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Youth unemployment, teaching hire-able skills and the duty of a professor

Irving K. Barber Learning Centre at UBCDuring my tenure at The University of British Columbia’s Department of Political Science I taught some of the most applied courses in the undergraduate curriculum. This was partly luck, because the department needed me to teach those types of course, and partly my own design. Even if the courses were theoretical (like Global Environmental Politics, POLI 375A), I always made sure to include a component that was applied (writing policy reports, creating synthetic index cards on policy issues for busy politicians and bureaucrats, researching and synthesizing data and presenting it in the form of a policy memorandum). At CIDE Región Centro, I plan to do the same: build courses that teach employable skills.

Minister @NaomiYamamoto speaking to #POLI350A students on #cdnpse policy #bcpoliAnyone who has taken courses with me (or who has worked with me in any capacity, as a research assistant or as an academic colleague) knows I’m obsessed with providing my students (both undergraduate and graduate) with a set of employable or hire-able skills. I also always invite high-level officials, bureaucrats and politicians to guest lecture in my courses because I know from experience that networking is a key pathway to gaining employment.

In fact, (who you know actually does matter, you know, Granovetter and the strength of weak ties and all that).

While I don’t do research on public policy issues related to the workforce and employment, I know enough from my own experience talking to undergraduate students and graduate who have taken my courses that their main concern is whether they will be able to get a job after graduation. This is not a small nor unwarranted concern. There are plenty of reasons to be worried. From Statistics Canada’s website:

The percentage of all Canadian youth age 15 to 29 that are neither in education nor employment (NEET) has ranged between 12% and 14% over the past decade, a rate that is relatively low among the G7 countries.

In Mexico, people neither in education nor employment (NEET) are designated “NINI” (Ni Estudian Ni Trabajan, an exact translation of the NEET acronym). At CIDE, Dr. Eva Arceo has done some research on NINIs, finding that 28.5% of the total population (8.6 million people) in the bracket are NiNis. Not a promising statistic, if you ask me.

I know that as a professor, I’m judged by the quality of my teaching (whatever that means), the soundness and robustness of my research programme and my contributions to the scholarly community. But I can’t help that even as I transitioned to my current position CIDE Región Centro I remain obsessed with helping my students land jobs. Articles like this thoughtful piece on Canada’s youth employment prospects aren’t helping me feel more at ease about my students’ prospects as they graduate. Neither in Canada nor in Mexico!

You may notice that among the key pieces of advice I give my undergraduate and graduate students is always to network. But networking is not enough. I wonder what else can we do as professors to help our students land jobs. Personally, I think it’s part of our duty as faculty members. Some of my fellow colleagues may disagree with me, and I am open to hearing from all viewpoints.

Maybe I’m obsessed because I have the mentoring ethic of my parents: once you agree to mentor someone, it’s a lifelong contract. Even to this day, I continue to write letters of reference for my former students at UBC and elsewhere. I still work to find ways to connect them to potential sources of employment. For whatever it is worth, I think it’s also part of my job and of the service I owe to my community.

Comments, as always, most welcome.

UPDATE: Below the Storify of my conversation with Edward Carr, Neil Sandell and Marc Bellemare on Twitter.

What employable skills should our students graduate with?

A summary of a conversation prompted by Neil Sandell’s post on The Toronto Star on Canada’s youth unemployment.

Storified by Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega · Sun, Dec 02 2012 07:29:08

As anyone who has known me for a while knows, I am obsessed with providing my students with employable or hire-able skills. I am definitely concerned about youth unemployment because of the several years I spent teaching in Canada and now in Mexico, I have good reasons to be concerned. This morning, I found myself reading Neil Sandell’s post on the bleak prospects for Canadian youth. I have taught hundreds of undergraduate students at UBC, and even though I taught some of the most applied courses (and even though I am not teaching at UBC right now), I never have stopped worrying about this topic. This prompted me to write some preliminary thoughts on what employable skills should our graduates have. I enjoyed a lovely conversation on Twitter with Ed Carr (University of South Carolina), Marc Bellemare (Duke University) and Neil Sandell himself, which I reproduce below.
@raulpacheco Thanks for the shoutout. One 20something I know credits her job in publshing to UBC arts co-op pgm. Co-ops shd be the norm.Neil Sandell
.@youngnjobless Full disclosure, I was a faculty member (and I’m still affiliated faculty) at UBC, might be biased, but UBC-s coop pgm rocksDr Raul Pacheco-Vega
@youngnjobless Two of my best and brightest students, @GlobalByMel and @kimberlyihughes worked doing coop at UBC, they thought it was greatDr Raul Pacheco-Vega
@raulpacheco Hard to gain a full knowledge cross-Can, but is co-op at BC univs a matter of policy? I hear good things about UVic too.Neil Sandell
@youngnjobless Not sure to be quite honest. #UVic’s coop program is also very good. I always encouraged my students to go coop route :)Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega
Below are the reactions and contributions of Ed Carr and Marc Bellemare.
@raulpacheco Really interesting post-we’re struggling with this in my dept right now as we retool the undergrad major…1/2Ed Carr
@raulpacheco Mostly we fail at undergrad education because we treat it too much like "grad light", w/o skills non-grads need 2/2Ed Carr
.@raulpacheco What skills do you try to make sure your undergrads leave with? @SlaughterAM @mfbellemare @Calestous @loomnieEd Carr
.@edwardrcarr Policy analysis, empirical data understanding as @mfbellemare aptly mentions, sound reasoning, writing skills, etc?Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega
.@edwardrcarr @SlaughterAM @mfbellemare @Calestous @loomnie I teach them how to write policy memos, policy reports and informational cardsDr Raul Pacheco-Vega
.@edwardrcarr @SlaughterAM @mfbellemare @Calestous @loomnie I also teach them how to do policy analysis *the Bardach methodDr Raul Pacheco-Vega
.@mfbellemare @edwardrcarr @SlaughterAM @Calestous @loomnie my post provides additional context on what skills I teach http://www.raulpacheco.org/2012/12/youth-unemployment-teaching-hire-able-skills-and-the-duty-of-a-professor/Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega
@edwardrcarr Thanks! That phenomenon ("grad light") is what I am trying to avoid. I want employable folks, not eternal grad students :)Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega
@raulpacheco Exactly! But that said, I’m not sure what skills a development-oriented undergrad should have…Ed Carr
@edwardrcarr @raulpacheco @SlaughterAM @Calestous @loomnie I want them to intuitively understand quantitative empirical results. (1/2)Marc F. Bellemare
@edwardrcarr @raulpacheco @SlaughterAM @Calestous @loomnie Then critical thinking–ability to disentangle causality from correlation (2/2).Marc F. Bellemare
@raulpacheco @edwardrcarr @SlaughterAM @Calestous @loomnie And yes, I too insist on their writing skills. Worst thing is losing your reader.Marc F. Bellemare
@raulpacheco @mfbellemare @SlaughterAM @Calestous @loomnie Thanks all – this is very useful. Need to make this actionable for my program…Ed Carr

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By Raul Pacheco-Vega – December 2, 2012

Quick reflections on what I have learned this semester

This term has been incredibly instructive. Since moving from UBC Vancouver to CIDE Region Centro in Aguascalientes I have had the opportunity to start developing a number of research questions I had wanted to examine for a long time. I will fully admit that I am enjoying a full year of teaching release (2012-2013), a privilege that definitely has paid off (at UBC I had a 2-1-2 teaching load). Though I love teaching, being able to focus solely on research is giving my research programme a big boost.

I decided to write some quick notes on what I have learned this semester (it’s only November so technically I am not supposed to be taking stock before Christmas, but I don’t want to risk forgetting – you know, the myth of the forgetful professor is sometimes quite true!)

I) Don’t be afraid to test your preliminary thoughts in seminars and academic conferences

My research programme has matured quite a bit, I believe, because I have had the opportunity to test some of my preliminary thoughts at conferences and seminars. I used to be of the mind that you could ONLY present fully completed projects at seminars, I no longer do this. I have received some excellent feedback at early stages of my research projects and it’s been a good year to launch new projects. Three of my current projects were launched this year, precisely because of positive feedback I received at conferences last year. And other three projects received very good commentaries that helped me refine the research question.

II) Use conferences and seminars as drivers to encourage you to write

This 2012 I have written more preliminary drafts of papers than I had in previous years (I’ve drafted 8 papers and submitted 2 for peer review), and the main driver behind all this writing has been the fact that I promised to deliver a paper at a conference or seminar. Having a firm deadline to present some research findings, even if at an early stage, has prompted me to write more. For example, I was invited to present a paper at a seminar on transboundary water governance earlier this year. I had always been interested on delving more (after having published a journal article on this topic last year) on delving more into transboundary water conflict in North America, so I was forced to write down my thoughts even if in preliminary form simply because I needed an outline of what I was going to talk about (and prepare the slides for the talk!).

III) Use the feedback from conferences and seminars to polish your thoughts and refine your thinking

I used to be of the mind that recycling one’s thoughts was a big “no-no”. I rarely presented the same paper or gave the same talk at different conferences. This year, I have experimented with using consecutive seminars and conferences to refine parts of my project. After each academic event, I summarize what lessons I have learned from feedback I receive, and use it to polish my next talk. But I never give exactly the same talk.

For example, early this year I presented the preliminary outline of my research design for the comparative analysis of Latin American waste pickers’ behaviour at CALACS. I then used CALACS’ feedback to improve my talk and expand the analysis from three to four countries. Then at the research seminar I coordinate at CIDE, I presented a cross-regional comparison of conflict dynamics between Mexican waste pickers and their municipal governments, examining two cities as case studies (Leon and Aguascalientes). This paper will be a component of the book I am writing and of the larger, multi-country, multi-city project I am leading. Presenting cross-linked components of the same project at various conferences enabled me to refine my thinking process and fine tune the research strategy.

IV) Building original datasets counts as research output

While I have conducted field research for more than a decade, I often forget that one of the ways in which we can contribute to a body of knowledge is to build original datasets. For my dissertation, I collected data on that nobody else had had access to: an original dataset of number of inspections that PROFEPA (the Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection) had done to industry polluters. Nobody had accessed that kind of data nor had they assembled plant-level inspection data the way I did. And that’s original research and an original contribution. Somehow, after receiving my PhD, I seemed to forget that building a dataset is indeed a great contribution. And now, with the help of several of my students and colleagues I am building new original databases. This should (and does, for CIDE) count as research output.

V) Write every day. Every. Single. Day.

I have taken heed of the advice that 3 academic coaches will tell you (particularly if you are a young, up-and-coming, rising star) that you need to write EVERY DAY. Even if for 15 minutes, write every day. I have used, as I mention above, invited seminars and conferences, as drivers to force me to write draft papers. It also helped that I had already planned to participate in #AcWriMo, and that I knew I needed my book to be sent out for peer review before the end of the year. I also decided that *any* generative writing was good writing (e.g. any writing that moves me forward), rather than punish myself for not writing every day something related to a research article.

VI) Encourage interdisciplinary collaborations

I have always believe in collaborative work. At the core of my research programme is collaboration, in fact. I am currently co-authoring a paper with Aldo Ponce from CIDE’s Political Studies Division, and most of my 2012 production is collaborative. This is relatively new for me, as I used to want to do single-authored papers. But I now have been consolidating a research programme in intractable water problems, and I have had to force myself to learn to be more collaborative (e.g. with a broader variety of co-authors). The outcome has been stellar.

VII) Believe in people, trust people.

This is one of the biggest insights I have gained from I hired 3.5 research assistants (well, 4 but one is shared) and I just had to basically learn to trust them and guide them with little to no micro-management. I just tell my RAs (and student co-authors) “this is what I need, and you go ahead and do it“. I’ve been rewarded as I have been able to generate much more research output by just providing guidelines and trusting my RAs and collaborators that they will know how to .

VIII) Map out your research trajectory and research plan in advance

Towards the end of last week, I was asked to provide my Research Plan for 2013 and my Research Trajectory 2013-2016. Plotting a research trajectory requires in-depth thinking and organizing. The final output was a 20 page, single-spaced page document that helped me a lot to visualize where I am going intellectually and scholarly. I also have been jotting down little bits and details on the actual research process (e.g. budgeting issues – how much can I pay a research assistant, how much would I need to pay for transcription time, how many interviews per day can the research assistant conduct, etc.) This reflective process has been extremely helpful to refine my research interests and trajectory statement as well.

IX) Have a handbook of handwritten notes on your research.

Some people call this a “project notebook”, and I now have one. I basically write everything (which papers I am planning to write, which collaborations I am mapping out, etc) now by hand.

All of these reflections are specific to me, so I don’t want to generalize any lessons, or trends. But this is an insight I have gained during this term.

