If we don't share research, why do it?

I started this academic year thinking that the one thing I missed out on last year was investigating all the different research our students had created at the Air War College. The end of the year was a whirlwind. I did have some help last year (just after I took the job as Director of Research) to create a searchable database for me to see what had been the research trends in the past, for the last few years.

As I glanced through the data, I thought: "I'm really the only one who has this information." What happened to the students when they left AWC? Did they discuss with one another the work they had labored on for 10 months or so? Before or after they left AWC? I doubted that could be the case. Students are busy when they are here--they likely didn't have time to discuss individual research projects with one another. The exception are the students who work on research task forces--they necessarily work together and talk to one another all year. But did they know what the other research task forces were working on? Not a chance. I promise, it's a really powerfully fabulous busy year for everyone.

We have a low-stakes-high-enrichment-special-interest last term at the AWC which is just a one credit class. I decided to offer a Research and Strategic Communication class this year in the late spring with the express purpose of helping students concisely communicate their longer research papers to one another, and beyond the AWC. They will make 1-minute and 3-minute "elevator" speeches for their research, then create a visual product to accompany their spoken presentation--a poster. But they will also need to ensure the poster is digitally viable. This means they'll be taking what they're written in 20 pages (mostly a problem/solution research paper) and turn it into four other products--multimodal rhetoric here we come.

But most important of all the course will culminate in a poster presentation session in which any and all interested parties can see and talk about the research our students have undertaken. Let's call this an Air War College Research Symposium; a time for students to take away a broader picture of their colleagues is vital to the national security of our nation. If our next strategic leaders, of which our AWC students are some, cannot tap into the expertise of their own peers, what are we doing the research for? Only for a single author or one small group? That's a horrible way to live.

Better than anywhere else I've ever taught, the AWC encourages an authentic audience. Our students look on multiple lists of urgent topics or questions created by leadership in many services and combatant or functional commands for inspiration. Students can choose to address a question or prompt for which an answer/solution is needed--and therefore, there is an audience beyond the academic adviser. Students may be asked by their previous (or next leaders), upon acceptance of the posting to the AWC, to address a particular problem in their field--and voila, there is an audience. Research Task Forces have audiences--the Chief of the Air Force, Commanders of Things, Multi-Starred Generals. Writing for an accountable audience is a different kind of pressure, and I adore it. This is a dream for most who care about writing for purpose with an apropos genre--the only thing a writer needs besides a purpose and a genre is an audience. Academically, this kind of situation doesn't come along all the time. But at the AWC, we rock this.

However. Who sees the research outside of the adviser, a few team members, and the primary audience? Might not be that many folks. Some research projects get published. All eventually make it to the library. But who knows the final resting place of the paper? I do. But more people need to know the good thinking we are doing. What if it's a super smart research project, but not published anywhere? Who will search through our library for the nugget of research written by one of 200 AWC students? Some people maybe. But not enough.

Wouldn't it be lovely if we helped spread the word about our thinking, our students, at least among our own students? I think it would be lovely. Just like our students who need to identify problems and find solutions, so the faculty must do that, too. Off we go.