When Research Becomes Relationship
Internationalizing higher education often relies on quantifiable outcomes, such as student exchange numbers, global curriculum metrics, and the like. However, faculty at LAU’s School of Arts and Sciences presented a compelling alternative to this narrative in Supporting International Writing Studies Research: Cultivating Capacity through International Exchanges.
Between 2016 and 2018, the LAU Writing Center (LAUWC), directed by Senior Instructor Paula Habre at the time, set out to partner with Northeastern University Writing Center (NUWC) to conduct a formal study on how the pressures of globalizing higher education affect the daily work of writing tutors, with a particular focus on supporting students who speak multiple languages.
In coordination with NUWC Director Belinda Walzer, the research initially intended to use qualitative research methods to explore questions about tutor training based on specific data collected and analyzed from sessions.
However, their planned research soon proved that the most significant result of their collaboration lay not in the set of data, but rather the working relationship and space they built, termed “collaboratory”—a blend between “collaboration” and “laboratory.”
The collaboratory rested on building a long-term, supportive partnership as a valuable form of scholarly inquiry and professional practice. Moving away from traditional discovery and reporting facts, the LAUWC and NUWC directors prioritized the exchange of ideas, mutual learning and deepening their understanding of their approaches to their fields.
Through this lens, Habre and Walzer were able to conduct interactions between the two centers through joint online tutor training workshops, blog discussions and regular communication, which resulted in mutual support, the sharing of challenges, and the “solidarity across differences in our writing centers,” they said in a shared statement.
Although they diverged from conducting the data-driven research initially proposed to the International Researchers Consortium (IRC) due to the practical realities of their roles as full-time teaching faculty with heavy administrative duties, what emerged as the primary takeaway from this experience was “the value of sharing the mutual concerns that gave rise to our initial research questions in the first place,” they added.
To articulate the value of what they had created, the authors turned to a theoretical framework known as “post-qualitative inquiry,” which posits that research is performative in the way it actively creates new understandings and relationships through the process of inquiry itself.
In their chapter, titled “Boston to Beirut: Understanding an International Writing Center Collaboratory through Post-Qualitative Inquiry”, both authors elaborated on their discovery of unexpected similarities in the challenges they faced, particularly in juggling the need for Standard Academic English and the importance of respecting and valuing their students’ multilingual abilities.
One tutor from Beirut, for instance, remarked that the collaboration resembled building bridges and emphasized the writing center’s function in promoting civil discourse, a skill they saw as vital in their community. Another noted that the open communication between the centers allowed tutors to reassess their footing and gain knowledge from each other’s experiences.
These interactions helped to foster a sense of solidarity and show tutors that they were part of a global community of practice grappling with similar issues, thereby leading to tangible changes in both writing centers.
Ultimately, by transcending its professional origins, the collaboration evolved into a support network at a time when both institutions were actively seeking global partnerships. The initiative provided a strategic opening for further collaboration and networking.