The visiting scholar shows that research on higher education connects different disciplines
"I just have good feelings and impressions about Europe, Germany and Paderborn," enthuses Raquel Tusi Tamiosso about her first stay at Paderborn University during the summer school on higher education research in September 2023. The 26-year-old Brazilian first studied life sciences at Franciscan University in Santa Maria and then didactics of science and mathematics. She has been working on her doctorate in this field since 2020. Just a few weeks ago, the doctoral student was also given the opportunity to take on a professorship in the Biomedicine degree programme.
A secret recipe for this flagship path in science? There is no such thing, says Raquel Tusi Tamiosso, but her personal motivation is to improve her own skills and knowledge every day - because she knows: "I still have a lot to learn, so I am constantly seeking to improve my knowledge and skills." She also wants to contribute as much as possible to the development and improvement of education and the teaching and learning process.
The motivation to further develop the education system ultimately led her to study business education in Paderborn. Although Raquel Tusi Tamiosso and her colleagues research learning and teaching processes in science and maths, they have been following the issues of the Educational Design Research Journal (EDeR Journal), which is published by the Department of Business Education at Paderborn University, for years.
This is how the contact with the lead editor Prof. Dr. Tobias Jenert from the Chair of Business Education, in particular Higher Education Didactics and Development at Paderborn University came about: "On June 16th, 2022, Professor Dr. Susan McKenney officially introduced me, by email, to Professor Dr. Jenert. I remember that I invited him to an online meeting, to discuss more about my doctoral research, and he kindly accepted my invitation," says Raquel Tusi Tamiosso. Since that first conversation, she has been in regular contact with Tobias Jenert: "Prof. Jenert is an amazing human being, full of ethics, kindness, respect, leadership, and willingness to inspire early-career researchers like me. I really appreciate his effort in sharing with me his knowledge and experiences, I have been learning a lot, not just about Educational Design Research issues, but about teaching, learning, education, issues related to the journal operation, etc.. Me and my university are very happy with this connection with him and his team, and we want to keep this networking for future projects as well." Prof Jenert encouraged the young researcher to apply for a symposium on design-oriented educational research in Hamburg and for the HoBid summer school at Paderborn University. In addition, Raquel Tusi Tamiosso was given the opportunity to organise a special issue on design-oriented educational research in Latin America in conjunction with the EDeR Journal.
"The future of higher education requires an interdisciplinary and international research perspective. Collaborations like the one with Raquel Tusi Tamiosso and Franciscan University in Brazil help us to develop innovative solutions and benefit from the insights of other cultures and disciplines. Raquel has an incredibly broad, global network. In addition, Latin America has an incredibly rich tradition of pedagogical research, but this is largely a blind spot for us. Here we can learn a lot from working with Raquel and our Latin American colleagues. It's also simply fun to work with people who bring such positive energy to science," says Tobias Jenert, describing the benefits of the cooperation for business education in Paderborn and the pleasure of inviting early career researchers from all over the world to Paderborn for an exchange.
