Postcard from Darwin

by Sylvia Robertson

Water garden MGD©.jpg By MGDboston

I am sitting working in a tropical rainforest garden. At 34 degrees and near 100% humidity, my brain is fizzing. Distraction is inevitable so I will scribble something about my PhD experience to date.

I am one of those annoyingly passionate, conscientious mature-age students. I can’t leave learning alone. I graduated with a BA in philosophy and English literature in 1982 and reluctantly left university to attend Teachers College. With some reservations, I began teaching for three years to satisfy the requirements of my bond. Three turned into thirty years across Wellington, Sydney, and London. I taught all primary and intermediate years, and held several leadership positions. I loved teaching. It allowed me to keep learning and discovering. Children present you with rich perspectives on all things from forked tongue lizards to fantasy friends. While teaching in London and Sydney and still addicted to learning, I completed two thirds of a Masters in sociolinguistics and educational leadership. Back home, I finished the Masters in Education and began my PhD.

Now I feel somewhat guilty about the luxury of ‘just’ being a student. After working fulltime, raising two kids and the effort involved in transitioning countries and cultures, I have almost total control over how I choose to spend my time. If this project fails, I will only have myself to blame but if it succeeds, it will be because I chose to make it happen. This is powerful stuff after being at the beck and call of others for years. Intellectual freedom, I suppose, in that I don’t have to conform too much to the thinking and direction of others. Incredibly humbling, I think, as we tiptoe in the footprints of giants who have grappled with similar issues since the dawn of time. Also incredibly humbling, in that I am working with real people and the issues they face in often-difficult contemporary contexts. 

There have been challenges. The skills you bring from the work place are very useful – time management not the least. However, Humanities in the late seventies did not prepare me for studying with technology. When I started we had microfiche. Despite surviving a technology rich workplace nothing has prepared me for EndNote! But I have found the support of university staff and my colleagues invaluable. And at my age you can get away with asking really dumb questions!

Lastly, if you are contemplating this – do it. Not only will you get to reflect on years of work experience and relationships but you will learn about yourself as well. Make the most of every precious minute but be kind to yourself as well. This is also hard work.

Festivalling: Week Two

by Keely Blanch
 
This year Grad Research School treated postgrads to a full-on ‘Inger’ experience by persuading offering The Thesis Whisperer, Dr. Inger Mewburn, the chance to escape Australia for the lovely shores of NZ to present THREE seminars in two days. For anyone who hasn’t seen The Thesis Whisperer presentations, I’d heartily recommend attending if you get a chance. The slides for Thesis Whisperer presentations are available from the ThesisWhisperer website, but they are no substitute for being there. Inger is so friendly that feel you know her - she must feel stalked when complete strangers come up to her and start talking to her! On this visit, her presentation topics included ‘Social media and Academia’, ‘Tragic research mistakes and how to avoid them’, and ‘What do examiners want’. Sprinkled between these seminars were other offerings, such as tips on networking, opportunities to practice networking, and the Thesis in 3 awards (sadly I missed this last event as I was away, but more details are available at the GRS blog).

Social media and Academia 

(or Blogging and Tweeting – do I really have to do it?)

 

I admit I’m a Facebook addict  an enthusiastic user of social media, so I was keen to hear in this seminar about how I could turn the procrastination time-sink potential to an advantage. Other postgrads who are less keen on social media had come along wanting to know if they really did have to use this ‘stuff’ on the internet.

I still haven’t made up my mind about the first half of the seminar. There was a lot of talk about ‘the future’, accompanied by slightly depressing academic job stats and requirements, phrases like ‘more competition and more PhDs than ever before’, etc etc. The stats were Australian figures, but reportedly similar to those for NZ. But it is all in how you view them – for instance, I decided to be optimistic that only 14% of PhD grads were still looking for work 4 months after finishing. However, all these facts were a lead in to the main argument – that social media can be a good way to increase your academic profile and boost your chances not to be one of the 2% still looking for work a year after graduating.

First point - anyone can do social media. Second point – you do not want your first google footprint to be your university staff page. I immediately thought I could live with that as at least that would mean I was a staff member. I also did have to laugh when I googled ‘Inger Mewburn’ and the first result was the uni staff profile. However, the second result was The Thesis Whisperer blog, which illustrates a wider academic profile.

During her talk, Dr Mewburn covered ways to promote yourself online and where you should be focusing your attention. Hint - your 'basic' academic profile should include your uni page, Linked.In, ResearchGate, Academia.edu, Google Scholar, and about.me. Bonus points if you add Twitter, facebook, blogging and other social media.

In summary, using social media is one way to increase your academic profile, to stamp your mark on a concept, to be a networked scholar, and to expand your academic community.

(* for more about academic blogging, see the links at the bottom of the post)

 

Networking with Prof. Rachel Spronken-Smith

Immediately after hearing about networking via social media, we headed off to learn about face-to-face networking. Yes, with people. Was I the only one whose mind went from social media to networking and thought computer tech wizardry?

