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.

Take note of this date -

by Keely Blanch

Don't miss this upcoming event on Friday October 10th - FREE to Otago University students and NZARE members.

Four inspiring and enthusiastic speakers will offer great advice and tips to postgrads about the research process, tackling that academic writing, ethical research, and the rollercoaster journey of the PhD.

Afterwards, we have a casual social hour at the University of Otago Staff Club -  which offers a chance to practice your networking skills ahead of the Career Series seminar offered by Graduate Research School (GRS) on Monday 13th October. To book for that seminar, or for more details of GRS workshops/seminars check out the Events page. While you're at it, check out the new GRS blog aka "The Blog With No Name" and find out the history of the PhD chocolate fish that makes all the hard work worthwhile. :)

We look forward to seeing you at some of these events

 

You and your social media presence

by Keely Blanch

Have you Googled yourself lately?  What's your digital footprint? Are the results what you want  your department colleagues, your supervisors, your peers, or an employer to see?

While most readers of this blog are immersed in postgraduate study, presumably the hope is one day to put that study to use in a career. Some academics are turning to social media as a way to disseminate their research and to build a research community, all of which may help career prospects. However, perhaps your career is not going to be in academia. Recently, the Grad Guide blog posted a guide  titled "5 Ways to smarten up your Facebook Profile for Prospective Employers". Reportedly, some employers check out social media profiles when looking at potential employees, so it makes sense to think about what you present on social media.

[Image from http://interviewstream.com/blog/guide-to-social-recruiting/]

With a membership claimed to be at 1.3 billion users worldwide, Facebook is perhaps the best known social media site in New Zealand. In terms of developing a professional online presence, there is also LinkedIn, Academia.edu, Twitter, as well as Google+, blogs, and many others.

Perhaps you think it's easier not to have a social presence? After all there are a lot of stories online about people posting something and inadvertently getting into trouble, and uni students, and staff (!) certainly are not immune to this. For instance, see this story about one institution's response to an academic's tweets. However, it has been argued that having no social media presence is now considered more suspicious than a carefully controlled media presence! Worse still, there's no guarantee that you don't inadvertently have a media presence (as my MA study found), because others have posted, shared and tagged items about you. Rather than avoid all social media, the argument is that if you are present on social media, then you can maximise your control over your information.

[Image from http://operationoffersblog.com/linkedin-important-business-branding/]

Grad Guide argues that you can use Facebook to help your reputation, rather than hinder, by selectively choosing what to present publically on your profile. Similar actions can be taken for other sites. An important part of the process of presenting yourself well online, is knowing how to use security settings so that you are not sharing those private pictures, stories and jokes. A good resource for Facebook security tips is the Facecrooks website, especially the post

"How to Lockdown Your Facebook Account For Maximum Privacy and Security" which offers a step-by-step guide to privacy protection. You can also use the various help guides and FAQs for other social media sites.

Blogs can also be made private if required, but many are written for public consumption. It makes sense, therefore, to consider carefully what you write. Various academic blogs have talked about the process of blogging and consideration of audience. Much like any writing, the key advice is to think about who your audience is and what their expectations might be. Many of the academic blog writers (featured on the sidebar) also promote themselves via Facebook and Twitter as these provide more immediate interaction capabilities. But....this may mean that it is that much harder to retract mistaken postings. Net security sites, such as NZ's Netsafe, emphasise that people should not forget that information on the internet is effectively permanent. It's safest to assume that once it's out there, it's out there forever.

But don't panic - remember you can use your social media presence for your benefit. You may consider giving yourself an online reputation makeover. There are companies you can pay to do this, but basically it boils down to burying those 'bad' Google results by providing more good results instead, as outlined here. Microsoft also offer tips on managing your online reputation here. And more thoughts can be found at HistoryPunk and BishopBlog.

 And for some thoughts on academic blogging and academic reputations check out these links - 

 - from Pat Thomson (patter) https://patthomson.wordpress.com/blogging-paper-in-progress/

 - from the Thesis Whisperer (Dr Inger Mewburn) who will be at Otago University for the Graduate research festival in early October  http://thesiswhisperer.com/2010/08/31/social-media-and-your-phd/

Interested in tweeting? Check out these guidelines in The Ten Commandments of Twitter for Academics

And don't forget to check out your institution's policy on social media use. The University of Otago guidelines are here. Although this policy is aimed at staff, it's a good idea for postgrads to be aware of this policy, especially if you do gain work from time to time at the university. :)

Researching with children: Some lessons learnt the hard way

by Kim Brown

I have compiled some thoughts on researching with children from my point of view as a parent, a teacher, a researcher, and an advocate of social justice. I have taken extracts from my Masters and mixed these with more recent deas reflections.

Positioning children within research relations demands awareness of the asymmetrical power relations between researchers and younger participants. The notion of voice encapsulates children’s capacity to speak and their right to do so (Thomson, 2008). Indeed, Roberts (2006) reflects on social research practice that is well-rehearsed in listening to children but not hearing them. Simply adopting child-centred approaches to research may not provide children sufficient opportunity to be heard.

Children’s voice represents a “hard-won” gain in research, yet might equally present researchers with ethical dilemmas when considering how far to acknowledge children’s agency (Kraftl, 2013). Questioning whether it is possible for an adult researcher to create equality with a child participant, Jenks advises recognising “the grounds of difference” (2006, p. 87). One aspect of difference draws attention to adult responsibility, particularly in research domains not conventionally thought of as child-friendly, sexuality being an obvious example (Kraftl, 2013). Drawing upon critical reflexivity may support a researcher in the precarious act of recognising rather than assuming differences. Additional actions may involve participatory roles for the students in the research design or creative modes of communication. Again, I caution that providing children with choices during the research process does not necessarily equate to balancing power differentials between researcher/subject or adult/child. If I reflect on my own research with child participants during my Masters, I can see that I created additional workload for the the young people involved despite my espoused principles of addressing differential power relations.

I sought to empower children to express themselves in flexible ways, both as individuals and as a group, and elicit data to investigate the research question. I chose visual approaches, in part inspired by scrapbooks (Bragg & Buckingham, 2008), and an anti-CV (Higgins, Nairn, & Sligo, 2009). What strikes me in retrospect (ah, the value of hindsight) was my emphasis on using visual approaches to provide tools that ease communication, and not necessarily generate data as a visual product. I now see this distinction as being particularly important. Why agonise over the process of setting and gathering indepedent research activities from children if my intention was to create an atmosphere for ease, conversation and interaction? Having devised an independent presentation and a group activity, the latter was by far the most efficient approach. I am extremely grateful for the efforts that the young people put into their independent activities, but I suspect I might have been able to save them some time had I started with the group activity.

On the day of the activity, I turned up at school laden with morning tea goodies. My visit, whilst pre-aranged was not in the school diary, nonetheless, a member of the administration team facilitated a space for me to meet the young people and then called them up on the intercom. The young people were also not expecting me, so I offered them the chance to opt in or out. All came along. Using low-tech pen and paper, they set about the task of writing a guide book (their prefered form of communication) on the topic of my research. They enjoyed the morning tea, conversing in-depth whilst they doodled, made lists and wrote ocassional sentences. The conversation was the source of rich data analysis, proving that the visual medium of the guide book served it purpose as a conversation starter. Equally important, I think we all had a pleasant morning.

 I have learned several important lessons from my Masters experience around researching with children and school:

1. We know that schools are busy places and present particular challenges for research activity, for example, around communication, access, recruiting participants, free space, and so on. This being the case, why design research that might be overly-reliant on multiple visits? I am not suggesting superficiality here. When our research is small scale, not directly related to curriculum activity, and lacking status of external funding or accomplished researchers, I have found simplicity to be most effective approach.

1. Be clear about the focus of my research. Am I researching methodology or a particular phenomenon? I may have gotten a little enthusiastic about the research design without really thinking about what I was asking of already busy young people. Lambert, Glacken and McCarron (2013) discuss achieving a balance between creative instruments and comonplace conversation when researching with children, and offer some very helpful key considerations in their paper.    doi: 10.1177/1744987112475249

1. Building a relationship with the children involved in research is critical, and if time is short and I am unable to meet with children, I must rely on ethical practices. Procedural ethics offer some widely recognised standards to scaffold research practices, but I would argue, these need to be substantiated by ethical reflexivity or ethical integrity. Maintaining ethical reflexivity involves ongoing critical self-analysis and scrutiny of the research process that moves beyond a simple form of self-confession. Ethics of reflexivity involve an acceptance that differences between researcher and participant extend beyond our research roles and practices, and include values, experiences and dispositions we bring to and maintain beyond the process.

If you'd like any literature references, let me know. :)