Practical considerations for establishing writing groups in interdisciplinary programs

Bergen, Nicole; Hudani, Alzahra; Khan, Selim M.; Montgomery, Natalie Dimitra; O’Sullivan, Tracey

doi:10.1057/s41599-020-0395-6

Cited by 16 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Members of writing groups often find that in tandem with the benefits of receiving critical feedback on their own writing, critiquing their peers' work can also be invaluable in creating a culture of peer support and gaining insight into their own professional development (Aitchison 2009). While it can make sense for members of a writing group to have similar writing goals, diversity of background and experience can also enrich the writing group's potential for peer learning and support (Bergen et al 2020).…”

Section: Establishing An Academic Writing Groupmentioning

confidence: 99%

Academic writing in museums

Roche

Barber

Batlle

et al. 2021

Museum Management and Curatorship

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Museum staff strive to create environments rich in opportunity for visitors to explore their relationship with their heritage, culture, art, or science. Their unique expertise in communicating and creating educational spaces are critical to the field of informal learning. Museum staff possess wide-ranging capabilities across various forms of communication, but many organisations do not employ specialist research staff whose day-to-day work includes writing and publishing in academic journals. Consequently, the academic research that takes place in museums is conducted and published with museum staff, rather than by museum staff. As part of the European science communication project, QUEST, an academic writing group composed of museum staff was established with the goal of creating a handbook to encourage and aid museum professionals in extending their communication skills so that they may convey their work in academic writing and take ownership of how their field is portrayed in the published literature.

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Section: Establishing An Academic Writing Groupmentioning

confidence: 99%

Academic writing in museums

Roche

Barber

Batlle

et al. 2021

Museum Management and Curatorship

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“…In contrast, single-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary research collaborations increase impact output in highly specialized fields. Therefore, interdisciplinary research collaboration fosters deeper interaction and integration of various disciplinary perspectives (Bergen et al, 2020;Gewin, 2014;Pykett et al, 2020;Sá, 2008;Van Noorden, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A practical guideline how to tackle interdisciplinarity—A synthesis from a post-graduate group project

Kluger

Bartzke

2020

Humanit Soc Sci Commun

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The comprehensive understanding of increasingly complex global challenges, such as climate change induced sea level rise demands for interdisciplinary research groups. As a result, there is an increasing interest of funding bodies to support interdisciplinary research initiatives. Attempts for interdisciplinary research in such programs often end in research between closely linked disciplines. This is often due to a lack of understanding about how to work interdisciplinarily as a group. Useful practical guidelines have been provided to overcome existing barriers during interdisciplinary integration. Working as an interdisciplinary research group becomes particularly challenging at the doctoral student level. This study reports findings of an interdisciplinary group project in which a group of doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers from various disciplines faced the challenges of reconciling natural, social, and legal aspects of a fictional coastal environmental problem. The research group went through three phases of interdisciplinary integration: (1) comparing disciplines, (2) understanding disciplines, and (3) thinking between disciplines. These phases finally resulted in the development of a practical guideline, including five concepts of interactive integration. A reflective analysis with observations made in existing literature about interdisciplinary integration further supported the feasibility of the practical guideline. It is intended that this practical guideline may help others to leave out pitfalls and to gain a more successful application of interdisciplinarity in their training.

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“…In addition to sharing difficulties and challenges in doctoral writing groups, there is also an opportunity to share ideas and different perspectives among the members (Beasy et al, 2020;Bergen et al, 2020;Cahusac de Caux et al, 2017;Doody et al, 2017;Guerin, 2013;Lam et al, 2019;Stylianou et al, 2017). Despite writing group members working on different projects or being at different stages of their research, they are still able to share similar experiences, such as preparing for milestones or searching for literature.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Despite writing group members working on different projects or being at different stages of their research, they are still able to share similar experiences, such as preparing for milestones or searching for literature. Working with doctoral students from other disciplines or with different topics also means that there is an opportunity to exchange knowledge and understanding beyond students' own immediate research projects (Aitchison, 2014;Beasy et al, 2020;Bergen et al, 2020;Guerin, 2013;Lam et al, 2019). A diversity of perspectives may develop doctoral writing group members' ability to think about how they can contribute to their field of knowledge by linking their ideas and expertise (Aitchison, 2014;Bergen et al, 2020;Lam et al, 2019).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Working with doctoral students from other disciplines or with different topics also means that there is an opportunity to exchange knowledge and understanding beyond students' own immediate research projects (Aitchison, 2014;Beasy et al, 2020;Bergen et al, 2020;Guerin, 2013;Lam et al, 2019). A diversity of perspectives may develop doctoral writing group members' ability to think about how they can contribute to their field of knowledge by linking their ideas and expertise (Aitchison, 2014;Bergen et al, 2020;Lam et al, 2019). Furthermore, a diversity of cultures, nationalities, and genders can help students consider issues from different perspectives and improve understanding of how to communicate best in multicultural contexts (see, e.g., Lam et al, 2019).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Pastoral Care in Doctoral Education: A Collaborative Autoethnography of Belonging and Academic Identity

