8 Professional Support
Professional Development
In the Inclusive Education Research Lab we are committed to supporting your professional growth and progress. This includes sharing relevant opportunities for professional development (e.g., workshops or conferences). This includes the Open Education Conference, the Open Education Global conference, the OER conference, the TESS conference, and the annual conference of the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, and workshops offered by groups such as Brock University’s Digital Scholarship Lab and Centre for Pedagogical Innovation.
With the major professional conferences within our field we will share calls for proposals and submission deadlines, provide feedback on draft conference proposals, and (when funding permits), support costs for you to attend conferences where we will also help you to network and grow your professional community.
We will provide guidance and support throughout the publication process. This includes helping identify professional journals that may be a good fit to publish your work. We will share relevant calls for proposals from journals/professional societies and provide feedback on manuscript drafts.
Lab members have also benefited greatly from the Open Education Research Fellowship and membership in the Global OER Graduate Network. We will share calls from these groups and other relevant funding opportunities (e.g., scholarships, grants, or other awards) within the lab’s Microsoft Teams group.
Mentorship
The Inclusive Education Research Lab is dedicated to fostering the professional growth of our members through mentorship and other campus-based opportunities. Our commitment to lab members’ professional success is built on decolonial principles of knowledge sharing, which means that all lab members — regardless of academic level — contribute to our intellectual endeavors. Our mentorship model is non-hierarchical and recognizes that knowledge is historically rooted, socially shared, and built on in research studies. As our lab is home to an interdisciplinary and intersectional group of researchers, members will have mentorship opportunities that pertain to their particular research interests or goals.
Your fellow lab members are eager to provide personalized guidance to help you 1) become integrated into broader research networks, 2) identify and access training opportunities within your respective discipline(s) or field(s) of interest, 3) shape your research ideas and potential projects. Our mentorship model encourages you to schedule meetings with fellow lab members to explore research questions of interest and potential future directions. If you are looking to schedule a meeting with a particular individual, you may coordinate this meeting using one of our communication channels (Microsoft Teams or your Brock Email). There will also be opportunities for group input and feedback at our monthly lab meetings. Please inform the Lab Manager or Lab Director a week prior so that your inquiry or topic can be put on the meeting agenda.
In addition to the lab’s mentorship opportunities, we also encourage you to avail of on-campus resources that will help you navigate your research or professional journey. Some of the departments available to assist you are:
- The Office of Research Services
- Brock University Library’s Research Supports
- The Center for Pedagogical Innovation
- Mentorship and workshop opportunities through the Black Student Success Centre, Hadiya’dagénhahs, the Student Justice Centre, and many more.
Letters of Recommendation
When needed Dr. Jhangiani will support your applications with a letter of recommendation. If you require a letter of recommendation from Dr. Jhangiani, please do the following:
- Notify us of the need for the letter as soon as possible, including the deadline, submission process, and any relevant criteria for the adjudication process
- If the letter is to support a research fellowship or grant, include a draft of your research proposal or goals
- Share an up-to-date copy of your cv
- Provide at least 3 weeks notice, when possible
- Provide a reminder of the deadline about a week before it arrives
- In some cases you may be asked to draft relevant sections of the letter (e.g., summarizing your past research experience or other achievements) for Dr. Jhangiani to work from (he will usually need to adapt these to overcome the natural humility and awkwardness that students experience when writing about themselves).
- Inform Dr. Jhangiani of the outcome of your application (either way) as our support for your application and work will not cease upon submission of the letter of recommendation