How can I become more academic?

laundreybasket · 2023-01-20T07:31:27+00:00

Looking for some advice from academic-type people. I work at a university and I love it there. I was taken on to teach practice-based work and I am good at what I do but I must be one of the only people in the building without a Ph.D. I really want to develop and contribute to my work but honestly, I don't understand half of what is said by my colleagues. I don't get the language people use, the way they can just write papers or know how to frame research. Basically, I am not that smart and I am really feeling it. Do you think it is possible for me to improve my understanding of this world and if so how? I am reading as much as I can although even that takes me a long time. I would love to feel I could start to make more sense of how it all works.

Wibbly1008 · 20/01/2023 07:32

Yes! Read read read, that is what I did. Just finished a masters and honestly I have improved with reading research and articles.

lifeinthehills · 20/01/2023 07:37

Have you considered doing a PhD? Joining a research group? You'd be publishing in the course of a PhD and as part of a research group. Good practice.

JuneOsborne · 20/01/2023 07:40

Do you have an academic development department? If so, see what workshops and short courses are available.

Have they asked you to do a PGCHE? If not, why not ask to do one?

MissMarplesbag · 20/01/2023 07:49

The open University publishes its old modules on the open learn website for free. So you can work through lots of subjects in your own time & receive a completion certificate at the end. It doesn't count towards a qualification but it prepares you for future academic studies.

Original poster

laundreybasket · 20/01/2023 08:31

Thank you! I do have a masters, although it was in practice and I joined the research practice group. I thought it meant that we would do things practically together but actually, people just write papers and talk about stuff. Once I did a presentation as part of a seminar and everyone had written a paper. I had just done a power point about my project. I had no idea! I had a picture of my dog in it - everyone else was all big long words and references! I felt like I had turned up in fancy dress to a party that was not fancy dress.

What I struggle with is framing things. I just do my work and see what it says and I don't really know until the end. But here you have to say what it is you are going to do before you do it and have some kind of methodology. Apparently, just see what happens is not a methodology! I feel I do do research, I just don't understand how to talk about it or write about it in the way that they all do.

OP posts:

Userwoozer · 20/01/2023 08:49

MissMarplesbag · 20/01/2023 07:49

The open University publishes its old modules on the open learn website for free. So you can work through lots of subjects in your own time & receive a completion certificate at the end. It doesn't count towards a qualification but it prepares you for future academic studies.

Really interesting - thanks!

lifeinthehills · 20/01/2023 09:41

No, see what happens isn't an empirically valid scientific method. Was your masters research based? How did you go about presenting data and controlling for variables and so on? Maybe you could do a unit on research methods, which may help with what it sounds like you're after?

JenniferBarkley · 20/01/2023 10:02

Oh now see this is interesting to me.

I made a similar move 6 years ago. As part of my role I have to do a PhD part-time and it's killing me (full teaching load, reasonably big admin role, small DC and not much interest in the topic). I wouldn't rush down the PhD route without dipping a toe in the water first! Do any colleagues need a practice-based pov that you could provide as part of a wider project?

One thing I will say, is that I have become very jaded about the worth of academic research in my field (financial services). Industry pays pretty much zero attention to what academia says, and a lot of academic research doesn't seem to contribute anything meaningful to me. And a lot of academics (far from all, but many) who have never worked in industry lack the realistic, pragmatic thinking that are often the foundations of good practice.

Reframe your experience. You have something that your colleagues don't - make that your unique selling point. What is your career path, can you get promoted without a PhD? Look at the job description for one step above where you are now and think about how you can use your practice-based knowledge to achieve it. Don't be over-awed by your colleagues - they use the big words, but actually often the smaller ones are just as good and allow your work to be read and understood by more people. If your department wanted another PhD with X papers in 3* journals behind them they could have hired them - you were hired for a reason.

Original poster

laundreybasket · 20/01/2023 20:28

lifeinthehills · 20/01/2023 09:41

No, see what happens isn't an empirically valid scientific method. Was your masters research based? How did you go about presenting data and controlling for variables and so on? Maybe you could do a unit on research methods, which may help with what it sounds like you're after?

I was looking into a particular type of practice. I looked at the lineage of it and then interviewed current practitioners and made suggestions for how it might be used in the future in a training context. I just talked to a lot of people mainly.

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Original poster

laundreybasket · 20/01/2023 20:31

JenniferBarkley · 20/01/2023 10:02

Oh now see this is interesting to me.

I made a similar move 6 years ago. As part of my role I have to do a PhD part-time and it's killing me (full teaching load, reasonably big admin role, small DC and not much interest in the topic). I wouldn't rush down the PhD route without dipping a toe in the water first! Do any colleagues need a practice-based pov that you could provide as part of a wider project?

One thing I will say, is that I have become very jaded about the worth of academic research in my field (financial services). Industry pays pretty much zero attention to what academia says, and a lot of academic research doesn't seem to contribute anything meaningful to me. And a lot of academics (far from all, but many) who have never worked in industry lack the realistic, pragmatic thinking that are often the foundations of good practice.

Reframe your experience. You have something that your colleagues don't - make that your unique selling point. What is your career path, can you get promoted without a PhD? Look at the job description for one step above where you are now and think about how you can use your practice-based knowledge to achieve it. Don't be over-awed by your colleagues - they use the big words, but actually often the smaller ones are just as good and allow your work to be read and understood by more people. If your department wanted another PhD with X papers in 3* journals behind them they could have hired them - you were hired for a reason.

Love this idea of reframing! It's made me feel a bit paranoid but you are right. I know I see things that other people don't see. I understand what is happening in a space with students. They want me to write stuff. It scares me a bit. I suppose I will just keep reading the journals!

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damekindness · 20/01/2023 21:29

I'm in a practice based discipline and have been for around 15 years. I toyed with the idea of undertaking a doctorate but realised it would mean eating into my own time - I'm normally shattered after a weeks teaching work and the thought of spending my weekends studying is grim

I can get by with understanding research methods well enough without a PhD - though my Masters was research based. In practice based disciplines evidence based practice knowledge is equally important but it sits uneasily in higher education

lifeinthehills · 20/01/2023 22:33

laundreybasket · 20/01/2023 20:28

I was looking into a particular type of practice. I looked at the lineage of it and then interviewed current practitioners and made suggestions for how it might be used in the future in a training context. I just talked to a lot of people mainly.

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So you did qualitative research? Perfectly valid method.

Angelik · 20/01/2023 22:51

Echo pp about doing a research methods module. There must be one at your university. What about the UG in your dept? You might be able to do some of that as a taster. I wld expect attending lectures/seminars would be the limit unless you have super lovely academics that wld let you do some of the assessments though you wldn't gey any univ credit

Original poster

laundreybasket · 21/01/2023 08:38

So there is a module, I am teaching at the same time but the lecturer who runs it has added me to it so I can read all the materials etc. Great idea - thank you! I think it will be really helpful just to learn some of the terminology. I love the idea of doing a PhD but I honestly don't think I am smart enough for it. I would like to understand more of what is going on around me though. There is a journal also that I really like so I think if I commit to reading that it will help me to understand more about how it all works. I feel like people are speaking in another language sometimes!

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pompomdaisy · 21/01/2023 08:53

I think there are other ways in a university to limit impostor syndrome. I'm a senior lecturer in a RG Uni. I don't have a phD. However I write programmes and bring in lots of money. It's not all about research.