Team Dynamics and Learning Opportunities in Social Science Research Teams

Although the contemporary research environment encourages knowledge generation through research collaboration rather than individualized projects, limited scholarly attention has been devoted to the practice of collaboration within research teams. This paper presents a qualitative analysis of team dynamics and learning opportunities within four social science research teams. The findings reveal similarities and differences in leadership style and interaction approaches that affected how research was undertaken and the possibilities for team members to learn from each other. The snapshots provide models for other research teams that extend situated learning theories and the existing research base about collaboration, research teams, and research leadership. Key words: research teams, research leadership, researcher development, situated learning Bien que le milieu actuel de la recherche encourage la génération des connaissances par la collaboration en recherche plutôt que par les projets individuels, les universitaires ont accordé peu d’attention à la pratique collaborative au sein des équipes de recherche. Cet article présente une analyse qualitative de la dynamique des équipes et des occasions d’apprentissage au sein de quatre équipes de recherche en sciences sociales. Les résultats révèlent des ressemblances et des différences dans le style de leadership et les démarches d’interaction qui ont eu une influence sur la façon dont la recherche a été entreprise et sur les possibilités pour les membres des équipes d’apprendre l’un de l’autre. Les aperçus offrent des modèles pour d’autres équipes de recherche et contribuent aux théories de l’apprentissage contextualisé et à la base de recherche portant sur la collaboration, les équipes de recherche et le leadership en recherche. Mots clés : équipes de recherche, leadership en recherche, développement des chercheurs, apprentissage contextualis

Research Practice in Research Assistantships: Introducing the Special Issue on Research Assistantships

The idea for this special issue came from our mutual interest in research education and the development of future researchers. Our shared program of research has led us to discover the potentials, complexities, and dilemmas associated with research assistantships where newcomers assist more experienced researchers to conduct research projects. We considered a wide range of proposals and papers addressing different aspects of research assistantships. The resulting collection includes self-studies and analyses of others, as well as policy reviews and recommendations. The pieces consider research assistantships involving bachelor's, master's, and doctoral students in four different countries (Canada, Denmark, South Africa, United States) and across a range of disciplines

Fulfilling an ethical obligation: An educative research assistantship

Scant research evidence is available about the day-to-day workings of research assistantships or the educational possibilities they provide for research assistants and their academic supervisors. This case study documents the equitable, educative, and ethical nature of one research assistantship at a Canadian university. Data sources include audio recordings and transcripts from 24 research meetings, along with field notes and textual documents gathered over 8 months as the research assistant and academic supervisor designed, conducted, and presented an interview-based study. Evidence shows the academic supervisor supported the research assistant as she learned research skills and developed confidence as a researcher. The case study provides a potential model of an equitable, educative, and ethical research assistantship for the consideration of other research assistants and academic supervisors. Il existe peu de données de recherche portant sur les activités quotidiennes qu’impliquent les assistanats à la recherche ou sur les possibilités éducatives qu’ils offrent aux assistants à la recherche et à leurs superviseurs académiques. Cette étude de cas évoque la nature équitable, éducative et éthique d’un assistanat à la recherche dans une université canadienne. Les sources de données comprennent des enregistrements et des transcriptions audio de 24 réunions de recherche, des notes d’observation sur le terrain et des textes recueillis au cours de 8 mois pendant lesquels l’assistante à la recherche et le superviseur académique ont conçu, entrepris et présenté une étude reposant sur les entrevues. Des données probantes indiquent que le superviseur a appuyé l’assistante à la recherche pendant qu’elle acquérait des compétences de recherche et prenait confiance en elle comme chercheuse. Cette étude de cas constitue un modèle potentiel d’assistanat à la recherche équitable, éducatif et éthique que pourraient examiner d’autres assistants à la recherche et superviseurs académiques

Fast Professors, Research Funding, and the Figured Worlds of Mid-Career Ontario Academics

Heightened pressures to publish prolifically and secure external funding stand in stark contrast to the slow scholarship movement. This article explores ways in which research funding expectations permeate the “figured worlds” of 16 mid-career academics in education, social work, sociology, and geography in seven universities in Ontario, Canada. Participants demonstrated a steady record of research accomplishment and a commitment to social justice in their work. The analysis identified three themes related to the competing pressures these academics described in their day-to-day lives: funding, challenges, and the fast professor. Participants spoke about their research funding achievements and struggles. In some cases, they explained how their positioning, including gender and race, might have affected their research production, compared to colleagues positioned differently. Their social justice research is funded, but some suspect at a lower level than colleagues studying conventional topics. Challenges might be located in the backstage (personal and home lives) or the frontstage (university or funding agency policies or embedded in the research itself). In aiming for the impossible standards of a continuously successful research record, these individuals worked “all the time.” Advocates claim that slow scholarship is not really about going slower but rather about maintaining quality and caring in one’s work; yet, participants’ accounts suggest they perceive few options other than to perform as “fast professors.” At mid-career, they question whether and how they can keep up this aspect of their figured worlds for 20 or more years.Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada; Office of the Associate Dean, Research, International & Innovation, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toront

