Sharing research findings
Victoria Adamovich, Research Assistant at the Pymble Institute and teacher in Pymble’s Junior School, writes about ways to share research findings.
My research journey began with a desire to understand. As an EALD (English as an Additional Language/Dialect) teacher, I wanted to understand what factors impact the wellbeing of my EALD students; including migration and parental pressure. The various steps of the process – such as drafting a research question, reading literature in the field and collecting data – helped me as a researcher to put a framework around that understanding. The last, and perhaps the most important part, is to share my findings.
The act of writing my Masters thesis has been, at times, both lonely and invigorating. Lonely, as it is me, the researcher, alone with my data (the transcripts) and I have been weaving my narrative and setting my results among other researchers in the field. This has extended my knowledge, but it has been both contradictory and confirming. At times, my writing process has been invigorating. There are clarifying moments where my own understanding has been furthered and the process of writing has untangled difficult themes in my head. However, how many people will read the thousands of words sent back and forth with my supervisor at each draft?
I understand now why academics present at conferences and why the university has ‘staged assessments’ which are short presentations, followed by a critique or a question and answer session. A fifteen minute presentation may seem to trivialise the years of work! But, I found the act of summarising succinctly my research and findings sharpened my thinking. Having an audience to present to was crucial in distilling my research around simple fundamentals such as “why”, “how”, “what”, and “so what?”
Following the presentation, the critique afterwards can be sobering. However, again, it is another necessary and useful part of building understanding. My supervisor, Associate Professor Chris Ho at UTS and Dr Sarah Loch at the Pymble Institute were clearly aware of this, and have both encouraged me to seek every opportunity to present my research. Since starting my research, I have presented at the Pymble Institute’s research conferences; at the NSW Teachers’ Guild; at staff meetings in the College; to the UTS Diversity and Social Inclusion Research Group; and in the AIS EALD network meetings. In November 2023, I will present at The Australian Sociological Association conference in Sydney.
Each audience brings different perspectives and questions to challenge my work and point me in new research directions. I have learnt more about the Masters and PhD journey from fellow researchers and have met other academics studying in similar fields. I have also gathered important feedback from teachers. Since my research topic is on migrant families and children, the most nerve-racking presentation will be to share my research with them. Excitingly, I have had great interest from families at the College, and I am working with the Head of Wellbeing to frame a series of parent workshops to present the research and discuss findings. Of course, there is a whole universe in academic publishing and journals that I have not entered. Nor have I, so far, toyed with the digital megaphones of X (Twitter) and LinkedIn to share my understanding.
There are many useful websites with suggestions for sharing research findings:
https://www.linkedin.com/advice/0/how-can-you-share-your-research-findings-more-widely
