Community, Fellowship, Openness: Supporting Early Career Researchers through Open Educational Practices
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21556/edutec.2023.85.2839Keywords:
fellowship, open education, open educational practices, early career researchersAbstract
Open communities are an increasingly common feature of educational spaces. This article summarises the experience of a fellowship scheme for early career researchers in open education supported by The Global OER Graduate Network (GO-GN), an international network to support doctoral candidates. Nine fellows over a three-year period were supported to conduct six-month personal projects to facilitate their academic career development post-doctoral studies. The fellowship scheme was structured into three, annual cohorts between 2020 and 2022.
Results from qualitative surveys and interviews indicate a positive and meaningful impact of the scheme. A key aspect of this type of initiative is the support given by more experienced academics and peer fellows. The fellowship scheme enabled the sharing of research among other PhD students and early career researchers through regular webinars and to broader audiences at internationally recognised conferences.
The results of this paper are of potential interest to those supporting doctoral researchers and organisations interested in running similar fellowships or other support schemes for doctoral researchers or other stakeholder groups.
Downloads
References
Ackers, L., & Gill, B. (2005). Attracting and retaining 'early career' researchers in English higher education institutions. Innovation, 18(3), 277-299. https://doi.org/10.1080/13511610500186649
Allmer, T. (2018). Precarious, always-on and flexible: A case study of academics as information workers. European Journal of Communication, 33(4), 381-395. https://doi.org/10.1177/0267323118783794
Bali, M., Cronin, C., & Jhangiani, R. S. (2020). Framing Open Educational Practices from a Social Justice Perspective. Journal of Interactive Media in Education, 2020(1). https://doi.org/10.5334/jime.565
Beaulieu, A. M., Bambach, K., Bandolin, N. S., Barnes, D., Messman, A., Papanagnou, D., ... & King, A. M. (2022). From the ground up: Creating and leading fellowship programs in emergency medicine. AEM Education and Training, 6, S77-S84. https://doi.org/10.1002/aet2.10748
Beetham, H., Falconer, I., McGill, L. & Littlejohn, A. (2012). Open practices: briefing paper. https://oersynth.pbworks.com/w/page/51668352/OpenPracticesBriefing
Bossu, C., Iniesto, F., Vladimirschi, V., Jordan, K. & Pete, J. (2023). GO-GN Guidelines for Equity Diversity and Inclusion in Open Education with a focus on Africa and Latin America. Global OER Graduate Network. https://go-gn.net/gogn_outputs/edi-guidelines/
Bossu, C., & Stagg, A. (2018). The potential role of open educational practice policy in transforming Australian higher education. Open Praxis, 10(2), 145–157. http://doi.org/10.5944/openpraxis.10.2.835
Bozkurt, A. (2019). From distance education to open and distance learning: A holistic evaluation of history, definitions, and theories. In Handbook of Research on Learning in the Age of Transhumanism (pp. 252-273). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-8431-5.ch016
Bozkurt, A., Koseoglu, S., & Singh, L. (2019). An analysis of peer reviewed publications on openness in education in half a century: Trends and patterns in the open hemisphere. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 35(4), 78–97. https://doi.org/10.14742/ajet.4252
Bozkurt, A., & Zawacki-Richter, O. (2021). Trends and Patterns in Distance Education (2014–2019): A Synthesis of Scholarly Publications and a Visualization of the Intellectual Landscape. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 22(2), 19-45. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v22i2.5381
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2019). Reflecting on reflexive thematic analysis. Qualitative research in sport, exercise and health, 11(4), 589-597. https://doi.org/10.1080/2159676X.2019.1628806
Casad, B. J., Franks, J. E., Garasky, C. E., Kittleman, M. M., Roesler, A. C., Hall, D. Y., & Petzel, Z. W. (2021). Gender inequality in academia: Problems and solutions for women faculty in STEM. Journal of neuroscience research, 99(1), 13-23. https://doi.org/10.1002/jnr.24631
Castellacci, F., & Viñas-Bardolet, C. (2021). Permanent contracts and job satisfaction in academia: evidence from European countries. Studies in higher education, 46(9), 1866-1880. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2019.1711041
Cronin, C. (2018). Openness and praxis: A situated study of academic staff meaning-making and decision-making with respect to openness and use of open educational practices in higher education. ARAN - Access to Research at NUI Galway. https://aran.library.nuigalway.ie/handle/10379/7276
Ehlers, U. (2011). Extending the territory: From open educational resources to open educational practices. Journal of Open, Flexible, and Distance Learning, 15(2), 1–10. http://www.jofdl.nz/index.php/JOFDL/article/view/64/46
Farrow, R., Iniesto, F., Weller, M. & Pitt., R. (2020). The GO-GN Research Methods Handbook. Open Education Research Hub. The Open University, UK. CC-BY 4.0. http://go-gn.net/gogn_outputs/research-methods-handbook/.
Farrow, R., Iniesto, F., Weller, M., Pitt., R., Algers, A., Baas, M., Bozkurt, A., Cox, G., Czerwonogora, A., Elias, T., Essmiller, K., Funk, J., Mittelmeier, J., Nagashima, T., Rabin, E., Rets, I., Spica, E., Vladimirschi, V. & Witthaus, G. (2021). The GO-GN Guide to Conceptual Frameworks. Open Education Research Hub. The Open University, UK. CC-BY 4.0. http://go-gn.net/gogn_outputs/conceptual-frameworks/.
Fontinha, R., Van Laar, D., & Easton, S. (2018). Quality of working life of academics and researchers in the UK: the roles of contract type, tenure and university ranking. Studies in Higher Education, 43(4), 786-806. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2016.1203890
Gavin, H. (2008). Thematic analysis. Understanding research methods and statistics in psychology, 273-282.
GO-GN (n.d.). Global OER Graduate Network. http://go-gn.net/
Hegarty, B. (2015). Attributes of Open Pedagogy: A Model for Using Open Educational Resources. Educational Technology Magazine, 55(4), 3-13. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/Ed_Tech_Hegarty_2015_article_attributes_of_open_pedagogy.pdf
ICDE (n.d.). Global Doctoral Consortium. https://www.icde.org/global-doctoral-consortium/
Inamorato dos Santos, A., Punie, Y., y Castaño-Muñoz, J. (2016) Opening up Education: A Support Framework for Higher Education Institutions. JRC Science for Policy Report, EUR 27938 EN. https://doi.org/10.2791/293408
Iniesto, F., Pitt, B., Weller, M., Farrow, R., Cronin, C., Funk, J., Lambert, S., Nerantzi, C., Paskevicius, M., Pete, J., Roberts, V., Rodés, V. and Vladimirschi, V. (2022). The GO-GN Fellowship reflections report. Global OER Graduate Network. https://go-gn.net/gogn_outputs/fellowship-reflections-report
Kim, E., & Patterson, S. (2022). The pandemic and gender inequality in academia. PS: Political Science & Politics, 55(1), 109-116. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049096521001049
Koseoglu, S., & Bozkurt, A. (2018). An exploratory literature review on open educational practices. Distance education, 39(4), 441-461. https://doi.org/10.1080/01587919.2018.1520042
Lambert, S. R. (2018). Changing our (dis)course: A distinctive social justice aligned definition of open education. Journal of Learning for Development, 5(3). https://jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d/article/view/290/334
Marín, V. I., & Villar-Onrubia, D. (2022). Online Infrastructures For Open Educational Resources. In O. Zawacki-Richter & I. Jung (Eds.), Handbook of Open, Distance and Digital Education (Global Perspectives and Internationalization). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0351-9_18-1
Olivier, J. Bunt, B.J. & Dhakulkar, A. (2022). Open educational practices for self-directed learning: A staff fellowship as a case study. In J Olivier, C du Toit-Brits, BJ Bunt & A Dhakulkar (eds.), Contextualised open educational practices: Towards student agency and self-directed learning, in NWU Self-Directed Learning Series, vol. 10, AOSIS Books, Cape Town, pp. 01–17. https://doi.org/10.4102/aosis.2022.BK345.01
OpenEdGroup (n.d.). OER Research Fellows. https://openedgroup.org/fellowship
Open Ed Influencers (n.d.). Open Education Influencers @MandelaUni http://openedinfluencers.mandela.ac.za/open-education-influencers-mandelauni/
Ossiannilsson, E., Zhang, X., Wetzler, J., Gusmão, C., Aydin, C. H., Jhangiani, R., ... & Harichandan, D. (2020). From Open Educational Resources to Open Educational Practices. Distances Médiations Des Savoirs, 31. https://doi.org/10.4000/dms.5393
Passaretta, G., Trivellato, P., & Triventi, M. (2019). Between academia and labour market—the occupational outcomes of PhD graduates in a period of academic reforms and economic crisis. Higher Education, 77(3), 541-559. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-018-0288-4
Pulker, H., & Kukulska-Hulme, A. (2020). Openness reexamined: Teachers' practices with open educational resources in online language teaching. Distance Education, 41(2), 216-229. https://doi.org/10.1080/01587919.2020.1757412
Searle, N. S., Hatem, C. J., Perkowski, L., & Wilkerson, L. (2006). Why invest in an educational fellowship program? Academic Medicine, 81(11), 936-940. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.ACM.0000242476.57510.ce
Weller, M., Farrow, R., & Pitt, B. (2019). GO-GN: Lessons in building an open research community. Commonwealth of Learning (COL). https://oasis.col.org/items/f1815f9e-b61e-4272-8a47-e78e76c50674
Weller, M., Pitt, R., Iniesto, F., Farrow, R & Bossu, C. (2022). GO-GN annual review 2022. https://go-gn.net/gogn_outputs/annual-review-2022/
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
By submitting the paper, the authors assign the publication rights to the journal Edutec. For its part, Edutec authorises its distribution as long as its content is not altered and its origin is indicated. At the end of each article published in Edutec, the citation procedure is indicated.
The management and editorial board of Edutec Revista Electrónica de Tecnología Educativa do not accept any responsibility for the statements and ideas expressed by the authors in their work.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
