Moving your research community to the next level (Jade Sleeman)

The School of Education Research Society (SOERS) is a group of research candidates dedicated to encouraging networking, peer assistance, methodological
discussion, and enhancement of skills and knowledge for those researching in
the field of Education.

Or, in other words, a group of graduate researchers who want to
make the journey through their research degree more productive and rewarding, and by
making social connections – more enjoyable!

Our group was established in 2013 to
promote all things academic for Education researchers, such as grant opportunities,
conferences, and networking. These scholarly discussions happen at our monthly meetings,
which take place in a conducive social and intellectual climate – The Eagle Bar!

The Intellectual Climate Fund, supported by the Graduate Research School and the Colleges of ASSC and SHE,
was established this year to encourage graduate researchers to contribute to
the enhancement of the local research climate in their relevant Schools and
Colleges through academic, social, and cultural activities. In other words,
these grants contribute to graduate researchers becoming proactive in creating
opportunities to engage with peers in ways that allow their intellectual
capacity to not just grow, but thrive!

SOERS was lucky enough to receive an Intellectual Climate
Fund grant, which was used to support the organisation of our inaugural
conference on 31 October. This event provided an opportunity for graduate research candidates in the School of Education to showcase their current
projects, receive feedback on their work and engage in discussion about
educational research. There was also time for stimulating conversation over a
yummy morning tea and lunch!

The day began with an opening address by Dorothy Smith, Senior Lecturer and School Graduate Research Coordinator in the School of Education, on the
benefits of presenting at student conferences. She discussed things such as talking about your research, making social
connections and contributing to socially robust knowledge.

This was
followed by a range of presentations in educational research by graduate researchers, with topics covering a range of issues of both Australian and
international significance. The event also had a social media presence with the
conference livetweeted on the SOERS Twitter and Facebook pages using the #SOERS15 hashtag. The Storify recap of the day is now available
for those that want to re-live the experience.

We received really positive feedback from conference
participants, with comments focused on the benefit of having an opportunity to
present research in a collegial atmosphere. The other advantage noted by
participants was being able to hear about the diversity of research studies
taking place, and learn about the personal journeys that each project
involved.

The organisation of this first SOERS conference has been
rewarding not only for all the members of the committee, but also for
the candidates (and staff) who participated. I’ve banged on about the importance of developing community in your academic life before, but being part of organising the SOERS conference has highlighted how
getting involved in an event like this can really amp up academic engagement to
another level.

And, next year, we’ll be back, bigger, better and more
intellectually stimulating than before!

So, my call to action to you is to get involved in your
local graduate research candidate group, club, or society, and take your enthusiasm out
into your area to enhance the intellectual climate, while also developing your
own. As Milton Berle said, “If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.”

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Jade Sleeman is a teacher and PhD candidate
looking at the use of social media in higher education. 

She can be found on
Twitter @academiadiva, and blogs at Academiadiva.com.

Jade is also a member of the School of Education Research
Society (SOERS), and maintains their Twitter account: @LTUSOERS and Facebook page.