Why link personal research and teaching?

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to highlight issues concerning the linking of research to teaching.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper engages with two assumptions which appear to be taken for granted: there should be an overt and strong link between one's own research and one's teaching; and one's active involvement in the research process should, at the very least, underpin, the quality of one's teaching, and at best, improve it.

Findings

There is a link between research and teaching (though the strength of the link is problematic). The link is not only a matter of intellectual or disciplinary import, but is complicated by political and vested interests. The two extremes of research and teaching can be bridged by scholarship or learning, or both together. It is unnecessary and counter‐productive to demand of academics that they should be simultaneously good researchers and good teachers, although this requirement is unlikely to be realised in practice. There is no obligation whatever for academics to overtly link their own personal research to their teaching in order to be considered good teachers.

Originality/value

The paper queries both these assumptions which appear to be influencing how policy concerning research and teaching is dealt with in higher education institutions, and investigates the implications of feeling obliged to teach students using personal research.

Citation

Berman Brown, R. (2005), "Why link personal research and teaching?", Education + Training, Vol. 47 No. 6, pp. 393-407. https://doi.org/10.1108/00400910510617024