Lately, Jeff and Laura have been having a variety of chats about “being a scholar” and what it means to share scholarly work. We recently have been attending a few different conferences together (and apart) in 2017, and have been discussing how we share evidence and practice in higher education. In @BreakDrink episode no. 8, we share a bit more about how practitioner conferences differ from scholarly/research-focused conferences. This might part of a few series of podcast where we talk more about academic work: our experiences being mentored in writing, how to put together a manuscript, proposing a conference paper, peer-review journal start up, or who knows what else -- we think about academic writing and contributions to academe. 

American Educational Research Association (AERA) hosts a research/scholarly conference annually and this year #aera17 conference was in San Antonio, TX with Jeff in attendance. This professional association is HUGE, but thankfully it is broken down into Divisions and  Special Interest Groups (a.k.a. SIGs). Division I is Jeff’s Jam: Education in the Professions as he also attends the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and perhaps Division J may be were some of the doctoral/graduate scholars hang out. Related to this association you will find THE journal, Educational Researcher, that is well-regarded by scholars; however AERA also has AERA Open and other publication outlets. 

We just wish we saw more of this at practitioner conferences. Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education (NASPA) also held their annual conference at the same convention center in San Antonio, TX back in March. Both Jeff and I were there, and we attended a session on publishing in the NASPA journals from this association [Sadly the new Technology in Higher Education: Emerging Practice was not represented in this session this year.] It’s not as though sessions at Student Affairs or Practitioner conferences do have a poster session, and I have seen “Research Papers” presented at ACPA Convention and NACADA has offered Research Symposiums at regional conferences.  The conferences mentioned in Chapter 3 of Hatfield and Wise’s (2015) book: ACPA, NACA, NACADA, NASPA, ACUHO-I, NODA, & NIRSA 

Conference proceedings are scholarly papers a number of academics/researchers include on their vitae for the tenure and promotion. This is the “carrot” as to why faculty or scholars would attend a conference and allow doctoral researchers grants to travel, beyond the value of networking and discussions with peers. A proceeding could be a short (or long) paper presented at a conference, and sometimes there are even print proceedings published for your conference abstracts/papers (e.g. #SMsociety15 proceedings). All papers typically have a specific format (e.g. AECT’s manuscript requirements) and are submitted for a formal (typically blinded) peer-review process before they are accepted. Typically these are shorter papers or a conference abstract (not a beginning of a journal article abstract format), where you present your completed research projects. A number of social sciences and education conferences have specific formats beyond the APA Style 6th Edition, but that is a good start.

If accepted, you will typically present your paper at the conference in a condensed format, such as 10-25 minutes, with a set of other papers in a single session. Each presentation is directed to showcase research by describing a brief literature overview, research methods (data collection, analysis) and findings/implications.This might be moderated by a discussant, moderator, or not at all with a brief (2-5 minutes) for Q&A at the end of your presentation/session time slot.

Other formats typically at scholarly conferences we have seen -- but this is not an inclusive list:

Q: Is it considered a self-plagiarism to reuse (published) abstracts for talks? 

A: Yes. You want to avoid text recycling and should NOT but publishing the same work to different publication outlets. 

Q: Is presenting about my program or an assessment of an initiative at my campus research? Does this count? 

A: Maybe. Did you get IRB approval from your institution before collecting data? Are you following scholarly practice of your educational/social science peers? If not -- this might be an assessment. Still great -- but it could not be submitted as peer-reviewed conference proceeding or journal article.

Q: What is this yellow book that Jeff referred to during the podcast? 

A: It was known as a “phone book” and it’s directory of names of people and businesses for you to locate their contact information. You might use the Google or another search engine these days for said things. Apparently, Yellow book as rebranded to “yb” and now has a website: https://www.yellowpages.com/

Q: Why is Tony Parker out for the rest of the NBA season? 

A: He injured his quadriceps tendon on Wednesday, May 2nd. {tear!}

Q: What is Fiesta?

A: A 10-day annual party celebrating culture, food, fun, and parades in San Antonio, TX that typically falls at the end of April. More about Fiesta. Best tagline: “A party with a purpose” https://www.fiesta-sa.org/ 

 

Overall, we think higher education professionals could do better with sharing MORE research-based information at our conferences. Many of these sessions are often hidden within the general program sessions and/or found in a poster session -- that is often not well-attended. 

Hatfield and Wise (2015, p. 8) challenge practitioners to research by asking:

“If you could give voice to those who were marginalized, if you could change the field of student affairs through your voice, if you could create better collaborations across campus with our academic colleagues, and if you could share your insights with parents, students, and other invested stakeholders so that they will know what we contribute to student learning and development, why wouldn’t you?”

Why are we not encouraging more scholar-practitioner collaborations? And what incentives could you offer early career researchers and senior scholars to attend these conferences? These are ponderings we are thinking about from reading this book (Hatfield & Wise, 2015) on SA scholarship. We think it’s a decent starting guide to getting into academic writing. Sharing evidence-based initiatives are required to be relevant in higher education. This value needs to be showcased more by and with student affairs, student services, and those not on an academic track to offer others insight to the work we are doing.

Maev in America - a great podcast about immigrant experiences IRL

Judge John Hodgman - cases are reviewed and decided in a sound, yet funny way by John (a.k.a. “I’m a PC” dude from the retro Apple commercials)

A Guide to Becoming a Scholarly Practitioner in Student Affairs by Lisa J. Hatfield & Vicki L. Wise

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