Diversity Initiative Grant

The Cultural Inclusivity through Publishing Project: Progress Report

Description

The Cultural Inclusivity through Publishing project is a four-level mentoring program to support postgraduate students from languages other than English (LOTE) backgrounds to prepare research papers for conference presentation and publication in a special edition of the peer-reviewed International Education Journal.

Early-career researchers have difficulty ‘breaking in’ to the world of publishing. This problem is compounded for students from LOTE backgrounds. Adequate preparation for publishing is an essential component of postgraduate training and capacity building. It is often the case that LOTE students’ research remains in dissertation or thesis form and is not disseminated through publication. Publication can increase graduates’ ‘visibility’ in their home countries, potentially contributing to continuing research by the graduate – possibly in conjunction with their former supervisors. Publication is important for students’ career advancement.

The four levels of mentoring in this program include

1: Facilitated workshops to support constructive peer review of papers during preparation

2: Seminars presented by invited speakers and the Staff Development and Training Unit

3: Support for students’ supervisors, and

4: A mentoring team of IEJ editors and selected reviewers

Progress

Publicity and Dissemination

We created a pamphlet and a web site that provide an overview of the project aims and processes:

We use the pamphlet and web site to advertise the program at appropriate events, such as School Board and Postgraduate Induction Seminars.

We presented a poster at the Quality in Postgraduate Research Conference in Adelaide in 2006. The presentation was enthusiastically received, and generated an extended discussion about ways of supporting students (and staff) to publish their work. The poster is currently proudly displayed in the School of Education, and the abstract has been published in the conference proceedings available online at

(In M. Kiley & G. Mullins (Eds.) (2006) Quality in postgraduate research: Knowledge creation in testing times. CEDAM, The AustralianNationalUniversity, Canberra).

We prepared two articles, one for inclusion in the School of Education International Programs newsletter and one for inclusion in the FUIIE review.

Program Uptake

The program has been enthusiastically received by staff and students in the School of Education. Supervisors of international postgraduate students have expressed willingness to engage as mentors for academic publishing with their students. International students have expressed interest in joining the program. Students whose research is near completion have begun preparing articles for publication. Students at the early stages of their research have attended the seminars and workshops with publication in mind.

Program of Activities

Activities supported by the CIP are detailed in Table 1:

Table 1: Overview of activities in the CIP program.

Date / Activity / Presenter / Attendance
12/08/05 / CIP project approved.
07/10/05 / Email to all School of Ed. Staff & students to call for expressions of interest to join CIP program
14/10/05 / CIP publicity brochures received from printer. Beginning distribution
01/11/05 / Preparation and uploading of website advertising the program
20/10/05 / Seminar "The publishing process" / K. Dix / 8 Thai EdD students
27/10/05 / Workshop "Academic Writing" / M. Wyra / 8 Thai EdD students
28/10/05 / Advertisement of CIP program to School of Education Board : Call for expressions of interest / School of Education Staff
07/11/05 / Preparation of article for School of Education International Programs newsletter / K. Dix / published
10/02/06 / Presentation of program to FUIIE seminar - seeking applicants / K. Dix
H. Askell-Williams / About 10 staff and Masters, EdD & PhD students
02/03/06 / Repeat presentation of program to FUIIE seminar - seeking applicants / K. Dix
H. Askell-Williams / About 30 staff and Masters, EdD & PhD students
16/03/06 / Seminar "Constructing your argument" / P. O’Toole / About 21 international Masters, EdD & PhD students
25/03/06 / Preparation of article for FUIIE newsletter / K. Dix / published
April / Seminar: The Publishing Process / K. Dix / About 21 international Masters, EdD & PhD students
Tuesday April 11th / Workshop: Refereeing articles (whole school event) / Convened by K.Whitehead Assoc. Dean-Research / About 30 staff and Masters, EdD & PhD students
May / Seminar: Writing better for publication / Professor J. Anderson / About 15 international Masters, EdD & PhD students
June / Seminar / Assoc. Prof K. Whitehead / About 15 international Masters, EdD & PhD students
July 17-21 / Off shore follow-up workshop in Thailand: Refining your writing / Dr M. Rosetto & Dr B. Kameniar / 8 Thai EdD students
July-Nov / Individual students’ preparation of papers for conference presentation and publication / Individual student with their mentors/supervisors
Oct 30th / Closing data for paper submission to ERC 2006
Nov 23rd / ERC 2006
Jan 30th 2007 / Closing date for paper submission for consideration for publication
Jan-March 2007 / Formal Blind referee process / Various referees
April 2007 / Acceptance of papers for Special Edition of IEJ / IEJ editorial board and chief editor Prof J. Keeves.

International postgraduate students with papers submitted to ERC 2006 (students are encouraged to develop these conference papers for publication)

Dianti Endang Kusumawardhani

Elizabeth Kaloki

Monica Maluan

Paul Njuguna

Nordin Abd Razak

Sirajuddin Tenri

Tan Bei Yu Joyce

Prisca Were

International postgraduate students with papers currently under construction for consideration in the special edition of the IEJ.

TuAnh Tran

Hanni Yukamana

LiHui Wang

Nusrat Rizvi

Urdyuwadee Wongthon

Sakon Kerdpol

Sulaiman Mappiasse

Nanang B Subekti

Additions to program

As the program has become established it has become clear that the opportunities it provides have been welcomed by current students and also by students who are finishing their program of study and are about to return, or have recently returned, to their home countries. The need for students to return home at the completion of their studies coincides with the time that their research is most ready to write into final publication form. We have realised therefore that, for some students who join the CIP program of workshops and seminars, it will be necessary to continue to provide support for preparing papers for publication after the students return to their home country, in order to bring the papers to completion.

We have decided therefore to extend our proposed mentoring support to students who have returned home, using personal email communication and through posting of seminar and workshop notes on the CIP web site. We consider that the final stages of the CIP program, namely the extended refereeing and feedback process on papers can be effectively (and necessarily) conducted via email.

This has extended the timeline of the project into 2007

Budget

To date the funds in this budget have been largely preserved, for the following reasons:

  1. The International postgraduate students have found it difficult to meet the demands imposed by the publishing process (hence the initial justification for applying for the grant). We have needed to allow more time for students to prepare their papers. Therefore, the major publishing costs associated with the project have not yet been allocated.
  2. Many seminar presenters and mentors have provided their time without seeking payment, as part of their community service to the university and also to support our project. Therefore we have preserved anticipated presenter fees. We anticipate re-allocating these fees to provide one-to-one mentoring support to students to finalise their papers for publication. In addition, it may be possible to continue the program into 2007-2008 with a new intake of international post-graduate students. This would rely upon the current goodwill of presenters and mentors continuing, meaning that we only need to budget for publishing costs.

Grant: / $5000
School of Education contribution : / $2000
FUIIE contribution: / $1000
Total / $8000
Expenditure / $619

We seek approval to carry over funds allocated to this Diversity Initiative Grant to 2007, in order to recognize

1. the extra time that international postgraduate students need to achieve the aims of the program, and

2. the economical approach we have taken to managing the funds of the project.

Helen Askell-Williams

Katherine Dix

Rosalind Murray-Harvey