I've just attended a great and intriguing Narrative Scholarship workshop here at the OU. I won't mention the names of the project leads because this is my personal take on things and I don't want to misrepresent them.
I'm trying to get my head around what scholarship is and in what ways it differs from research.
This is the Oxford dictionary definition of scholarship:
I love it that a synonym of scholarship is learning. That's a very good start for me.
And this is the definition of research:
a careful study of a subject, especially in order to discover new facts or information about it
medical/ historical/ scientific, etc. research
The origin of the word scholarship refers to students and leisure or school whereas research derives from re-search, search again.
This was my take on scholarship as I wrote it during the seminar:
I'm excited about scholarship because it's a type of research where I could fit in, where I could belong.
There are two ways of looking at scholarship that I can think of. Generally speaking (perhaps more so in the US), scholarship is about being a scholar, an academic, someone who teaches and reads and does research. Almost like being an intellectual.
The second way of looking at it is more specific and it's the one that excites me. Scholarship is applied research. It worries me that sometimes it seems to be simply about teaching and learning practice. I hope it's also more broadly inclusive of practice and workplace learning. Scholarship is not traditional research and this appeals to me because I feel that I have so far failed as a researcher.
A scholar, then, is a person who is curious about what people do, reads about it, may create an experiment to find out more and then writes about why people do what they do and whether they could do things differently.
A scholar doesn't only go to YouTube or Wikipedia to find answers but they come up with their own answers.
A scholar is prepared to put in a lot of work and be patient before claiming they know things.
And they'll more readily admit they don't know things than they do.
A scholar is always thinking about what people do even when they are not doing their work. It's a way of life.
As a scholar, I am constantly curious and never reach a place where I can claim I know things and can stay there.
Scholars are more interested in doing and writing about doing. In a way, writing is their way of doing.
Scholars often doubt they are making a difference but they keep trying anyway.
And this is a conversation I created between my 'scholar' self and an established researcher:
Researcher: So you're interested in scholarship?
Me: Yes, I think I have always been, since I did my MA.
R: But would you not rather do research?
M: No, I'm disillusioned with research. I feel that I'm a failed researcher.
R: Oh, no. You're not a failed researcher. You are quite a good researcher.
M: Thank you. Sometimes I've been told I'm a good researcher – by you, fellow students, a leading researcher in my field, but... I'm just not sure.
R: You're only an early-career researcher. Don't be so tough on yourself.
C: But I'm already 46 and I don't feel I can carry on being 'early career' much longer. Scholarship suits me better and gives me the chance to make a fresh start.
R: And what's the difference?
C: Scholarship is more practice-oriented, more related to actual learning. I feel it's the kind of thing I was doing with activity theory and the Change Labs and I like that. Perhaps I can publish different kinds of outcomes, in different journals... Academia is not for me really, not as a researcher.
And these are my notes on the beautiful ways in which the three leads defined scholarship:
- it's about teaching and learning
- it's practice-based, practical, it happens in the world
- it's about diversities of practice
- it's creative disruption
- it's non-REFable
- it's not necessarily academic
- it's about practitioner-based educators, education for practitioners
- it's reflective
- it's contemplative
- it's about curiosity, enquiry, enriching lives of teachers and learners
- it's about construction of knowledges
- it's collective or individual (leads differed here)
- it's about practices that make the familiar strange again
- it's about envisioning new possibilities
- it's a never-ending process
- it's bigger than research; research is only a part of it
I came out of the session with more questions than answers but reassured that scholarship has huge potential for me personally, particularly narrative scholarship, as I make sense of my past and move forward to a future as a scholar that makes me feel comfortable in my skin.
Scholarship at the Open University is anything that impacts on or informs teaching practices. It might be research and REF but it is much more (Lucy Rai, personal communication).