Academic advice
I got some great advice from a colleague about tenure at academic institutions.
I had always known that from the time of right after graduation to the time of tenure review, one must publish, publish, publish. Conferences are great and all but really, at that point, it is all about publishing in peer review settings. But going to conferences help one get published.
What I didn't know is how important it was to show that one had a tightly focused research agenda. What this means is that everything you do research and publishing wise should be tightly related to one topical area. So, say for example, you are interested in looking at the issue of framing and affects on classroom practice. Well, everything you do for the next few years must be some how related to that, to show that you have a focused research agenda. So, there may be really interesting projects that are not related to your research but you will have to say no to them (or find some way to tie it back into your research agenda).
Typically, it is much easier to adopt the same research direction as your dissertation's- since you already have that base, it is sooo much easier to become a recognized expert in the field that way. Sometimes, one can pick a new research direction, but you will need to do it early on so you have the time to really develop it into a rock solid research agenda and to develop into an expert.
Also, as an academic, the work never stops. Which can lead to lots of workaholism- but I think that depends on how smart one is about working (e.g., quantity is not always quality, and it seems that quantity tends to win out a little more in this field than quality) and on how well one is able to focus (e.g., not agreeing to doing too many things, no matter how exciting or worthy the cause).
I had always known that from the time of right after graduation to the time of tenure review, one must publish, publish, publish. Conferences are great and all but really, at that point, it is all about publishing in peer review settings. But going to conferences help one get published.
What I didn't know is how important it was to show that one had a tightly focused research agenda. What this means is that everything you do research and publishing wise should be tightly related to one topical area. So, say for example, you are interested in looking at the issue of framing and affects on classroom practice. Well, everything you do for the next few years must be some how related to that, to show that you have a focused research agenda. So, there may be really interesting projects that are not related to your research but you will have to say no to them (or find some way to tie it back into your research agenda).
Typically, it is much easier to adopt the same research direction as your dissertation's- since you already have that base, it is sooo much easier to become a recognized expert in the field that way. Sometimes, one can pick a new research direction, but you will need to do it early on so you have the time to really develop it into a rock solid research agenda and to develop into an expert.
Also, as an academic, the work never stops. Which can lead to lots of workaholism- but I think that depends on how smart one is about working (e.g., quantity is not always quality, and it seems that quantity tends to win out a little more in this field than quality) and on how well one is able to focus (e.g., not agreeing to doing too many things, no matter how exciting or worthy the cause).
posted by Matty Lau at
3:41 PM
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