Promoting community and competence: The development and evaluation of an international research training network of sexual and gender diverse (SGD) emerging scholars

Craig, S. L., Brooks, A. S., Eaton, A. D., Doll, K., Lozano-Verduzco, I., Pang, N., McInroy, L. B., & McDermott, D. T. (2023). Promoting community and competence: The development and evaluation of an international research training network of sexual and gender diverse (SGD) emerging scholars. Higher Education Research and Development.

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Highlights

Background

• Graduate student success is enhanced by effective supervision, student well-being, institutional support, feelings of belonging in a scholarly community, and access to specialized research training.

• Sexual- and gender-diverse (SGD) emerging scholars may experience isolation, research siloes, and a lack of support, which may increase drop-out rates and negatively impact career trajectories.

• Digital technologies could be leveraged to improve academic and sociocultural support for SGD emerging scholars internationally and develop interdisciplinary scholarly networks and methodological competencies.

International Student Training Network Program development

• A two-year intensive blended learning interdisciplinary research training program delivered in English and Spanish was designed to develop five core research competencies:

  • Culturally competent research with SGD youth

  • Technology-enabled methodologies

  • Mixed-methods data management and analyses

  • Interdisciplinary research

  • Knowledge mobilization

• Eight webinars were planned based on these competencies (Figure 1)

• The core competencies also underpinned a 24-item research competency measure to track competency development over the course of the training program

• The program’s core webinar components were supplemented by in-person conferences and online ‘tea chats’ – each aiming to develop trainee’s presentation skills and scholarly networks

Figure 1: Schedule of ISTN activities and corresponding competency development. Key: (a) culturally competent research with SGD youth; (b) technology-enabled methodologies; (c) mixed-methods data management and analyses; (d) interdisciplinary research; and (e) knowledge mobilization

Study Description

• A mixed-methods sequential explanatory design was used to evaluate the ISTN’s effectiveness in building research competency

• Racially diverse and interdisciplinary trainees were recruited over two cohorts (n = 38) to participate in ISTN, based on the following criteria

  • Incoming or current masters or doctoral students

  • Interested in sexual and gender diverse youth (SGDY) research

  • Fluent in English or Spanish

• The ISTN adopted a participatory action research (PAR) approach in which trainees actively participated in the research process by co-designing competency measurement tools, leading independent research projects, and analyzing this study’s qualitative data

• Trainees completed the competence self-assessment at pre-test, midpoint, and post-test (Table 1), rating their competence on a Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) according to 3 evaluative domains

  • “Importance to my work”

  • “My current knowledge level”

  • “Current skill level”

• Twelve trainees from the first ISTN cohort participated in brief semi-structured qualitative interviews after the ISTN, which were analyzed using thematic analysis

Results

• Self-assessed research competency significantly increased over time in the “My current knowledge level” and “My current skill level” domains, with self-ratings in the “Importance to my work” domain remaining consistently high at each time point

• Thematic analysis yielded three themes

  • “You do stick out a lot”: Fostering SGD Scholarly Community in Academia

    • The contrast of trainees’ feelings of isolation in academia with their feelings of belonging in the ISTN emphasizes the impact of building a networking and mentoring community with like-minded peers who can share their experiences

  • “We were all working together”: Bridging the disciplinary and geographic gaps

    • Trainees identified the importance of open-mindedness to interdisciplinary methods and international collaboration in describing the positive impacts of the ISTN

  • “A transformative experience”: Developing scholarly self-concept and academic self-efficacy

    • Trainees described the ISTN as transforming their worldview, pointing to their growing confidence in their research abilities and a developing scholarly identity related to their improved socialization into academia

Conclusion

This study reinforces the need for graduate programs to provide inclusive extracurricular experiential learning and research opportunities to marginalized students to increase research competence and generate research commitment.

Future implementation should consider the target audience and curriculum scope of programs similar to the ISTN, and should clearly communicate this to applicants; otherwise, participants’ immediate training needs in topics and methodologies relevant to their studies may not be addressed

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