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By Raul Pacheco-Vega – November 23, 2012

#IGiveAShit, The global politics of sanitation and #WorldToiletDay 2012 #WTD2012

Telling anyone (even some of your academic peers) that you specialize in doing scholarly work on the global politics of sanitation and the governance of wastewater is sometimes the surest way to make people chuckle and laugh. When I first shared the news about World Toilet Day (organized by the World Toilet Organization and endorsed by numerous international organizations) to my colleagues (I’ve been writing about World Toilet Day since last year, but I have done scholarly work on the social science of wastewater since 2004, and actual engineering work on wastewater treatment since much longer) the vast majority couldn’t contain a muffled laugh.

What is not to laugh is the sheer size of the wastewater and sanitation problem.



120926 Poster WTD A3 smaller

World Toilet Day is observed annually on 19 November. This international day of action aims to break the taboo around toilets and draw attention to the global sanitation challenge.

Can you imagine not having a toilet? Can you imagine not having privacy when you need to relieve yourself? Although unthinkable for those living in wealthy parts of the world, this is a harsh reality for many – in fact, one in three people on this globe, does not have access to a toilet! Have you ever thought about the true meaning of dignity?

World Toilet Day was created to pose exactly these kind of questions and to raise global awareness of the daily struggle for proper sanitation that a staggering 2.5 billion people face.

World Toilet Day brings together different groups, such as media, the private sector, development organisations and civil society in a global movement to advocate for safe toilets. Since its inception in 2001, World Toilet Day has become an important platform to demand action from governments and to reach out to wider audiences by showing that toilets can be fun and sexy as well as vital to life.

What follows below is a couple of paragraphs of the introduction to my (forthcoming) book on networked governance of wastewater. It is also the justification of why I am so keen on spreading the word about World Toilet Day: Because #IGiveAShit (yes, that’s the hashtag that the World Toilet Day folks are using – and yes, it’s a funny play on words – I do care deeply about sanitation, and below is just part of the reason why).

2.9 billion people worldwide do not have access to a toilet (George 2010). 894 million people lack access to safe water (World Water Assessment Project 2011). 2.5 billion people live without proper sanitation and 1.1 billion still defecate in the open (Joint Monitoring Programme 2012). Wastewater, and more importantly, human waste (carried through using fresh water) is still a taboo topic. People get excited about water, and worried about water abundance. Strangely enough, they don’t really think about wastewater, much less about how different the challenges from governing wastewater are with respect to governing freshwater or groundwater. This is what drives my research. I want to ensure that I bring the invisible forth.

Today 2.5 billion people, including almost one billion children, live without even basic sanitation. Every 20 seconds, a child dies as a result of poor sanitation. That’s 1.5 million preventable deaths each year (WWSC 2012). There are substantial economic gains to be made from investing in sanitation and water, estimated at US $170 billion per year. According to the Sanitation and Water for All initiative, if everyone had access to sanitation and water, the global health sector would save around US $15 billion every year. Still, despite the huge economic and health gains that could be made from paying enough attention to wastewater systems and implementing appropriate technologies, worldwide sanitation remains one of the most controversial taboo topics in public policy literature and as a result, policy sciences’ body of work suffers from a “culture of flushing” (Benidickson 2007).

I want to ensure that the culture of flushing is no longer the norm but the exception. I am not all that interested in “the exciting, the new”. I am interested in innovative projects, in cutting-edge, state-of-the-art scholarship. Understanding how to govern wastewater is precisely state-of-the-art thinking. Knowing the broad variety of ways in which governing freshwater is completely different from managing effluents has huge policy implications: it enables us to strengthen public health processes. It enhances our ability to prevent waterborne diseases. Learning how to govern wastewater enables us to close the hydrological cycle, and really take a systemic view of water that goes beyond traditional, engineering-based, uni-disciplinary approaches. Governing wastewater is one of the best ways to learn to govern ourselves.

World Toilet DayI am actually quite surprised about the amount of coverage that World Toilet Day is getting. Definitely not in small amount due to the sheer power of social media. I’ll credit the folks at @WorldToilet and @WorldToiletDay for engaging in a very solid social media campaign to raise awareness (funny and engaging). Credit is due too to Matt Damon for helping raise awareness about the global sanitation crisis. In a world where we haven’t solved yet the sanitation crisis, it’s important not to forget that not everybody has access to a toilet, to proper infrastructure.

#IGiveAShit. So should you. Join the many initiatives worldwide to raise awareness and try to solve the sanitation crisis.

A few resources:

– Toilet Twinning (Twitter) A charity to help improve sanitation in Africa and/or Asia

2.6 billion people don’t have access to a loo. You can link yours with one in Africa or Asia & help flush away poverty. From UK based charities Cord & Tearfund

– Toilet Hackers (Twitter)- Organizers of the Sanitation Hackathon.
“Hacking the world’s toilet crisis to improve access to sanitation and hygiene for 2.5 billion people”

– World Toilet Day 2012 coverage on Twitter (#IGiveAShit, #WTD2012, #WorldToiletDay)

– The Public Toilet: (Twitter)

Use The Public Toilet to raise awareness for the 1.1 billion who cannot go in private. Add your face from Nov 17 2012 at http://www.thepublictoilet.com.

Note:
Canadian and Mexican media (and worldwide media): I will make myself available this weekend and also on World Toilet Day (this coming Monday, November 19th) to discuss the global sanitation crisis and why thinking about toilets should matter.

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By Raul Pacheco-Vega – November 17, 2012

November is Academic Writing Month #AcWriMo (formerly Academic Book Writing Month, #AcBoWriMo)

acwrimo1-01-300x114A few years ago, I thought of using NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, which happens in November) as a driver to force me to complete my academic books (all four of which are at various stages of publication at the moment). Like it happens with almost anything, someone else thought of this idea too (PhD2Published, by Charlotte Frost), and a couple of years ago, if I’m not mistaken, this notion was formalized as AcBoWriMo (Academic Book Writing Month) and now, from what I read on Dr. Anna Tarrant’s blog, it’s going to be AcWriMo (Academic Writing Month).

While I don’t have an actual full academic/scholarly book to write and finish in a month (I have 3 proposals by academic presses wanting me to write textbooks, but I don’t think I’m going to go that route this November 2012), I do have a few journal articles that need to get out, so I’m going to join and would encourage you to join as well. 50,000 words is not a lot if you think about it and if you can focus enough.

I find that the toughest part of writing academic prose is not so much the willingness to just drop thoughts on paper (or on online documents), but editing and refining. Also, keeping myself accountable for word count and how much writing I am going to get done in a month. For me, participating in AcWriMo will probably mean that those journal articles my co-authors were expecting to get out for peer review *sometime* will actually be out *end of November 2012*. I think that’s a win-win situation!

My goal for AcWriMo 2012 is to get 8 journal articles out for peer review during November 2012. This may sound crazy, but from my previous experience, it is something I can achieve. Also, one of my books needs to be in press by then.

What are your crazy goals for AcWriMo?

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By Raul Pacheco-Vega – October 21, 2012

A virtual tour of CIDE Region Centro in Aguascalientes

CIDE Region Centro (Aguascalientes)CIDE’s new campus in Aguascalientes (CIDE Region Centro) has been in operation for only a year, yet its faculty has grown to 15 professors already (between Assistant, Associate, Full and Visiting), with already 2 cohorts of the Government and Public Finance programme (1st year and 2nd year, undergraduate) taking courses already. I encourage you to read through our English-language website and explore the broad diversity of research and teaching we do.

CIDE Region Centro (Aguascalientes, Ags)

CIDE Region Centro (Aguascalientes, Ags, Mexico)From the moment I arrived I have been taking a number of photographs of the CIDE Region Centro campus in Aguascalientes. You will notice our library is in its early stages, but it will grow to be THE premier library and information repository in central Mexico. While the campus is young, we already have enough equipment to offer short courses, seminars, and diploma degrees through videoconference and satellite communication.

Our mission and intent is not only to engage in high-quality, ground-breaking scholarly research, but also to ensure that our work has a profound positive impact in the quality of life of Aguascalientes’ population (not only the city, where CIDE Region Centro’s campus is located, but also the entire state and the surrounding states as a region). Early on, CIDE Region Centro has engaged in 2 main broad research programmes: Regional Studies and Drug Policy.

CIDE Region Centro (Aguascalientes)

Naturally, given my scholarly interests, my work fits directly with the the Regional Studies programme, although there are some interesting applications of environmental studies to the drug policy field.

CIDE Region Centro (Aguascalientes)

We have a number of excellent professors from across all 6 Divisions of CIDE: Aldo Ponce, from Political Studies; Kurt Unger, David Juárez, Héctor Nuñez and Rafael Garduño from Economics, Alejandro Anaya from International Studies, Catalina Pérez Correa and Alejandro Madrazo from Law Studies, Adriana Luna (currently on scholarly leave) from History, and Rodrigo Velazquez, Salvador Espinosa, Gabriel Purón and yours truly (Raul Pacheco-Vega) from Public Administration.

