Networking, working across borders and academic solidarity

In 2017 I attended an event for Early Career Researchers (ECRs) organised by the Journal of Vocational Education and Training (JVET), preceeding their 70th anniversary celebrations. This event was one example of the ways in which the journal aimed to support ECRs in VET research to develop their careers. A number of workshops were held and a 'writing boot camp' facilitated by our own Dr Cheryl Reynolds. 

A chance meeting

During the event I met a lot of interesting ECRs and engaged with their work to provide feedback and support. One such person was Dr Lizzie Knight of Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. She is an ECR and research fellow on an ARC funded project looking at undergraduate degrees in vocational institutions in Australia and was just about to start fieldwork with students. My own research had a similar focus, but based in the UK. 

We began conversations to talk about our work, but also about the challenges we faced as early careers researchers and academics. 

This type of exchange is not unusual at academic events - business cards are swapped, and they sit in the bottom of my purse until I see that person again at another event, where we pick up where we left off. However, shortly after I returned to Huddersfield I received an email from Lizzie asking ‘could we skype and talk about some of our shared ideas’?

We had both faced some hurdles in relation to publishing from our doctoral thesis, and we talked this through, agreed deadlines to send writing to each other, discussed collaborative work and arranged monthly skype meetings to keep each other accountable.

This has been beneficial to my development as a researcher and my productivity, too. The accountability has meant that once ‘crappy first drafts’ drafts are now submitted and under review. 

Working across borders

Working across borders has been an eye opener. In some ways, the time differences and our different working patterns have slowed me down, encouraged me to think through complex ideas more fully and produce what I feel is higher quality work (a contradiction to the ‘accelerated academy’).

As a result of our shared interests in two country contexts, we have undertaken scoping work leading to conference papers at the Journal of Vocational Education and Training conference in Oxford, the European Educational Research Association conference in Hamburg, and the British Educational Research Association conference in Manchester. We have drafted these into a working paper with a plan for publication, and submitted a bid to a funder to develop this work. We have a plan B, and C, if we (inevitably) are not successful first time.

Doing this work has given me a wider understanding of the position of my own research (often considered context specific, and nuanced by its locality) within international debates.

Academic solidarity

The final benefit of working in collaboration with someone at a similar point in their academic career to me is a sense of academic solidarity. I have been the fortunate recipient of much support from senior colleagues in pursuing my academic career - this has been incredibly helpful and I am very grateful to them. However, having someone to talk with from another institution (and another country!) that understands and can share the specific, lived realities of being an ECR at this point in time is also invaluable.