“Owning the journey”
is something I’ve been saying a lot this semester in the process of helping students “defend” their portfolios of work in the School. It applies to me as well, though, as I prepare my own tenure portfolio.
I’ve been here just over four years (since January of 2006), and the research work that I’ve produced in that time includes:
* The “theory diffusion” model (for JASIST), which led to
* the “practice theories” model (for ISC) and
* the “social life of theories” model (for AERA).
* The “research specialty” model (with Steve Morris, for ARIST)
* The “strategic relevance” model (for ALISE)
* The “anti-collection” model (for LT)
In order to be a “competent” researcher at my school, one must publish at least one piece of peer-reviewed work each year. Although the “journey” towards the development of these conceptual models has not been particularly straightforward (to paraphrase Edgar Box’s saying, all models are wrong, some models are useful, and only a few models are fundable), I am basically quite pleased with “owning” these.
Oh, and I’m a much better teacher than I was in January of 2006!
