Writing Retreats: Creating a Community of Practice for Academics across Disciplines

Autor/inn/en	Wiebe, Natasha G.; Pratt, Heather L.; Noël, Nicole
Titel	Writing Retreats: Creating a Community of Practice for Academics across Disciplines
Quelle	In: Journal of Research Administration, 54 (2023) 1, S.37-65 (29 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1539-1590
Schlagwörter	Writing Workshops; Faculty Development; College Faculty; Publish or Perish Issue; Faculty Publishing; Academic Language; Writing for Publication; Universities; Intellectual Disciplines; Sense of Community; Motivation; Productivity; Cost Effectiveness; Interdisciplinary Approach; Foreign Countries; Canada + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Fakultät; Academic; Language; Languages; Akademiker; Sprache; Wissenschaftssprache; University; Universität; Geisteswissenschaften; psychologische; Motivation (psychologisch); Produktivität; Kosten-Nutzen-Analyse; Kosten-Nutzen-Denken; Fächerübergreifender Unterricht; Fächerverbindender Unterricht; Interdisziplinarität; Ausland; Kanada
Abstract	The writing retreat has been positioned as an effective response to the pressure to "publish or perish" in higher education. An academic writing retreat is a professional development event that allows scholars to immerse themselves in writing for publication and to receive on-site support for that writing. In 2012, the Office of Research and Innovation Services at the University of Windsor in Windsor, Ontario, Canada introduced a biannual writing retreat for faculty and staff across the disciplines. This program evaluation examines 252 retreat evaluations submitted between 2015 and 2019. Our goal is to identify what participants perceive to be the benefits of the retreats. A review of the international research literature suggests primary benefits of retreats include protected writing time and space, the development of a sense of community, increased motivation to write, increased productivity during retreats, and organizational investment in follow-up support. These findings are consistent with our study. However, the overarching benefit of our retreats lies in their development of a supportive community of writing practice that extends back to campus. Participants report their retreat experience is reshaping the ways that they write elsewhere, and that they are collaborating on projects with other retreat participants. This research contributes a Canadian example to a growing body of evidence that suggests retreats can help academic writers prioritize the task of writing over other conflicting demands. A unique contribution of the study is its cost-effective, flexible, interdisciplinary, day-away retreat model, which is an alternative to the discipline-specific, residential retreats within the literature. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	Society of Research Administrators International. 500 North Washington Street Suite 300, Falls Church, VA 22046. Tel: 703-741-0140; Fax: 703-741-0142; e-mail: membership@srainternational.org; Web site: https://www.srainternational.org/resources/journal
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01