Team Dynamics and Learning Opportunities in Social Science Research Teams

Although the contemporary research environment encourages knowledge generation through research collaboration rather than individualized projects, limited scholarly attention has been devoted to the practice of collaboration within research teams. This paper presents a qualitative analysis of team dynamics and learning opportunities within four social science research teams. The findings reveal similarities and differences in leadership style and interaction approaches that affected how research was undertaken and the possibilities for team members to learn from each other. The snapshots provide models for other research teams that extend situated learning theories and the existing research base about collaboration, research teams, and research leadership

Professors in Canada: Experiences of academic life—A special issue

This is an editorial introduction to a special issue of the journal, Brock Education. The article presents an overview of the current context for Canadian professors and the existing data about their work lives and practices. Short descriptions are provided for each of the six articles that comprise the special issue.Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canad

Graphing: Cognitive ability or practice

ABSTRACT: Traditional views conceive graphing as knowledge represented in students' minds. We show in our critique that such views lead to a common assessment problem of how to account for variations in performance across contexts and tasks, and a common attribution problem that locates difficulties in students' deficient cognitive apparatus. Grounded in recent research of scientists at work and everyday cognition, this article provides an alternative perspective that conceives of graphing as observable practices employed to achieve specific goals. This perspective highlights the nature of graphs as semiotic objects, rhetorical devices, and conscription devices. This shift in perspective dissolves problems with assessment and inappropriate attribution of student difficulties. The plausibility and fruitfulness of the new perspective is illustrated in three ways. First, we show that successes and failures of various graphing curricula become understandable in terms of the presence or absence of social dimensions of the practice. Second, we show how our perspective necessitates new assessment practices. Third, we show how our practice perspective on graphing led us to different learning environments and to new foci for conducting research in student-centered open-inquiry contexts

Living in Two Cultures: Chinese Canadians’ Perspectives on Health

OBJECTIVES: Chinese people have distinctive perspectives on health and illness that are largely unrecognized in Western society. The purpose of this descriptive study was to develop a profile of Chinese immigrants’ beliefs and practices related to diet, mental and social health, and sexual health. METHODS: A quantitative survey with descriptive and correlational analyses was employed to examine 100 first-generation Chinese immigrants living in four urban centres across Canada (Vancouver, Toronto, Halifax, and St. Catharines). RESULTS: Although most Chinese immigrants preferred a Chinese diet, where they resided affected the groceries they bought and the meals they ate. Almost all participants reported their mental health was important to them and most felt comfortable discussing mental health issues with others. However, only a third would see a psychiatrist if they believed they had a mental health problem. Most participants believed social relationships were important for their health. Only a small number of participants, however, preferred making friends with mainstream Caucasian Canadians. More men than women believed sexuality contributed to health and were comfortable talking about sexual health. CONCLUSION: Chinese immigrants should be encouraged to be more engaged in the larger community in order to fully integrate themselves into Canadian society while still being encouraged to retain their healthy practices. These findings may help educators and practitioners enhance their understandings of Chinese immigrants’ perspectives on health and develop culturally competent education and services in health care and health promotion.Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and Sport Canada Joint Initiative Gran

Being ethically minded: Practising the scholarship of teaching and learning in an ethical manner

This article was published as Being ethically minded: Practising the scholarship of teaching and learning in an ethical manner in Teaching and Learning Inquiry, 1(2), 2013, pp. 23-32. No part of this article may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or distributed, in any form, by any means, electronic, mechanical, photographic, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Indiana University Press. For educational re-use, please contact the Copyright Clearance Center (508-744-3350). For all other permissions, please visit Indiana University Press' permissions page.The authors propose a working definition of ethical SoTL, an ethical framework for SoTL inquiry, and present a case study that illustrates the complexity of ethical issues in SoTL. The Ethical SoTL Matrix is a flexible framework designed to support SoTL practitioners, particularly in the formative stages of their inquiries. Three dominant ethical traditions form the basis of the matrix: teleological or pragmatic, external, and deontological. The key message of the paper is that SoTL practitioners should reflect on different perspectives in their efforts to do what is right in any given situation. The matrix introduces three dominant ethical traditions, but SoTL practitioners may ultimately move beyond these traditions to explore a range of ethical considerations appropriate to their projects and disciplines

A shared cabin in the woods: The presence and presents of writing in residential academic writing retreats

In this paper, we investigated a model of academic development based upon a recurring residential academic writing retreat combining individual writing times, workshops, work-in-progress groups and one-on-one consultations with shared meals and informal gatherings in a natural environment. Using a case study research approach, we analysed data accumulated from seven annual residential writing retreats for education scholars. Participants included 39 academics, administrative staff, senior doctoral students and community partners from multiple institutions. We found evidence that the retreats enhanced participants’ knowledge of writing and publishing processes, advanced their academic careers, built scholarly capacity at their institutions and strengthened writing pedagogy. The data indicated that the presence of writing and writers at the residential academic writing retreats generated presents (i.e., gifts) for the participants. The presence of writing time, writing goals and writing activities in the company of other writers were key to the retreat pedagogy. Participants appreciated gifts of time and physical space and described giving and receiving peer feedback and emotional support as forms of gift exchange within the community. The resulting writing strategies, competencies and identities provided the gift of sustainability. The analysis confirmed that this ongoing, immersive, cross-institutional, cross-rank, institutionally funded model of academic development was effective and responsive to the needs of individual scholars.Dean’s Office, Faculty of Education, Brock University; Research Leadership Grant, University of Windso