Professor Rachel Spronken-Smith continued the theme of promoting the importance of networking for academic careers. Labelled as Cats or Dogs, we mingled and completed activities aimed at helping us get to know each other and expand our networks. It was great to meet up with other PhD students from HEDC, as well as make contact with another blogging PhD student, Sherrema from The Smart Girl's Guide to Getting her PhD Abroad. Networking was working already!

PRANC - the networking party

This event was touted as a way to practise our newly-minted networking skills. Having re-caffeinated, and with the promise of more of the Staff Club's delicious nibbles (did someone mention truffles?) I set off to meet, greet, and work out who had the Lego Harry Potter castle in their office (sorry Claire, I already knew about your Lego village). Networking Bingo was tremendous fun, and conversations weren't just confined to 'what category can I put you in?'. By the end of the evening my head was swimming with names. Maybe I should suggest a seminar on how to remember which names and faces go together.

 

 

 

Tragic research mistakes and how to avoid them

Tuesday was all about The Thesis Whisperer.  In the morning seminar, Dr Mewburn discussed how research integrity is woven through all aspects of the project. It encompasses work practices, ownership of concepts, 'plagiarism' or ethical use of other people's work, and ethical research practices, including the ethics process and ethics review boards.

From a selfish view - a lack of research integrity by others may impact upon your work with disputes over claims of authorship, contribution to projects and so on. So protect yourself: keep an audit trail, negotiate and re-negotiate as needed in group projects, keep proof of your thesis progress (and feedback to prove ownership of ideas), etc. Although do remember that 99% of the time there aren't any problems!

For your participants - you want to ensure you act ethically during the research process and treat their data with respect. Part of this is gaining institutional ethics approval for your research before you start collecting data. Ethics is a bit of a hobby horse of mine so I was glad this got a mention! 

One important note is that ethical approval isn't just about protecting participants, it's also about protecting the researcher. On a selfish note again, without ethics approval granted before data collection, you may not be able to get your thesis examined, graduate, or get published in reputable journals.

What do examiners want?

The afternoon session started off with the curly question of what examiners actually want in a thesis. Recently Dr Clinton Golding of HEDC at Otago outlined what examiners do when they assess a paper (you can find his paper here). 

Dr Mewburn decided to approach the topic from a slightly different angle and talked about the 5 ways to fail your thesis. If you want to fail, don't talk to your supervisors about possible examiners for your thesis; send your thesis to a new examiner who is still relatively fresh out of their PhD and still sensitive and therefore hypercritical; write a bad literature review; make sure your introduction and your conclusion look like they come from different theses; don't use a copy editor to check for proofing, grammar, spelling errors. The good news is that only about 2% of PhDs fail outright. Most have to do some revisions. 

Things to think about if you want to pass: keep your thesis as small as possible - it indicates confidence and promotes clarity; make sure you hit key references in your field; check the conventions for your division when deciding what type of thesis and how to present it; go to seminars; ask advice; keep your intro short (about 2000-3000 words); assessment is based upon first impressions of abstract, intro, conclusion; make your thesis an easy and enjoyable read.

So a busy, but useful two weeks of festivalling. I hope you all got a chance to get along to at least one of the events this year. I can't wait to see what's on offer next year :)

 

Acknowledgments:

I'd like to say a thank you to Dr Inger Mewburn, aka The Thesis Whisperer, for generously sharing a link to one of this blog's posts via her popular Twitter and Facebook feeds.

Academic blogging links:

There seems to have been a bit of talk around academic blogging and/or use of social media this year. If you want to know more, Pat Thomson at Patter has written a few posts on the topic. Some of the recent posts have reflected on whether Doctoral researchers should blog, and the way social media offers a chance to experiment with our writing voice. Jonathon Sterne at Sterneworks offers some salient points to consider for academics thinking of blogging in his Blogging 101 for Academics post. The Guardian has also offered tips from Tom Crick and Alan Winfield for Academic Blogging, as well as a post from Pat Thomson and Inger Mewburn questioning why academics blog so much. Thomson and Mewburn have also written an academic paper on this topic, 'Why do academics blog? An analysis of audiences, purposes and challenges'. 

 

Festivalling - Week One

by Keely Blanch
 
Otago Uni has been buzzing lately with all the events for the Graduate Research festival. There has been so much on offer thanks to the wonderful team at GRS, and I'm not sure it's humanly possible to make it to everything available! Here's a quick rundown of my festival experiences so far.

Supervisor of the Year Awards

 

First up in my festivalling was the OU Supervisor of the Year awards. The awards themselves were a swanky affair - several of the presenters even breaking out suits for the event! (I'll admit that fact impresses me, because as a PhD student some days the only thing stopping me from a life in track-pants is having to go into the office - and even then it can be close.) We all assembled in the Staff Club, and partook of delicious food - especially those truffles! Mmmmm......

