Back to the Beginning: Research in Your Own Institution

Looking back to our first cross-programme seminar, Duna Sabri’s talk on ‘Researching Your Own Institution’ was highly interesting, but was something that I had never particularly had to address before in my practice. It wasn’t until I delved deeper into my studies in the PgCert that I reflected back on this talk to understand how I can incorporate academic research into my work.

At the beginning of the session, when prompted with the question: ‘why research in your own institution, and why not?’ I was very much in favour of doing internal research as I thought that this was vital to get relevant information, pertinent to our field of work. During the session, this was challenged and there were lots of discussions around whether there could be conscious or unconscious bias that is reflected in our internal research. When discussing with my peers we spoke about the importance of research in advancing our pedagogic practices, however concluded that the real value would come from truthful insights into the institution. How could this be achieved? Would students, staff, or whoever were the focus of the research, give honest responses to the researcher if they were close to them already? Would an external researcher achieve this better, as they are not directly related to the subject?

For each of my sessions with the students of Camberwell and Chelsea, I request feedback from them through an online form. I always mention that this feedback is anonymous to highlight to the students that they can be honest about my delivery, without fear of being identified. Although this is the case, the number of students who engage in the feedback form is minimal. I think this makes me question whether it matters if the researcher is internal or external, it’s about the motive of the subject. I find that if the subject’s experience, knowledge, or opinion is a highly positive (or highly negative) one, they are willing to speak to anyone who is able to make change. For me, this has highlighted how important it is for safe spaces at university, internal and external to departments. The act of signposting to the relevant team is crucial to the development of the university across all areas, as there may be something flagged to another team that could affect another aspect of the institution.

Research within your own institution may provide you with a richness of insight that an external examiner perhaps could not provide. It is up to us, the institution, to decide whether we are willing to face the prospects that there may be some information that we are not ready (or willing) to hear.