Improving the research culture at COE

DEAN'S MESSAGE: MARCH 16, 2007

Last year, after two collegewide retreats, the then-new Office of Educational Research (OER) had its marching orders from the COE faculty: Improve the research culture in the college, we were told.

For the past year, with the able assistance of and guidance from the Research Task Force and FPC’s Research Advisory Committee, Ana Puig and I have worked on the particulars of that agenda, aiming to heighten the visibility of researchers in the College.

For example, images of faculty scholars Maria Coady and (co-researchers) Stephen Smith and Ann Daunic now grace the College’s home page in a banner display with links to stories about their research—and new stories about other COE researchers are forthcoming. On display in a glass case outside the Norman Auditorium is a plaque commemorating the College of Education’s 10 UFRF Research Professors. We have opened and now maintain a Research Commons adjacent to the Terrace Room, providing space for researchers to congregate. The Commons still lacks a sofa and comfortable chair or two, but otherwise is furnished and functional, thanks to support from the Dean.

Forty-three members of the College faculty have participated in an outstanding grant-writing workshop sponsored by IFAS, and we have sponsored a series of training activities of our own, having offered what we call 101 workshops on grants.gov submissions, basic statistics, discourse analyses, randomized clinical trials and regression discontinuity design. We also have sponsored a brown bag series featuring speakers from the COE and elsewhere around campus. More of both are scheduled for the fall. We also attempted to address the faculty’s desire for additional methodological support by searching with Educational Psychology for a statistician who would be assigned part-time to work in OER.

All of which raises the question of how well we’re doing. Ana and I ask ourselves often whether the work of OER over the past year has indeed improved the research culture in the college…

We know that culture change takes time…and often is slowed by inattention, indifference or resistance. We don’t sense resistance or even indifference, but we know our colleagues to be very busy people. We understand that elements of their work cannot simply be set aside or deferred, and that time cannot be readily freed up, regardless of the worthiness of the cause they would like to pursue. Nonetheless, we see signs of progress and hope for the future.

Everyone appreciates the benefits that external funding brings. Departments benefit substantially from funded work, and chairs are sincerely committed to supporting proposal writers and increasing funded research. There are personal benefits to principal investigators, as well, and, in almost every way they are better at UF than at other institutions where I’ve served. Yet, from the PI’s perspective, the most important benefit is less tangible: And that’s the opportunity to undertake work that is meaningful and engaging to you, important to your discipline, and fundamental to your development as a scholar. Small wonder we have more and more people knocking on our door, seeking our help in getting them started. Rest assured, OER stands ready.

– Associate Dean for Research Paul Sindelar