3 minute read
Building a Research Culture: The Education Department Experience
By Arceli Rosario
Higher education has a trilogy of functions— teaching, research, and community service. These responsibilities are more keenly felt, emphasized, and demonstrated in the education department of any higher education institution because of its role in training educators who will become key players in ensuring that these three functions are delivered.
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The faculty of the AIIAS Education Department are intentional in training their graduate students in these three areas. The competencies of all the programs are anchored on seven essential learning points, two of which are service and scholarship. The two components of scholarship are teaching and research. This article focuses on research, specifically on what we do at AIIAS to build a research culture.
1. Inclusion of research courses in the curriculum. In the PhD Education curriculum, we offer seven research courses: advanced statistics, qualitative research, applied qualitative research or applied quantitative research, directed research in a selected topic, institutional evaluation, and disciplinary research, a total of 18 units. Have these courses prepared our students for dissertation writing? I interviewed nine PhD students, and here I quote what two of them said:
Research is in my blood now.
My training here at AIIAS has helped me see the broader and wider scope of research—both quantitative and qualitative.
2. Designing research-oriented courses. Other courses (e.g., core, specialization, and cognate) are designed to intentionally provide students with research experience. Students have mentioned that they benefited from “doing small research studies in class,” and “critiquing research presentations.”
3. Providing timely and relevant feedback. “I draw inspiration from the dedication and commitment of my adviser and panel members to provide me the necessary support. They set aside special time for consultation and updates, which goes beyond their duty.”
This statement shows the need for strong support of students in the thesis and dissertation writing phase; hence, we ensure that our presence is felt.
4. Participation and attendance to research webinars.
We highly encourage our students to attend research webinars, specifically the monthly quantitative webinar series sponsored by the Asia-Pacific Research Center and the bi-monthly qualitative virtual events of the Asian Qualitative Research Association (AQRA). Among the presenters and panelists in the AQRA virtual events held from May 2020July 2021 were our faculty, alumni, and students.
5. Organizing annual research conferences. Education students look forward to two international conferences where they can present their research studies. These are the iConference and the AQRA International Conference on Qualitative Research. During the 6th AQRA conference, held in October 2021, 17 faculty, alumni, and students of the education department provided 13 out of the 65 presentations.
6. Mentoring. “My professors mentor me to do research.” Our students attest to the importance of mentoring. Moreover, they benefit from collaborative research that professors do with students. Are there areas where we can improve? Surely. Our students strongly suggest that class research projects should end with publication; that we do more research collaboration between professors and students, among students, and with other universities; that publication be a requirement for graduation. The path towards building a robust research culture is still long and arduous; but for now, even with our small steps, we pause to celebrate. And in a chorus, we recite:
Arceli Rosario, PhD, is a faculty member in the education department of AIIAS Graduate School. She comes from the Philippines.