Competition for these awards is fierce. Students nominate supervisors, sing their praises, and wax lyrical. This wealth of data is then passed on to a hard-working judging panel, who have the difficult task of working through the glowing accolades and making the ultimate decision. Awards are made for Divisional Supervisors, and New Supervisor of the Year, as well as the supreme award. This year saw Associate Professor Ruth Fitzgerald, of Social Anthropology, crowned the OUSA Supervisor of the Year for 2014. Details of all the winners are on the Otago Bulletin Board. 

Otago Day of the Girl Symposium 

 

                    

The first week of the festival ended, for me, with a hectic, but very enjoyable day of symposiums and workshops. Although not part of the official festival programme, the Otago Day of the Girl symposium on Friday morning was a fabulous celebration of 'girlhood', with presentations from a wide range of 'girls'. There were films, pecha kucha talks, games, music, delicious food, and animated conversations throughout the morning. This event was put on by several hard-working UOCE postgrads - Kim Brown, Tracy Rogers, Lara Sanderson, as well as Assoc. Prof Karen Nairn, and a raft of helpers. All credit to the entire team for such a wonderful event!

Pointing the way to the comfortable venue at Executive Programmes, in the Commerce building.

Kicking the celebrations off with music from the Global Sounds Ukelele Group

NZARE Student Caucus Workshops 

 

Immediately after the Day of the Girl celebrations, we rushed (literally!) down to the College of Education for the NZARE Student workshops (also organised by UOCE postgrads led by Megan Anakin - we're a motivated group). It was heartening to see that these workshops drew a range of postgrads from across the campus. Much thanks to the four great presenters who agreed to generously give their time to talk us through various aspects of the postgraduate research journey. 

Dr Clinton Golding of HEDC was up first and presented  'Strategies for a successful research journey'. 

Key point  - it is your thesis, your research journey, your responsibility to do the work and get it finished. Clinton's analogy is that supervisors are like doctors - they can provide advice, but they can't do it for you.

Other points Dr Golding offered:

• Academic work/research is about being part of a community, communicating and sharing ideas with peers etc - Conveniently, there was a Networking seminar offered in the second week ;)
• you need to 'manage' your supervisor. That may fill some people with dread, but essentially it's about figuring out what works for both of you and negotiating. Tips are to consider using an agenda before the meeting to set tone, and follow that with a summary email [this tip also came up in a later seminar by The Thesis Whisperer, coming soon].
• supervisors give advice - you do not have to take it, but they are experts in their field, so ignore it at your peril.
• don't be scared to ask other researchers in your field for advice - just email them.
• Thesis writing is a roller coaster. Figure out what support you need and get it. 
• Plan, plan, plan - for the next ten years. Keep your eye on the end goal. Set micro-goals to get a sense of achievement which will help with motivation.
• write write, write - submit when you're 95% happy because you are never going to be 100% happy

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Our second workshop was 'Experimenting with our Academic Writing' presented by Assoc. Prof Karen Nairn. During this very interactive workshop, we worked in pairs to analyse a paragraph of our writing and try to improve it using the techniques offered by Williams, J. & Bizup, J. (2013). Style: Lessons in clarity and grace (11th edition). Boston: Longman. This book is available though the University Bookshop - and don't forget uni students get a discount. 

Key points are to concentrate on Subjects and Characters; Verbs and Actions; and Nominalisations. Our writing group has been using this book this year. Personally, I've found that focusing on the techniques can inhibit my first draft writing, but they are a useful tool at the re-write/editing stage. 

Dr Nairn is also offering a course for postgraduates in 2015. The aim of this course is to have a journal article ready for submission by the end of the course. More details are available at the GRS blog, or through the UO College of Education. 

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After a brief afternoon tea break with delicious food (there's a theme developing here....) we returned for the afternoon sessions.

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Assoc. Prof Martin Tolich from the Dept. of Sociology, Gender and Social Work introduced the topic of 'Planning ethically responsible research' and the need for the ethical review process. MA student Amber Chambers then talked about her MA findings, issues of gate-keeping and negotiating access, issues of confidentiality, and the need to expect the unexpected during the entire research process. This generated a discussion on the ways terminology such as 'gate-keeper' may construct the process of researching as adversarial. The topic of researching in schools drew particular attention, with some of the audience noting that principals have a duty of care to protect their busy staff from intrusions and distractions, although a counterargument offered is that teachers should be responsible for their own time management. 

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We rounded off the afternoon with an engaging talk from Dr Vivienne Anderson about her journey to 'Becoming an academic'.  Dr Anderson offered examples from her own roundabout route to academia to show that what may seem a left-field diversion can often turn out to lead you where you want to go. Good advice was to be strategic in your academic decisions, acknowledge all the skills you develop during your many twists and turns, and don't forget there is nothing to lose by applying! Although exhausted after our busy day, it was good to finish on a positive and inspiring note.

The UOCE postgrads and all who attended would like to thank all those who so generously and willingly gave their time to help make the day a great success. 

What was your key take home point from the day? Did you feel inspired? Did somebody say something that resonated with you? I'm sure there is so much more that I've missed from these brief notes, so add away in the comments.