Wendy Troxel, Director // NACADA Center for Research at Kansas State University

Happy New Year! Exciting things are happening in the Scholarship of Advising in 2021. This spring we launch our “Second Saturday Scholars” activities to provide a virtual space for writing. See details in Elisa Shaffer’s article in the Editor’s Corner. The NACADA Virtual Writing Groups are hard at work, as are so many of you behind the scenes preparing proposals for the 2021 NACADA Annual Conference. We are looking forward to the new Scholarly Papers sessions and your involvement as an audience member, author, proposal reader, and/or discussant. Full details are available at https://nacada.ksu.edu/Resources/Research-Related/ScholarlyPapers.aspx. 

Due to the ongoing challenges with COVID-19, the NACADA Research Institute originally scheduled for late May in the Chicago area will be going virtual! Details will be available soon announcing the focus, format, and schedule for this premier event, co-sponsored by the NACADA Research Committee.

Are you thinking about pursuing doctoral work? Recruitment will begin actively this spring for the next cohort of the Ph.D. in Leadership in Academic Advising program at Kansas State University. Applications for admission will be due on December 1, 2021; the program of study will begin during the Summer of 2022. Virtual information sessions will be held monthly beginning in April and through the summer of 2021. And if you’re interested in any of K-State’s advising-focused certificate and graduate programs please consider attending the informational webinar on March 25, 2021, hosted by K-State Online. See the link at https://online.k-state.edu/programs/academic-advising-masters/ to register.

Welcome to the beginning of the Editor’s Corner column. I will use this space to offer insights into the research events, opportunities, and other highlights. One such opportunity that I would like to draw your attention to is the introduction of “Second Saturday Scholars.” This is a continuation of last year’s Global Writing Days but with some exciting new changes. This year, we will encourage you to join us in writing, and we will provide a shared space to join others.  Three different virtual spaces will be made available to all NACADA members:

• Writers’ Room – quiet space to sit with others who are writing
• Writing Process Space – some initial goal setting and guidance with blocks of time to write
• Critical Friends Space – topical help, writing revision, and other discussions

I recently did a couple of “writing process space” style rooms with some colleagues and found my time to be much more productive and guided than when I was trying to “just get started.” I encourage you to keep an eye out for our announcement email for our February start with more details, and let us know if you are interested in being a Virtual Host!

On a final note, this column will also be a space where you will get to come along with me in my journey as a doctoral student. I am in the second semester of my doctoral program in Instructional Design & Technology at Old Dominion University. Too often, I believe that the process of “becoming a doctor” is mysterious or unattainable. I want to take you on this journey with me, demystify it, and share my discoveries along the way. I hope you feel empowered to begin, continue, or even ponder the idea of pursuing your next degree. If you already have your doctorate, please continue to encourage and empower those around you – your insights and support mean the world.

“You are stronger than you believe. You have greater powers than you know.” – Antiope, Wonder Woman

Suspending Your Inner Critic
Rhonda Dean-Kyncl, NACADA Coordinator of Writer Support

The first job in preparing a written piece, whether it’s a formal letter to an administrator, a blog post, a journal article, or a conference presentation is what rhetoricians call the invention stage. In the invention stage, all ideas are welcome; your imagination is free to roam and connect ideas. The goal of the invention stage is to come up with as many ideas as possible before whittling them down to the essence of your topic.

Unfortunately, many of us struggle in the invention stage because we also have a well-developed critic in our heads who is a harsh judge of anything we try to create. That inner voice may sound like a controlling, judgmental parent, or an overbearing grammar teacher pointing out all of our mistakes. Of course, academic writing does have many editing rules that will be important in the final draft of your work but focusing on writing only correct sentences will lead to writer’s block and failure at the invention stage.

From the editorial teams of the NACADA Journal and the NACADA Review

“We enjoy the process far more than the proceeds.”  Warren Buffett

Many people enjoy a good process. It offers direction and focus to accomplish a goal, mission, or vision. This appreciation of a good process is one of the many reasons why you should investigate the opportunity to assume positions that contribute to NACADA publications. It is not always clear how to involve yourself in this process. You might start as a reviewer or an author.  Both roles shape the scholarship that so many academic advising colleagues use daily in their work.   

But it does not have to stop here. After experiences with writing and peer review, you should consider being an editor for the NACADA Journal or NACADA Review. The role of an editor includes coaching authors, evaluating reviewer feedback, and developing manuscripts to produce an issue worth reading by the NACADA membership. Each issue, produced through the publishing process, is significant for the practice of academic advising.  

There is another great reason to involve yourself in the process of developing advising scholarship. As you contribute to the scholarship, you will also develop a network of colleagues and collaborators, who offer intellectual stimulation, technical support, and friendship. It is easy to see how one might experience intellectual stimulation from a debate about an APA 7th Edition rule, but friendship?  Really? Yes, the publishing process allows appreciation of colleagues’ gifts and strengths as well as creating strong and lasting social connections. Just picture your next NACADA experience including a coffee break and a discussion on the difference between findings and results in an article.  

The next time you see an announcement for reviewers, consider joining the NACADA Review or NACADA Journal in this role. Your energy, effort, and expertise will be rewarded with supportive colleagues, a greater appreciation for writing, and participation in scholarship that shapes the field. In fact, you might enjoy this process so much that you become a future editor. 

Kathryn Woods, UKAT Research Committee Chair

The Research Committee of UK Advising & Tutoring aims to champion evidence-based approaches to advising and tutoring practice in the UK. We are extremely proud of our partnership with NACADA and links with LVSA, the Dutch advising association. Alongside hosting online webinars and research retreats to support colleagues with their personal tutoring and advising research, over the last two years we have sought to contribute to personal tutoring scholarship through supporting the publication of a Special Edition of Frontiers in Education: Leadership in Education series, titled, “Academic Advising and Tutoring for Student Success in Higher Education: International Perspectives.” We are delighted to announce that all the articles from this collection are now published and available online: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/9684/academic-advising-and-tutoring-for-student-success-in-higher-education-international-perspectives#overview The collection is also being released as an e-book, due for release in early 2021.  We would like to extend our particular thanks to the outgoing Research Committee Chair, Emily McIntosh, for all her hard work as an editor for this special collection and the support she has provided for contributors. Emily continues to support the Research Committee as UKAT Vice-Chair (Research).

In June 2020, Kathryn Woods (Goldsmiths' College) was appointed as the new UKAT Research Committee Chair. Kathryn has been involved with UKAT for many years and aims to continue to build-upon the committees' excellent work in raising the profile of personal tutoring research and supporting colleagues to plan their research projects and writing. In the next year, the Committee will deliver a series of online workshops and seminars for researchers that aim to provide support and guidance at different stages of the research lifecycle, from identifying a research question, to using research theories and methodologies, and getting published. The committee will also continue to develop online resources for researchers such as the recently published personal tutoring research bibliography and 'where to publish' resource webpages. These resources and further details about the Research Committee can be found on UKAT's research webpages: https://www.ukat.uk/community/research/ 

We are also delighted to announce that the Research Committee's research theme for 2021 is Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion. This is the first time that the committee has identified a research theme. By doing so, it seeks to advance research and publication on personal tutoring and advising in this area, as a neglected area of scholarly inquiry. The committee's research theme aligns with the theme of UKAT's 2021 annual conference and it is hoped that the committee can support contributors to develop their papers for publication. This is an exciting time for UKAT's Research Committee and we look forward to continuing and developing our fruitful collaboration with NACADA to support personal tutoring and advising research.