Hradsky

Soyoof

Zeng

et al. 2022

IJDS

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Aim/Purpose: It is increasingly recognized that doctoral education programs should better support doctoral students. In particular, it has been noted that students experience significant isolation during their PhD, which negatively affects their educational experiences and their personal wellbeing. Doctoral writing groups are collaborative learning communities that have in recent years received increasing attention to address this issue. This collaborative autoethnography explores the affective benefits (i.e., benefits associated with emotions and feelings) of these doctoral writing groups, particularly focused on the pastorally supportive nature of these learning communities. Background: Writing groups have been shown to promote academic writing skills and build reflective practice, personal epistemology, and academic identity. We have found that a much more significant benefit of our writing groups has been the pastoral care we have experienced, particularly in relation to the turbulent emotions often associated with academic writing. This should, perhaps, not be surprising since it is clear that academic writing is a form of identity work. There is, therefore, a clear need to better support doctoral students, particularly with regard to the more affective components of academic writing. This prompted us to write this collaborative autoethnography to showcase what we consider to be the primary role of doctoral writing groups: pastoral care. Methodology: We employ a collaborative autoethnographic methodology to integrate our personal reflections into the existing literature in the field. Contribution: We argue that doctoral writing groups are vehicles of pastoral care as they promote wellbeing, foster resilience, provide academic care, and build social capital. Findings: We demonstrate that doctoral writing groups foster students’ sense of belonging through self-reflection and the sharing of experiences in a safe space, which builds perceived self-efficacy and self-awareness. Furthermore, through the self-reflection and discussion that is inherent in doctoral writing groups, students also develop a better understanding of themselves and their place within the academy. Recommendations for Practitioners: Our research highlights that writing groups may be designed to teach academic communication skills, but they provide an affective benefit that cannot yet be quantified and which should not be underestimated. Incorporating writing groups into doctoral education programs can, therefore, have a positive influence on the educational experiences of PhD students and improve their overall wellbeing. This paper concludes by providing practical suggestions to help practitioners implement writing groups into doctoral education programs, particularly focused on how these groups can be made more pastorally supportive. Recommendation for Researchers: This paper also extends the theoretical understanding of pastoral care by providing a framework for pastoral care within the doctoral writing group environment. We show how pastoral care can be conceptualized as the promotion of self-awareness, self-efficacy, reflection, and empowerment of doctoral students through nurturing communities where all members are valued, encouraged, guided, and supported. Our experiences, which we have integrated throughout this paper, also highlight the importance of relationship-building within the educational community, particularly when these relationships are characterized by mutual respect and shared responsibility. Impact on Society: The poor well-being of doctoral students has now been well-established across the world, but strategies to improve the academic environment for these students are still lacking. This paper provides evidence that implementing writing groups as a strategy to embed pastoral care in a doctoral education environment helps doctoral students flourish. Ultimately, this can lead to an improved academic research culture into the future. Future Research: Future research should explore other methods of better integrating pastoral care interventions into doctoral education programs in order to reduce isolation and promote student wellbeing.

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Practical considerations for establishing writing groups in interdisciplinary programs

Cited by 16 publications

References 22 publications

Academic writing in museums

Academic writing in museums

A practical guideline how to tackle interdisciplinarity—A synthesis from a post-graduate group project

Pastoral Care in Doctoral Education: A Collaborative Autoethnography of Belonging and Academic Identity

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