It’s no secret that the postgraduate research experience is challenging. An oft-quoted issue for postgraduate researchers is the isolation they experience – because of the individual nature of research projects and the lack of a clear cohort. Doctoral training partnerships improve this experience for some students – but not all. This is particularly challenging given the number of postgraduate researchers who live not only off-campus, but outside the county or even the country.
Here, we look at how to develop a thriving postgraduate research community through one of the toughest and loneliest challenges of the academic experience – writing.
Inspired by the work of Shut Up and Write Tuesdays on Twitter and writing retreats led by Rowena Murray, we developed a “Write Club” where postgraduate researchers would meet regularly on campus, fuelled by tea, coffee and biscuits, to write together in facilitated blocks. This gave postgraduate researchers space to work together – rather than in isolation – and share their experiences of writing and academic life to develop a social community as well as a community of practice.
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These Write Clubs took place on campus, facilitated by research development manager Kelly Louise Preece and academic and poet Sally Flint, and over 18 months from 2018 to 2020 developed into a small but active community. Write Clubs followed a simple structure – starting with introductions, a creative writing task and goal setting before working using the pomodoro technique of 25-minute periods of focused work interspersed by five-minute breaks.
Postgraduate researchers were trained to facilitate Write Clubs to enable them to run more regularly, which resulted in an online offshoot in line with the Shut Up and Write model. During the pandemic, this online offshoot expanded and became a fundamental part of the postgraduate research experience. We went from running a few groups a month to two online Shut Up and Write sessions a day through Microsoft Teams.
During the pandemic, the sessions became increasingly peer led as postgraduate researchers trained each other to be facilitators, adapting and improving the model. They took an idea and ran with it to create a thriving peer-led online community, spanning several continents. Echoing its roots, Write Club took on the moniker of the now-defunct Twitter community Shut Up and Write (SUAW).
The sessions gave participants structure to their days and a sense of community and belonging, something in short supply during the pandemic. Sharing goals and planned session outcomes with the group at the start of the session helps students commit to completing this work by the end of the session; they share in each other’s success and provide encouragement when things don’t go to plan. The diversity of members provides numerous peer-to-peer learning opportunities with PGRs from different disciplines, countries, universities and stages of their doctoral research.
SUAW has continued to evolve. The postgraduate coordinators and facilitators, now led by doctoral student Jo Sutherst, can be responsive, flexible and develop a virtual community space to suit the needs of participants. Graduates, postdocs and staff continue to be part of the community after submitting their research degree and thanks to the flexibility of running the sessions online, we have been able to open it up to postgraduate researchers across the Great West 4 (GW4) universities.
Each session is a source of knowledge, inspiration and friendship. The group also provides an excellent opportunity to learn new research techniques, as members share their methods for collecting, analysing and coding research data. This type of informal learning can have a more long-term impact than formal training sessions as it is more experiential and context specific, research shows. By connecting with other postgraduate researchers, members learn about academic publishing, presenting at conferences, new research projects, other professional development opportunities, job opportunities and job search strategies.
This advice distils what we have learnt since the original Write Clubs began in 2018, for anyone wanting to set up their own peer-led peer-learning initiatives.
1. Successful peer-led communities tend to be organic. However, that doesn’t mean as staff we should just sit back and hope they naturally develop. By actively engaging with scholarship and practice in the sector, we can experiment and create opportunities for students to engage and – fundamentally – see what works.
2. Keep it simple. The structure and method are simple and well established. Using a Teams site, postgraduate researchers can be supported to organise scheduled and ad hoc writing sessions using the SUAW or pomodoro technique. Our initial method was more complex, which had benefits – but this has devolved into something simpler, and consequently more scalable.
3. Make it fun. Fun and play are crucial to learning, community development and well-being, so find the fun. SUAW uses these timers and bets on which avatar will win each race. It introduces humour and helps to create the safe space.
4. Give the student facilitators a clear route to escalate issues and concerns. We have had a few instances through the life of SUAW where facilitators have become aware of health and well-being issues. Even if the sessions are peer run, professional staff must be available for facilitators to escalate any issues, should they arise.
5. Don’t be afraid to fail. Experimentation is key, and we’ve tried peer-to-peer community development initiatives off the back of SUAW that haven’t worked. PGR Book Club, may you rest in peace.
6. Let it go. As a staff member, know when it’s time to let go, and let the students run with it. In stepping back from the project, Kelly had to let one of her proudest achievements go, in favour of it continuing to develop and have impact. This means SUAW does not now have the same level of data on engagement, as the sessions are not as formalised. But the facilitators track numbers of attendees, which is enough to measure its growth and impact.
Kelly Louise Preece is head of academic development and skills and Jo Sutherst is a part-time PhD student researching the role selfies in constructing identity, both at the University of Exeter.
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