{"id":62839,"date":"2022-05-17T04:02:35","date_gmt":"2022-05-17T08:02:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?p=62839"},"modified":"2022-05-26T18:36:46","modified_gmt":"2022-05-26T22:36:46","slug":"building-community-for-ecrs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/building-community-for-ecrs\/","title":{"rendered":"Building community for ECRs"},"content":{"rendered":"

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This is one of those blogposts that started life as an email. I was asked for suggestions by a colleague who wanted to support their academic staff by creating friendly spaces in which they could share their concerns, build camaraderie, and not feel alone. This colleague could see that their Early Career Researchers (ECRs) were dispirited and anxious about living that COVID-life, concerned about their jobs and careers, feeling unproductive, and feeling bad about being unproductive. I think most of us have been there sometime these past few years, and many of us will keep feeling these things for a while.<\/p>\n

I thought sharing my response might be helpful to others, particularly if they have a hankering to create their own researcher communities or to make existing ones stronger.<\/p>\n

First up, however, I\u2019d like to say how much I appreciate people like this colleague who reached out. They see the challenges Early Career Researchers around them are facing and they want to do something to help. They were willing to take on more work and try out new things with the aim of bettering the experiences of others. So much love for that.<\/p>\n

This post addresses Early Career Researchers but what\u2019s discussed is applicable to most researcher cohorts (e.g. higher degree by research students, mid-career researchers) and, hopefully, provides insight for senior research leaders who want to encourage research culture-building and develop environments that are supportive of these kinds of initiatives.<\/p>\n

Below is more or less what I wrote to my colleague, tidied up and with a bit more detail added in.<\/p>\n

Getting Early Career Researchers at your university together on a regular basis is always a good idea. Being able to do it in a cross-disciplinary, inter-School or Department way would be a bonus. It\u2019s easy to silo yourself in universities, especially if you\u2019re feeling like you aren\u2019t doing so well or under stress. I\u2019m speaking here of how the community within an institution can be supported and strengthened but all of these possibilities are there for inter-institutional, national, or international connections, too. The often hyper-competitive atmosphere means that researchers may feel that they can\u2019t share vulnerabilities and anxieties. Katherine Christian and team argue that fostering an environment for this kind of sharing can improve institutions\u2019 research integrity, specifically this kind of culture \u201ccounters questionable research practices by encouraging all academics to ask questions, challenge hype and report honestly\u201d (Christian et al<\/a>). You can imagine how daunting it might be for someone who is experiencing challenges to front up at a thing that calls out their insecurities (e.g. \u2018Come along to the \u201cI\u2019m underperforming\u201d help group!\u2019 >> being tongue-in-cheek here but I\u2019ve seen efforts at support that aren\u2019t far off this kind of framing).<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a level of understanding that doctoral students are finding their way through academia and establishing their identities as researchers and scholars, and I\u2019ve observed that there\u2019s less understanding around this when it comes to Early Career Researchers. After you\u2019ve graduated with the PhD, there\u2019s an assumption that you\u2019re meant to know how to do this researcher thing and it feels not-quite-right to admit that you\u2019re having challenges or not sure if you\u2019re doing what you\u2019re meant to do in the right way.<\/p>\n

Folks build trust and connection as they interact with each other more regularly \u2013 and I deliberately use \u2018interact\u2019 because I don\u2019t just mean having face-to-face gigs or synchronous events. Having an active online researcher community can be very effective in building the essential sinew of these networks.<\/p>\n

With this in mind, those who want to help their research colleagues (and themselves?) find a sense of community can work on creating a regular variety of opportunities to do things together, directly and indirectly. You don\u2019t have to do all the things, but this kind of scoping and planning will help:<\/p>\n