Julia Römer (LinkedIn) is a 3rd-year PhD researcher in the School of Innovation and Technology at the Glasgow School of Art, and Kirsten Somerville (LinkedIn, Twitter) is a 3rd year PhD researcher in the School of Education at the University of Glasgow. Together, they co-organise a Reading Group on Creative Methods in Education for Sustainability.

Have you ever felt like you’re the only person who really understands your research topic? As we become increasingly specialised researchers, PhD life can feel this way sometimes. Back in 2022, we were starting to feel this way ourselves. A year into our studies at the tail end of pandemic restrictions, neither of us had met too many PGRs in our respective institutions who were working in our specific field. Thankfully, our paths would soon cross at the Greening the ARC Hackathon. Although we were in different teams for the event, we arranged to meet up afterwards to discuss our shared interest – discovered through the medium of Kirsten’s Three Minute Thesis (3MT) video (!) – in creative methods in education for sustainability.

It was refreshing to chat with someone grappling with similar issues on a day-to-day basis. At the same time, each of us had a distinct approach to these issues, shaped by our disciplinary backgrounds and prior experience, that allowed us to learn from each other.

We realised that we were both missing this sense of academic community in our PhD journeys.

We also felt that there was a lack of opportunities for exchange with others working in our field, more broadly, outside formal events like conferences. We decided to fill this gap by starting our own Reading Group.

How we set up our group

We agreed that an online format would be the easiest way to make connections beyond our immediate networks. Although our group is PhD-led, we wanted it to be open to researchers of all career stages as well as practitioners working in any educational context. Once we had agreed on the format, we set about promoting our group to reach a wider audience. Kirsten created flyers on Canva and shared them on X/Twitter, while Julia set up a webpage on Notion and shared it with other PhD students and through relevant online groups via LinkedIn.

This combination of “broadcasting” and more “targeted” approaches helped us to build a small international, multidisciplinary community of students, researchers and practitioners with diverse perspectives on our field of interest. Each month, we choose an article or book chapter to discuss in a one-hour session, with suggestions welcome from all members of the group.

What we’ve gained from the group

Whether you are chairing or joining a reading group, it is yet again another commitment in your busy week’s schedule. So, what is the added value of organising one in the first place, why do it?

First of all, reading groups encourage you to read more - especially those papers you might not have picked yourself. This not only gives you a chance to explore a new angle on the topic, but it simply keeps you up to date with recent literature. From time to time, we have also invited authors of papers to join, to ask questions directly and get to know the person and their ways of thinking ‘behind the paper’. 

Secondly, while we have found ourselves, as PhD researchers, regularly reading papers aligned with our specific research interests, we missed regular exchange opportunities amongst academic staff and PhD researchers and learning from each other about the how and what of the readings in our field. For us, the Reading Group provided a space to come together and enhance our critical reading skills. Also, our regular meetings acted as deadlines for us to prepare the reading and note-taking in advance, keeping us accountable to the group.

In addition to accountability, discussing the papers together helps you to keep on track with your literature reviews, whether it is thinking about it, taking notes, or using the paper in your own writing.

And finally, you get the chance to meet new people. People with similar interests join our reading group sessions again and again. Every time we learn more about each other’s research and experiences in the field of creative methods in environmental and sustainability education, and ultimately, have a great time together. 

For the two of us, the Reading Group meeting is definitely one highlight of the month. 

Some tips for starting your own group

If you have read this blog post until here, you might likely be already interested in the idea of a reading group. So, what about starting one yourself? We have collected a few tips that you might find helpful. 

• Find a Reading Group partner

Setting up a Reading Group on your own can be difficult. Asking a friend or colleague with a similar research interest is a good start to co-organise and share responsibilities that come with regularly held sessions.

• Who is chairing the session?

• Who is sending out reminders?

• Who is responsible for technical difficulties in the session itself?

Clear communication with a partner will help you share the workload whilst enjoying the group and reading yourself. 

• Be specific with your reading focus

Choose a specific research focus you share with others in your research or practice. Thinking about the scope of your topic, exploring a more niche angle in your research can be helpful, whether it is more specific to your methods, context or theories in your work. It helps attract people with similar interests and keeps the discussions focused. 

• Make it accessible

Chairing a Reading Group can be time- and energy-consuming, but so can attending one. Do send reminders with the reading of the month and the meeting details ahead of time so that everyone gets a chance to prepare for the session in their own time. Also, make the reading itself accessible by sharing both links and PDF documents.

• Be realistic

As a final point, be mindful of your expectations about attendance and everyone’s commitments in their lives, studies and jobs. Planning ahead, sending regular calendar invites and reminders of the new reading and time to people in advance help both members and organisers. We are running the Reading Group in parallel to our PhDs. Though we have set up a monthly routine with our group, we too openly communicate breaks and changes to stay realistic with our own timetables.

In 2023, we started off with the simple idea of setting up our own Reading Group. What started with Julia’s email reaching out to Kirsten because of a similar research interest, talking about this idea over coffee, we are now happy to have found like-minded people joining us to regularly discuss some exciting readings in our field.

We hope that sharing our experience encourages you too, to join or start one yourself. It will be a great experience either way.

Cover photo by Chris Montgomery on Unsplash.