When a trusted colleague who had reviewed my application for Principal Fellowship first suggested I should consider going for a National Teaching Fellowship, I was astonished.
As an academic-related staff member, I have never really seen myself as a teacher or educator, more as an engagement professional. My job in The Science Shop at Queen’s University Belfast is at the intersection of research, engagement and teaching and involves setting up curriculum-based research projects for students which respond to real-life community research needs. In this role, I’ve done a lot of work on developing the curriculum for engaged research and on supporting academic colleagues who oversee and supervise the projects, but I hadn’t realised that this kind of ‘third space’ work was something that could be recognised by a National Teaching Fellowship.
As I interrogated the idea, I realised that this was a chance to recognise the educational impact of a wider community of engagement professionals
Living Knowledge Science Shop Network
Through the Living Knowledge Network, we have been successful in applying for European funding to help us develop our practice. I’ve been involved in six such projects, taking a leadership role in two of them. One example is the Erasmus+ project CIRCLET (Curriculum Innovation through Research with Communities: Learning circles of Educators and Technology) which ran 2019-22 and focused on developing the capacity of academics to support students in curriculum based engaged research projects.
Across five partner organisations, we worked with 104 academics who redesigned 53 modules to enable engaged research projects to take place. 187 projects were undertaken with 165 community organisations. Teaching quality was enhanced for over 3,000 students in the first instance, and changes were embedded meaning many more have benefited since then.
Over the lifetime of the project I was mentored by colleagues in Dublin, Budapest and Brussels who helped me build the confidence to run my own learning circle in Queen’s University Belfast. This learning circle brought a significant benefit to my own university and meant that colleagues in new disciplinary areas such as mathematics, dentistry and computer science felt confident to bring community-engaged research and learning out to their students who would not otherwise get a chance to experience it.
National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement
I had also been having conversations about the status of engagement professionals through the UK National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement’s Public Engagement Professionals (PEP) network. Those working in engagement roles noted that they are often graded at a relatively low level for the types of skill needed. Insecure contracts are also rife across the sector. As one of the longest serving PEPs it felt important to me to apply for both the Principal Fellowship and the National Teaching Fellowship as a way to demonstrate the value and impact that engagement professionals have on education and teaching.
‘Huge vote of confidence’
Much of our work in these types of roles rightly involves giving credit to the students, communities and academics we work with. However, in doing this we are also often undervaluing our own professionalism and skill base. This has a wider impact for those of us in professional services and engagement roles. In wearing our own knowledge and skills lightly, the risk is that others don’t see them or value them.
Having these skills recognised by Advance HE feels like a huge vote of confidence, not only in my own work but in the type of work that I do.
I feel very fortunate to have been supported in this application by my colleagues in the Centre for Educational Development at Queen’s University. Working alongside people in the community and voluntary sector in Northern Ireland is also a constant source of inspiration and I’m in awe of how much is achieved on shoestring budgets. Having time to do research is often an unaffordable luxury for organisations who are working to bring about societal change. Harnessing the university’s resources to provide support for the valuable work undertaken in those organisations has been the thread that has underpinned my career.
The future
My ambition for this work remains undimmed. I’m currently the UK lead on a Mission Soil project called LOESS which focuses on building soil literacy and soil education using community engaged research and learning approaches. Coming from a social sciences background this has brought a new layer of challenge but is also giving me an opportunity to examine further ways we can harness the skills and knowledge of students to support community research, particularly through interdisciplinary projects.
My vision is that every student should at least be offered the opportunity to take part in community engaged research as part of their degree programmes, so there’s a lot of work to do. I’m hoping my National Teaching Fellowship will help me to create the context where this can take place, and alongside this can inspire others in analogous roles to see career recognition pathways ahead.
Emma McKenna co-ordinates The Science Shop in Queen’s University Belfast. She is a leading member of the Living Knowledge International Science Shop Network and a Principal Fellow. She participated in several European projects and is currently the UK lead on the LOESS Soil Education project.