CIDE Region Centro (Aguascalientes, Ags, Mexico)

We also have 2 visiting professors (Rodolfo Garcia who is here on sabbatical from the Public Administration Division at CIDE Santa Fe in Mexico City and Beatriz Labate, a visiting assistant professor directly hired for the Drug Policy Programme).

CIDE Region Centro (Aguascalientes)

CIDE Region Centro (Aguascalientes, Ags, Mexico)

Our work could not be done without a number of excellent research assistants, program managers and administrative staff who provide the support functions that we require.

CIDE Region Centro (Aguascalientes)

CIDE Region Centro (Aguascalientes)

CIDE Region Centro (Aguascalientes, Ags, Mexico)Faculty offices are equipped with just about everything you may need as a new faculty member to develop your research agenda. We also have shared spaces with desks for our research assistants and program managers. In the future, as our graduate programme develops, we will also have shared desk space for Masters and PhD students.

CIDE Region Centro (Aguascalientes, Ags)

This professor works with 3 computers (tablet, laptop, desktop). Nephews photos for motivation and inspiration :)

If you are in (or plan to visit) Mexico, I strongly encourage you to come pay us a visit at CIDE Region Centro. You can view my entire photo set of the CIDE Region Centro campus on Flickr.

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By Raul Pacheco-Vega – October 6, 2012

Celebrating World Teachers Day 2012: On why I teach

Sadly, there is no World Professors Day, but there is World Teachers Day, so I figured I would dust off a couple of blog posts that were published on my personal site, but are definitely worth revisiting. The first one mentions the reasons behind my love of teaching.

Communities That Rock: Creating Kick-Ass Online CommunitiesI began teaching at UBC in 2006, although I took a little break around 2008. When I came back to teach at The University of British Columbia a few years ago (I teach in the department of Political Science, at the undergraduate level), a whole new world re-opened. Not teaching for a little while, I had completely forgotten how fulfilling teaching is for me. I teach not because I *have* to but because I love it.
Continued…

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By Raul Pacheco-Vega – October 5, 2012

Announcing Early Career Chat #ECRChat for the Western hemisphere Thursdays 11am PST

I have written extensively before about how important mentorship is to me, and about how social media can be used by academics to advance their careers. On top of my (already crazy busy) research agenda, I have taken on the challenge of hosting #ECRChat (Early Career Researcher Chat) on Twitter on Thursdays at 11am Pacific Standard Time for the Western hemisphere. #ECRChat was initiated by Katie Wheat and Hazel Ferguson, and their chat is attended by Australian and UK researchers. Because of the time difference, it is difficult to contribute to those discussions, so I volunteered to host for the Western hemisphere (e.g. the Americas and a few other countries).

RPV Twitter Profile

#ECRchat is a global weekly discussion for the early career researcher community via twitter. The chat is intended mainly for the discussion of post-PhD career issues and we welcome anyone who is interested, who has questions, or who has advice to share. We hope that PhD students, postdocs, and junior faculty will all benefit from the advice and resources collected here. We would also love to hear advice and questions from those who have left (or are considering leaving) academia, and from senior faculty, including those who advise PhD students and other ECRs.

Normally, #ECRChat hosts and topics are announced weeks in advance, but since this is my first week as the organizer of #ECRChat for the western hemisphere, I’ll probably be the one hosting. Hopefully we will see you on Thursday September 13th at 1pm PST on Twitter! If you do have a topic in mind and/or want to be a guest host, please by all means drop a comment on the blog or contact me via email.

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By Raul Pacheco-Vega – September 10, 2012

On the importance of fieldwork for empirical research in public policy

While I acknowledge myself as a multi-methods scholar, and I have done quantitative work, much of my empirical work involves qualitative data. Conducting structured and semi-structured interviews, engaging in participant observation, and running focus groups, are all forms of qualitative research. My work studying the Lerma-Chapala river basin council involved sitting in dozens of meetings of the river basin council, listening to participants, collecting field notes and (later) analyzing them looking for specific patterns (see for an example Pacheco-Vega 2011a).

