Modeling Scholarship
When Charlie was in grad school, a famous professor burst into class the first day, announced he was so busy with his research he had no time to teach, and informed the class they would have to teach themselves Old English. My-oh-my, how times have changed. The three of us have just organized a Scholarship Week for our university that has included presentations about faculty-student mentoring and even posters demonstrating that worthy collaboration.
At a bare minimum, we would like to recommend that faculty serve as scholarship role models for their students. In relevant classes, we teach the research process by showing our students whatever we are working on that semester, be it a presentation, an article, or a book. For instance, in our lit classes, we provide an example throughout the whole research continuum:
1. The Germ: many times the genesis of a piece of scholarship comes from something that arises in class — a student question, a mini-lecture piece that demands more exploration, a key research conundrum (e.g., why did Hemingway’s Margot Macomber shoot her husband?).
2. The Research: most scholarly pieces start large and narrow down. Our primary rule is that if the idea seems too small to write about, it’s perfect (e.g., the role of the lion’s mind in “Macomber”).
3. The Thesis: narrow down your slant to a specific declarative statement (e.g., Margot Macomber was manipulated into shooting her husband by Wilson, their hunting guide).
4. Lit/Scholarship Review: find every article relating to the narrow thesis, especially those that disagree; if a research gap exists because no one has touched the topic, state that fact.
5. First Draft: get something down on paper.
6. Revised Draft: as they say in Hollywood, nothing is written — everything is rewritten.
7. Submission for Publication: take your laptop into class and have your students watch as you submit.
Even if you disregard the positive influence on students of seeing the scholarly process broken down into workable, effective steps, one obvious side benefit of the modeling approach is that you create more scholarship, and, as a teacher-scholar, that gives you a “two-fer” for your troubles.
Submitted by:
Charlie Sweet
Hal Blythe
Rusty Carpenter
Eastern Kentucky University
Julie Damerell
Transitional Studies
04/23/2015 |