Throughout this academic year, I will be using this Initiatives column to share parts of the college’s strategic plan. My goal is to help you understand the goals and how we aim to reach them, and to help you see yourself in the plan as someone who can not only help to implement it, but also can benefit from it.
This week’s initiatives column will focus on the first two action items of goal 3 Research addressing social issues, objective 3 Research, Culture and Partnerships, in our strategic plan for 2021-25. You can read the full plan on our website.
This objective calls on us to coordinate fiscal and other supports to enhance a culture of research by providing professional learning opportunities, improving the recruitment of faculty and students, recognizing outstanding research, and developing and sustaining impactful collaborations, particularly research-practitioner partnerships.
The first action item calls on us to continue to enhance the local culture of research and scholarship that reflects the college’s values.
There are two implementation tasks associated with this action item:
- Recruit additional top scholars whose research focuses on issues of diversity, inclusion, social justice and anti-racism.
- Recruit scholars with expertise in socioecological systems research and methodologies to foster study of the intersections among essential literacies, social justice, and mental health and well-being.
The second action item calls on us to value and support new pathways for research and creative accomplishments in annual evaluations as well as promotion and tenure.
There are three implementation tasks associated with this action item:
- Recognize and reward initiation of collaborative partnerships within the University and beyond.
- Recognize and reward engagement in equity, inclusion and anti-racism outreach work, particularly those that address leadership, instruction and curricula.
- Recognize, incentivize and reward the use of diverse publication venues and research dissemination strategies (e.g., open access journals, policy briefs, amicus briefs, books).
Using our resources in this way is at the heart of changing education by educating for change. By doing all of the things listed above, we are embracing a culture of inclusiveness. We are doing research that creates new knowledge in areas that will impact our students’ ability to find their talents. We are honoring and empowering the qualities and assets that students bring into our classrooms, and that they will take with them when they move into their careers.
Coming up
The next Initiatives column will include a look at the remaining two actions items of goal 3, objective 3.