Linea Verde (Aguascalientes, Ags)

I recently participated in a field visit to the Linea Verde in Aguascalientes, in the context of the National Prize for Local Government Effectiveness (I’m loosely translating here – you can read more about the Premio Gobierno y Gestion Local here, in Spanish). The local government of Aguascalientes (and their project, Linea Verde, which translates as “green line” and is a 6 km linear park intended to provide more green spaces for recreational activities in impoverished urban areas) is a finalist in the 2012 competition for the PGGL.

Linea Verde (Aguascalientes, Ags)

I joined a group of experts who undertake the assessment for PGGL and participated in the walk-through on site. Obviously, I expected government officials to provide the official version of what the project was intended for, and how successful it was. But what really stood out for me was that a number of people (in particular, 2 women who live in the area) recognized the substantial positive impact this project had had. None of them knew our group was there to undertake a field assessment of the project and its success, but by virtue of conversing with us, they provided us with insight we would have not had otherwise. I would have been unable to see elements of the project that were relevant to my own research (like the fact that the park uses only treated wastewater for irrigation) had I not gone on the field.

Linea Verde (Aguascalientes, Ags)

A fellow professor (and strangely, a more senior scholar than me) asked me why do I often go on the field with my own students, and my answer was “to show them how to conduct fieldwork the right way… that’s what I am supposed to be doing; otherwise, how would they know how to conduct an interview?.

I am taking on more work and projects and obviously, at some point I won’t be able to do as much fieldwork as I want to (and my graduate students will probably be doing the bulk of the work on the field), but a scholar who values his/her research I think should engage in fieldwork at least once a year. I am not sure I can take someone who does empirical research that involves qualitative data who does not go on the field him/herself seriously.

I think that public policy is one of those scholarly areas where fieldwork is essential. You can’t seriously assess the impact a program or a policy has had only by running sophisticated mathematical models. These do provide great insight, admittedly (and I love mathematical modelling, to be quite honest). But I think field assessments are essential to our systematic study of public policy implementation and evaluation. My own work is very much based on field assessments (see for example Pacheco-Vega, Weibust and Fox 2010) and I plan to continue working along these lines.

Hat tips to Rhonda Ragsdale for sharing this guide to field notes, very relevant to what I’m discussing here.

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By Raul Pacheco-Vega – September 8, 2012

Advice for my #UBC would-be students as you come back to school

When I announced publicly that I had left UBC Political Science to take up a position at CIDE Region Centro, I received some of the most amazing and positive feedback. Everyone who knew me at UBC (either because they were my colleagues, or because they took a course with me, or because they heard great things about my teaching and my courses) felt sad that I was leaving UBC but happy for me in my new position.

I will fully admit to feeling incredibly torn, particularly because I promised a number of my former students (and numerous would-be students) that they would get another chance at taking a course with me (either because they wanted to earn the famous “I Survived X Courses With Dr. Pacheco-Vega” diploma, or simply because they enjoyed my teaching style). On the topic of the Pacheco-Vega course survival diploma, all of you who earned it, I have it with me, so I’ll give it to you next time I’m in Vancouver, or I will mail it to you, gladly.

I felt torn because on the one hand, I wanted to take up this amazing position (and at the same time, be physically and geographically closer to my parents), but on the other hand, I did not want to leave my students behind. I would have paid good money to be able to clone myself just so that those students I promised they’d be able to take another course with me would be able to do so.

Thus, in the spirit of the back-to-school day, here are some pieces of advice I give my students every beginning of the year, in one way or another.

1. Work hard. All the time. This piece of advice seems kind of ridiculous, since we are talking about undergraduate students at one of the most prestigious universities in Canada, but it has been my experience that when the pressures of work (most of my undergraduate students at UBC worked part- or full-time to pay for their own studies) and extracurricular commitments, school work often takes a second seat. Don’t do that. We (professors) will notice you are slacking and we will not appreciate it. Particularly if (like me) we put in so much work into our teaching.

2. Remember you’re human. Take time off. This would sound a bit contradictory since I just told you to work hard. But as the saying goes, “no play makes Jack/Jill dull”. It’s so true. Take time off. Go for a walk. Sit down and enjoy the (rather non-existent for most of the year, in Vancouver) sunshine.

