https://pixabay.com/en/berlin-olympia-1936-1598445/
Guiding pointers for building a research culture
Image credit: https://pixabay.com/en/berlin-olympia-1936-1598445/
Pointer 1Research productivity is a dynamic, context-specific, multidimensional
process shaped by mostly interdependent and mutually
constitutive factors in the nexus between the institution, the disciplinary locus of
the research, the researcher
Image credit: https://pixabay.com/en/berlin-olympia-1936-1598445/
Pointer 2The researcher has agency, but her
agency is constrained/enabled by other actors in a particular context
Image credit: https://pixabay.com/en/berlin-olympia-1936-1598445/
Pointer 3Administrative processes for funding and ethical clearance should be efficient and
as short as possible without compromising accountability or
transparency
Image credit: https://pixabay.com/en/berlin-olympia-1936-1598445/
Pointer 4Research is an intentional process sustained by
curiosity• dedication• serendipity
• the value and quality of networks
Image credit: https://pixabay.com/en/berlin-olympia-1936-1598445/
Pointer 5While the current research imaginary is based on
a technocratic logic and sustained by a quantification fetish, we must find ways to
embrace, acknowledge and support other forms of scholarship in an increasingly digital and
networked world
Image credit: https://pixabay.com/en/cobweb-network-spin-nature-1576419/
Being, becoming a researcher and doing research are therefore fragile notions and
enactments and are found at the intersections of structural, raced and gendered
arrangements in a particular institutional and geopolitical contexts
(In)conclusion
THANK YOUPaul Prinsloo (Prof)Research Professor in Open Distance Learning (ODL)College of Economic and Management Sciences, Office number 3-15, Club 1, Hazelwood, P O Box 392Unisa, 0003, Republic of South Africa
T: +27 (0) 12 433 4719 (office)
[email protected] Skype: paul.prinsloo59
Personal blog: http://opendistanceteachingandlearning.wordpress.com
Twitter profile: @14prinsp