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Glenn:

Good for you for pushing the boundaries!

Iris Totten and I came up with “geocognition” for this exact reason, plus the fact that the work many of us do is not simply housed in traditional educational spaces (although education can occur anywhere) nor is it always focused on teaching/learning. I tend to speak about my work as geocognition or “at the intersection of human dimensions and earth science”. Generally, the level of interest over geocognition or human dimensions is much higher than over GER. Do I think that is fair? No – I value all work. Sadly, not everyone agrees that pedagogical research or research on people is as valuable as traditional science. Personally, I see this work as belonging to the disciplines as much as anything else. My colleague who does geomicrobiology? He’s a geologist and a biologist and an oceanographer. He still has PhDs in the Earth and Environmental Sciences.

Have you shared the papers in the Geosphere Human Dimensions theme? Since you have a paper and since these are quite broad and might be persuasive:
https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/geosphere/pages/humandimen

I can’t answer to your other question about impacts on geoscience – although, I did ultimately write a paper that appeared in Tectonophysics because of my working out how best to teach geoid anomalies in a geophysics course.

Best of luck! Let me know if I can help in any way. My students get PhDs in the Dept of Earth and Environmental Science, and I know many other folks also have DBER PhDs run through the science department as well. So, this is not an uncommon occurrence (as you know!). I’m happy to discuss more in person or provide other guidance 😊

Julie

Julie Libarkin
Professor
Director - Geocognition Research Lab
Michigan State University
288 Farm Lane, 206 Natural Science
East Lansing, MI 48824

Phone: 517-355-8369
Email: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Website: https://geocognitionresearchlaboratory.wordpress.com/



From: Glenn Dolphin <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: Glenn Dolphin <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tuesday, August 7, 2018 at 12:35 PM
To: "[log in to unmask]" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Where GER has impacted traditional geoscience


Hi all.

I am in the process of trying to convince my Department of Geosciences to welcome a geoscience education research specialization for a Ph.D. awarded by the department. This has been an uphill battle and one of the reasons seems to be that GER is not considered by many in the department as traditional geoscience (by the bye, geophysics was in the same boat through the 1930s to 1950s and look at it now). Anyway, during one extended discussion, I made the supposition that GER had in some instances probably advanced the field of geoscience and said that I would do some research to see if this was, in fact, the case.



So, I am reaching out to those who may have some knowledge of this. Have there been cases, published research where a GER project actually advanced traditional geoscience?



Another thought I am having is that the phrase "education research" in GER is also a bit of a stumbling block as some of my colleagues continue to point out that "if it is education research, it belongs in the school of education." "It's only pedagogical studies." "It's only done by people who want to be better teachers, so why not just create a certificate program?"



Anyway, this is a much larger discussion, but I bring it up now as an idea for which I am seeking feedback. Might dressing the discipline a bit differently help with its acceptance in traditionalist environments? I was thinking of a name change from geoscience education research to geoscience cognition research or geocognition research (credit to Julie Libarkin's group for the name). I was thinking that since we are really studying the interface of geology and the mind,  how people think about geology, learn in geology, do geology, this may be more accurate while still acknowledging that there are educational implications to the research. I'm just sending that out for some possible conversation. If you have any thoughts, please send them my way, or, better yet, to the group.



Best, Glenn



Glenn Dolphin

Tamaratt Teaching Professor

Department of Geoscience

University of Calgary

2500 University Drive NW

Calgary, Alberta T2N 1N4

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403.220.6025