3. Talk to your professors. We are here for you. REALLY. Some people (including a couple of students) criticized me for my personal approach to teaching. I often reminded my students that I, too, was human and that I understood when they were facing challenges, because *I* had been facing challenges in the past three years too. But I always felt validated when students of mine would approach me to ask for my opinion, or mentorship, even when it meant that they needed to open up about some very personal stuff. I felt privileged that they would approach me for advice, and I did the best I could to help. I am sure that most of my fellow faculty members, while incredibly busy, will always understand that life happens and you should be prepared to talk to your professors and be honest when you are struggling. There is an entire system built around helping you succeed. And our goal, as your professors (mine, most certainly!) is to help you succeed.

4. Take courses you find relevant/interesting/useful, not courses you need to earn the 3 credits or boost your grades. I always joked with my students on the first day of class that I completely understood if they took my courses because they needed the 3 credits. I made them work incredibly hard, and they realized after the fact that they were in fact learning, a lot, about public policy (and/or environmental politics). Take the courses you think will put you in a better position to face working life after graduation.

5. Use your courses to build your skills. My courses are, for the most part, very applied. Public Policy taught my students how to undertake policy analysis, and I made them do applied research and write policy-analytical memos. By providing them with opportunities to take on real-world problems and tackle them in the safe environment of a classroom, I was able to enhance their self-confidence in their abilities to write stuff that policy makers would want to read. You can do the same: use every course (whether it’s theory, or methods) to enhance the skills that you will need come graduation. I always say to my students that I teach them employable skills, and for the most part, I think they realize that this is the case.

6. Get involved in student life. I have been lucky to have amongst my students former Presidents of the Alma Mater Society, VicePresidents of AMS, Presidents of the Arts Undergraduate Society, and many other participants in student life. This is one of the things that will enrich both your life and your resume. Make sure you participate in committees/student groups where you can see yourself working as a professional. This will enable you to build great skills towards the future.

7. Learn to work in groups. That IS how we work in postgraduation life. Some of my students were dismayed to find that I required of them to work in teams. After all, there’s always the fear of someone not picking up their own weight and work together. But I think for the most part, my students have always been able to work together and some of them have built long-lasting friendships after those team projects. And that’s how real life works: we work in teams, we don’t work alone (even us, academics!).

8. Network, network, network. I will fully admit that the minute I learned that over 45% of the Spaniard youth (18-25) is unemployed, according to a Spaniard professor I chatted with on the bus as I was heading to the university a couple of years ago, I freaked out. I have had hundreds of students in my years at UBC and elsewhere, and I always have taught courses that build employable/hireable skills. And I maintain a close connection with my former students as many of them approach me to write them letters of reference, so I have my fingers on the pulse of how the job market is. And I know it’s tough. So, whenever given an opportunity, NETWORK! Talk to guest lecturers in courses, participate in seminars, lectures and open events, conferences, etc. Always make sure to introduce yourself, and carry business cards (even if you are still an undergraduate, it never hurts to present a professional appearance).

On that note, and this is very much for my former students, both graduated and still at UBC: remember I’m always only as far away as a tweet, a Facebook wall post, or an email. I may not be in Vancouver physically, but I will *always* be your professor, and you can always count on me if you need me.

Enjoy your first day back to school for the 2012-2013 academic year!

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By Raul Pacheco-Vega – September 4, 2012

Using the #ScholarSunday hashtag as a #FollowFriday for academics

I’ve never been a fan of the #FollowFriday hashtag, as it often reads like a popularity contest.

Have you seen a tweet including #FollowFriday (or #ff shortened) and a list of user names preceded by the @ symbol? This tradition was born spontaneously within the Twitter community to recommend your favorite tweeps to your followers.

It occurred to me a few months ago that I do, in fact, want to recommend academics to follow, simply because I think their tweets are informative. Also, because I follow my own students (former students, as this 2012-2013 I’m not teaching), and they follow me too, often they may also choose to follow some of the academics, graduate students, professors and alike that I do follow.

So why #ScholarSunday? Simply for two facts. First, because Sunday is the only day I have to sit down and relax, and take some time to review who I follow, and second, because Sunday has the same first letter as scholar (much like other hashtags, #TravelTuesday, #WineWednesday and #FoodFriday or #FollowFriday). Simple mnemonic trick.

I do encourage you, if you are an academic, to use the #ScholarSunday hashtag to recommend some new Twitter users to your followers. I follow scholars in a very broad range of disciplines, from neuroscience to digital history, and I have learned a lot from them. Perhaps you will, too.

Posted in bridging academia and practice.

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By Raul Pacheco-Vega – September 2, 2012