Integrating the Academic Life
How “everything influences everything else in the
here and now.”
(Lincoln & Guba, 1985)
Jeffrey Trawick-Smith
Phyllis Waite Endowed Chair
in Early Childhood Education
Simplistic World View
Life is composed of unidirectional, linear
relationships between one thing and another.
Research:
Symolic Play
Social Competence Preschool
College Teaching:
Effective Instruction
Student Learning
Career Advancement:
Publications
Promotion and Tenure
Family Life:
Good parenting
Brilliant Children Who Will
Become President
Important Intervening Life Events
• Losing my mind (trying to teach, conduct
research, perform service)
• Discovering in my research that nothing seems
to cause anything else.
• In my parenting, realizing that my children
would turn out the way they would regardless
of what I did.
• Deciding to be an anthropologist.
Integrated World View
“Everything influences everything else in the
here and now. The best any researcher can hope
for is writing a thick description of all the
possible factors that influence one another and
finding their relationships.”
(Lincoln & Guba, 1985)
Everything Influences Everything Else
in Academic Life
Leads to a mindboggling model:
Teaching
Research
Intellectual Development
Student Learning
Student Research
Coherent, Satisfying Academic Life
Everything Influences Everything Else
in Academic Life
• When I write an academic paper, I consider . . .
How can this become a unit of instruction for a class?
• When I prepare for a class, I think . . .
How can this be expanded into a scholarly paper?
• When I present at a conference, I think . . .
How it could be reworked into a publication—even a
book?
• When I plan a research study I consider . . .
How can I involve at least one student whom I can
mentor?
Story from an
Integrated Academic Life
• Students were performing poorly on measures
of cultural diversity and assessment.
• I design a project for a course: An assessment
of children’s play in culturally diverse
preschools.
• Students share what they’ve learned.
• I revise and enhance the project.
• Students offer new insights.
Story from an
Integrated Academic Life
Teaching
Research
Intellectual Development
Student Learning
Student Research
Coherent, Satisfying Academic Life
Story from an
Integrated Academic Life
• I ask: How can this interesting student-collected
data complement my own research?
• I guide several students in analyzing their own
findings.
• I invite them to present with me at a national
conference.
• Students learn a lot. So do I!
• I write a theoretical chapter for a book, based on
the conference presentation.
Story from an
Integrated Academic Life
Teaching
Research
Intellectual Development
Student Learning
Student Research
Coherent, Satisfying Academic Life
Story from an
Integrated Academic Life
• Back in my classroom, more students are asking new
questions about play and culture.
• I add a student research component to a research grant,
which is funded.
• Five undergraduate students became research assistants on
the grant—something only doctoral students dream of!
• Our findings become part of my play course.
• Students and I write two articles together and present at a
national conference.
• I include this research in a book chapter, and three national
papers.
• One student and I win an award for outstanding research
article in my field (and we split the $1,000 prize!).
Story from an
Integrated Academic Life
Teaching
Research
Intellectual Development
Student Learning
Student Research
Coherent, Satisfying Academic Life
Story from an
Integrated Academic Life
• Students who worked on grant funded study carry out a toy
investigation with little guidance.
• Based on the play course and the assessment project, these
students ask: How do the effects of toys vary across culture
and SES?
• Professor beams with pride!
• The students present emerging findings to my play course.
• One student co-presents findings to a professional
organization in the community.
• They have had a paper accepted at a national conference.
• Professor does back flips and cartwheels!
Story from an
Integrated Academic Life
• Professor weaves all of this into a
presentation he is asked to
conduct at a new faculty
orientation.
• That’s what is happening right
now.
Story from an
Integrated Academic Life
Teaching
Research
Intellectual Development
Student Learning
Student Research
Coherent, Satisfying Academic Life
Story from an
Integrated Academic Life
The end of the story:
Everything has influenced everything
else in the here and now.
Conclusions
• Integrating your work makes life easier: Every
minute spent on one thing contributes to
another.
• Integrating your “academic agenda” gives
greater meaning to each element: You teach
what you research, you research what you
teach.
• Including work with student researchers
(teaching!) has remarkable rewards!
Integrating the Academic Life
How “everything influences everything else in the
here and now.”
(Lincoln & Guba, 1985)
Jeffrey Trawick-Smith
Phyllis Waite Endowed Chair
in Early Childhood Education