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‘Promoters and or students are to blame’: A critique of the research promotion process Mamolahluwa Mokoena, Director Academic Development Centre Mamolahluwa [email protected] Livingstone Makondo, Senior Instructional Designer/Senior Academic Development Advisor [email protected] North West University, Mafikeng Campus, South Africa • Like sheep led to the slaughter some students meticulously follow the suggestions and prescriptions of their promoters yet they are shocked when they realize that they have failed to successfully complete their research component. • Universities, as centres of higher education ought to provide teaching-learning, research and community services to their diverse stakeholders. • This study examines the role being played by promoters towards the successful completion of the research component by students within specified time periods. • This discussion submits that research promotion by the promoter and execution by the student is a ‘two-man dance’. • The dancers therefore need to click for them to have a harmonious rhythmic dance. • Conversely, the dance suggests that the promoter is the senior dancer who should have the acumen to guide the ‘amateur’ dancer. • If the former fails to effectively control the dancing, for reasons within this scope, the results range from students failure to complete on time to withdraw among others. • To this end, this study explores what researcher promoters at North West University, Mafikeng Campus can do to ensure that the throughput rate is improved upon. • The role of the Academic Development Centre is also examined. • This on-going study submits that the unpreparedness of some students to successfully navigate their way through the research component at postgraduate level is compounded by the inabilities of some of the promoters to give befitting guidance. • To this end, this action research shares experiences aimed at capacitating the promoters so that the dance should have the intended happy ending. Faculty Number Education 73 Law 34 Human and social science 21 Challenges • Staff members’ handicap • Student oriented challenges • Challenges relating to data collection, data analysis, and presentation of results (Amenta and Mosbo, 1994). • It also requires analysis of how the preparation for research is best organized and how the additional benefits that might be expected to derive from research will be measured and assessed (Wenzel, 2004). • The process of institutional change is not simple and is most often slow. It can be jump-started by individuals and supported by funding of small projects. (Brakke,2009.268). • A report of preliminary findings and analysis from student discussion groups held on 7 U.S. campuses in Fall 2008, suggest that conducting research is particularly challenging. Students’ greatest challenges are related to their perceived inability to find desired materials (Head and Eisenberg, 2009.1). • Graduate education should prepare students for an increasingly interdisciplinary, collaborative and global job market and should not be viewed only as a byproduct of immersion in an intensive research experience (Golde and Gallagher, 1999.1). • One prominent and persistent critique is that American doctoral education trains students too narrowly in a subspecialty, leaving new degree holders unprepared to conduct interdisciplinary work (e.g., Boyer 1990; Committee on Science Engineering and Public Policy 1995). • The ideal dissertation advisor is supportive, experienced, supplies resources, and socializes the student into the discipline. • Choosing an advisor with whom the student can build a supportive professional relationship is perhaps the most critical decision a student makes. • In many respects, the student is shaped and changed by the advisor: learning how to identify and think through a problem, how to conduct highquality research, how to write manuscripts and where to publish them, and so forth. • For a student with interdisciplinary interests, a good advisor also needs to understand and share the student's commitment to interdisciplinary research. • Interdisciplinary research by students is easiest when the advisor conducts such research him- or herself (Golde and Gallagher, 1999.283). • For a student who attempts to conduct investigations outside or beyond the advisor's expertise, additional problems emerge. The advisor may be unable to help the student identify relevant literature and resources. • The advisor is likely to be hard-pressed to assist the student in minimizing false starts on research ideas. • Relatedly, the student might face the additional hurdle of finding a supportive dissertation committee (Golde and Gallagher, 1999.284). • Successful collaboration requires power sharing and building trusting interpersonal relationships (Whyte 1978; Heberlein 1988; Wood and Gray 1991; Hafernik and others 1997). Way forward • Need for proper introduction to research • Collaboration: Need for a vibrant summer research community (Brakke et al., 2003). • Research seminar series • Research modules: Udergraduate research as a developmental process and it requires preparation. Students learn how to approach research and to ask questions (Brakke and Nelson, 2003). • Staff development • Utilizing ADC staff services • Utilizing student support services • Thank you