Supporting Faculty in Successfully Producing and Publishing Educational Research: What Colleges and Organizations Can Do

To the Editor: The recent Special Article by Persky and Romanelli on successfully producing and publishing educational research was timely and much needed.¹ As pointed out by the authors, pharmacy faculty members are often trained in clinical, laboratory, and social/behavioral and administrative research. With more teaching-focused pharmacy schools and less research funding, getting scholarly credit for sharing new activities and approaches developed as part of teaching responsibilities can be attractive. However, as suggested by the article, pharmacy faculty members may not have the training to make Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL) publications more rigorous and more theory- and data-driven. That being said, here are some suggestions that may facilitate growth in the SOTL field.

As the number of pharmacy schools has grown, the average, aggregate years of experience of faculty members has decreased, as has the number of full professors per school.² Further, many new schools are standalone, in that they are not surrounded by other colleges in pertinent fields like education and the humanities. However, reaching out to a faculty member with expertise in educational research can be a learning experience for strengthening the research design as well as data analysis. Thus, my first suggestion to those venturing into SOTL research is to seek out appropriate collaboration or mentorship. Faculty development committees often bring in speakers or host workshops, but this may not be enough. Would-be SOTL researchers need ongoing, individual support. For schools that just don’t have such resources, a community of scholars program may be appropriate.³ This model would allow participating faculty members to invest in SOTL research by forming collaborations with similar-minded faculty members, setting goals for designing studies that can be published, and pairing up faculty members with those who have expertise in an area of need.

A key role in developing the field of SOTL can come from the editorial boards of pharmacy education journals. Knowing that science or pharmacy faculty members who lack training in educational research are interested in this field, journals might consider publishing an “educational research series.” This can be similar to the statistics review series published in various medical journals for those healthcare professionals who may not be well trained in statistics. The education research series can include overviews of various theoretical models, some of the common research methodologies, and even a few statistical analyses that can be used in educational research. Such an educational series may help develop confidence in pharmacy faculty members who want to engage in educational research. Alternatively, if it is desirable to have a forum in which people can share their teaching innovations without the rigor of engaging in SOTL research, maybe such a venue should be provided. Currently, AJPE’s Innovations in Teaching manuscripts are reserved for recipients of the AACP Innovations in Teaching Award, but perhaps a section for a more inclusive discussion of current practices could be considered.

Another key player who can assist with SOTL advancement is the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP). Measures should be taken to continue to promote instructional sessions on SOTL research and the peer-review process at the annual AACP conference. These sessions could also provide a networking opportunity for faculty mutually interested in SOTL. Demonstrating external validity is a common problem in SOTL research. When faculty members with similar interests can network, studies that incorporate several schools across the country in the study design are more likely to result, thus improving the generalizability of findings presented in the ensuing publications. Beyond this, AACP can also collaborate with pharmacy education journals and have webinars on SOTL research.

With the Journal making efforts to accommodate increasing submission rates without compromising on the quality of published work, these are some steps that can direct the pharmacy faculty and profession in the right direction.

• © 2017 American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy