Pushing boundaries: Navigating landscapes of practice for a shared approach to successful education researcher development

• In Event: Creating Community, Navigating Boundaries, and Traversing Diverse Landscapes: Evolving Education Researcher Identities in Rehabilitation Professions

Abstract

Purpose: This paper provides an overview of the challenges and opportunities facing education researcher development in the context of contemporary theory on landscapes of practice (LOP), introduces an exemplar program designed to push the boundaries of communities of practice (COP), and provides a framework for subsequent papers in this symposium.

Perspectives/Theoretical Framework: Education research is critical to scholarly advancement, yet faculty across academic disciplines face similar challenges. The challenges stem from hierarchical views of scholarship in which scientific/clinical research is more highly regarded than education research. The impact of these challenges on researcher development, and potential solutions are best understood using principles from communities of practice (COP), 5,6 and more broadly, landscapes of practice (LOP) theory.7 This symposium focuses on two COPs within health professions- clinical research and education research.

Within the health professions LOP, members belong to several COPs. They may be more engaged in one community, and more peripheral to another, shaping their professional identity and career trajectories as they traverse the landscape.12-14 Clinical research and education research COPs provide support for emerging researchers and opportunities for networking, collaboration, and professional growth. However, they are simultaneously exclusive and marginalizing, exacerbated by tensions caused by the perceived hierarchy between education and clinical research. Ongoing tensions create boundaries that widen the gap between the communities, discourage reciprocity and networking, and impede education researcher development. On a micro level, the imbalance results in reduced institutional support (time, resources, recognition, career advancement), fewer outlets for dissemination, and limited funding mechanisms and collaborative research opportunities.

Innovative programs in medical and health professions education have aimed at elevating education research through building capacity, enhancing institutional support, and facilitating education researcher career development.14-16 These programs applied evidence-based strategies informed by situated learning theory.8 Despite positive outcomes, impact has been localized within professional landscapes, and within education research COPs. Thus, there is a need for education researcher development programs that promote reciprocity and inclusivity across COPs, with potential application across disciplines.

Evidence: Training in Grantsmanship for Rehabilitation Research (TIGRR) is a highly successful, federally funded program for rehabilitation professionals focused on launching career trajectories for emerging clinical researchers.9 Tangible participant outcomes include NIH grant submission and attainment of extramural funding. TIGRR is rooted in situated learning theory, with intensive and intentional mentoring, social-relational learning, and community networking as core elements.

Catalyzed by the success of TIGRR and a vision for shared learning and collaboration across COPs, clinical and education researchers within the field of physical therapy developed Grant Writing and Mentorship in Education Research (GAMER), an education researcher development program modeled after TIGRR. Since 2018, GAMER successfully launched the careers of emerging researchers with evidence of continued scholarship and extramural funding, with crossover between education and clinical research.

Scholarly Significance: The GAMER model provides a powerful social-relational learning experience in a community of scholars where there is intentional mentoring, brokered research opportunities, and most striking, the development of an identity as an education researcher. GAMER serves as an exemplar for other disciplines to push COP boundaries.

Authors

• Melissa Tovin, University of Miami

• Elizabeth Mostrom, Central Michigan University

• Richard Segal, Medical University of South Carolina

• Steven J. Durning, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences