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The Ivory Towers of Academia

The Ivory Towers of Academia. A personal view as the founder of Pitt’s Office of Child Development. Research Emphasizes Basic Educational Discipline Based Communication Scientific Community Careers Narrow course. Research Need for Applied Education Interdisciplinary Communication

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The Ivory Towers of Academia

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  1. The Ivory Towers of Academia • A personal view as the founder of Pitt’s Office of Child Development

  2. Research Emphasizes Basic Educational Discipline Based Communication Scientific Community Careers Narrow course Research Need for Applied Education Interdisciplinary Communication Public & Legislatures Careers ? Academia vs. Community

  3. Basic vs. Applied Research • Academicians cherish their freedom to explore their disciplines independent of public pressure • Too often…American Scholars still hold fast to the hermeneutics of exile, using their specialized knowledge to dwell in a distant time or an esoteric disciplinary space, returning periodically like Rip Van Winkle from his inaccessible mountain to tell the forgetful villagers what life was like in the distant past…We scholars rightly cherish our independence of mind an our originality of perspective, but we need to balance the hermeneutics of exile with a more creative hermeneutics of community Damrosch, 1995

  4. Basic vs. Applied Research • We often restrict our inquiries to existing scientific debates often ignoring societal issues • Important applied issues often have get very little attention

  5. Basic vs. Applied Research: What people want to know about? • Issues covered in my applied issues course: • Prenatal issues and policy • Controversies of child birth • Early intervention programs • Effective education and policy • The politics of child programs • Youth gangs and violence • Effective Parenting

  6. Basic vs. Applied Research: Methods • We restrict our methods and approaches to existing procedures • …the practioner of a mature science from the beginnings of his doctoral research continues to work in regions for which the paradigms derived from his education and from the research of his contemporaries seem adequate. He tries, that is, to elucidate topological details on a map whose outlines are available in advance… Kuhn, 1976

  7. Community Based Research • Tensions between community and researchers • Lack of value of research • Who controls what • What will I get for it? • Scientific Method: the “Gold Standard” • Control vs. ecological validity • Control Groups • Quantitative vs. qualitative methods

  8. Community Based Research • Program Evaluations • Report cards or tools? • What are the goals? • Who pays and who plays? • Summative vs. formative evaluation

  9. Applied Research • Does it have an impact? • Research vs. Politics and People

  10. Research Emphasizes Basic Educational Discipline Based Research Need for Applied Education Interdisciplinary Academia vs. Community

  11. Interdisciplinary Education • “Someone once claimed the only thing connecting classes in many schools is the plumbing” Klein, 1990 • “It’s claimed Developmental Psychologist can recognize 2 out of 3 children” unknown source

  12. Interdisciplinary Education • Pitt’s training grants in child abuse and child welfare: psychology, law, medicine, social work, child care, education & nursing • Institutional Barriers • University structures • University finances • Degree requirements

  13. Interdisciplinary Education • Professional biases • Research beliefs • Communication Problems • Professional identification • Journals, conferences, etc • Licensing Requirements

  14. Research Emphasizes Basic Educational Discipline Based Communication Scientific Community Research Need for Applied Education Interdisciplinary Communication Public & Legislatures Academia vs. Community

  15. Communicating to Public • A cartoon in the New Yorker two dowdy scientists musing over their apparently lackluster careers with the self-consoling caption: • “One thing to say about us Meyer, we never stooped to popularizing science” Stevenson, 1977

  16. Communicating • We tend to avoid communicating with public and may even be warned against it • What is the alternative– who represents Psychology?

  17. Communicating • Must speak in sound bites (you will be cut) • Personality and looks count • Just give conclusions • Main effects vs. interactions • Don’t want to hear hesitancy

  18. Research Emphasizes Basic Educational Discipline Based Communication Scientific Community Careers Narrow course Research Need for Applied Education Interdisciplinary Communication Public & Legislatures Careers ? Academia vs. Community

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