A lifetime commitment to the ‘new’ practice of knowledge transfer
A LIFETIME in linguistics has taught Professor Michael Clyne that contemporary buzz words had semantic equivalents in earlier times.
As such, Professor Clyne has embraced the concept of knowledge transfer and urged his academic colleagues to do likewise because the apparently modern concept actually refers to a practice that has been at the core of University work throughout his working life.
Professor Clyne, the Honorary Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne’s Research Unit for Multilingualism and Cross-Cultural Communication (RUMACC) has been a keen practitioner of knowledge transfer since he joined the staff of Monash University in 1962.
Through his research projects, articles, books and seminars (such as the regular workshops for parents raising their children in more than one language that he and his colleagues have been running for many years) he has worked tirelessly at developing Australia’s multilingual potential and alleviating cross-cultural communication problems.
A large part of his work has involved applying his academic resources and those of post-graduate research students to the exploration and maintenance of the many community languages used in homes, schools and workplaces throughout Australia.
The two-way process of applying the benefits of knowledge gained through teaching and research at the University, and learning from the wisdom and experiences of distinctive cultural groups has underpinned the success of these programs.
It has also led to many commissioned school-based projects and to an ARC linkage grant on community languages in secondary schools, which further highlight the tangible value of bridging University and community.
Professor Clyne regards the period during which he was foundation director of RUMACC (2001-04) as the best opportunity he experienced to bring together research, post-graduate supervision, teaching, community relations and international links in a synergistic relationship.
An open-space area on the 7th floor of the Arts Centre provided by the University for RUMACC facilitated intellectual exchange between PhD students working as part-time research assistants on team projects and distinguished international scholars in the field of multi-lingualism visiting the Research Unit.
He is delighted that his fellow academics are being encouraged to embrace direct engagement with the broader community, and congratulated the University of Melbourne for adopting knowledge transfer as one of three strands (along with research, and teaching and learning) of its Growing Esteem corporate strategy.
"This is something that is inherent to a lot of disciplines, it’s something that people in universities have been doing for a long time and now the University of Melbourne is recognising it as one of its key activities," Professor Clyne said.
"There was a time when economic considerations, or dictates from Canberra as to where academics were allowed to publish and how they were supposed to spend their time, didn’t really take into account the importance of serving the community."
"If people are allowed to engage only in those external activities that bring a lot of money into a university, then many opportunities for collaboration that can lead to important research and even higher levels of outside funding are lost."
"Forcing academics to publish articles in particular publications in order to gain points for research quantum can also detract from the impact of their research."
"I think it’s great that the pendulum has swung away from that thinking."
Professor Clyne believes the current climate of change sweeping the tertiary sector, coupled with uncertainty over ongoing levels of government funding, has rendered some academics suspicious of the concept of knowledge transfer.
He said the best way to ease those concerns was to emphasise that the practice has long been employed by universities, and to get rid of management terminology surrounding its definition which can serve to deter academics.
"A lot of academics get put off by business management terms, so if knowledge transfer can be described in a way that we best understand it - as something we've been doing for a long time and something that the University of Melbourne wants to acknowledge and enhance – then that will help," Professor Clyne said.
"I think it is really exciting that the University of Melbourne is taking knowledge transfer on board when a lot of other institutions are rejecting it as something that is outside the realm of the contemporary university."
Professor Clyne cites a number of real benefits gained by taking linguistic studies from the lecture room to the community, and adds that there is the opportunity to participate in raising awareness of language and languages and to contribute to policy.
"We have linguistic and cultural resources here that can be harnessed a lot more productively than they currently are. They are resources that can make Australia play a more important role in the world."
Pamphlets produced by RUMACC to raise awareness about language issues in schools have been adopted and promoted by the Modern Language Teachers Association, as well as education authorities in a number of European countries.
Professor Clyne also remembers fondly a subject he taught, Advanced Cross Cultural Communication, which included an internship component and enabled students to undertake a research project in a team situation within a multinational company or municipal council.
The subject brought students into contact with situations in which linguistics could be applied, and personnel staff gained impressions of potential employees from a discipline of which they had previously not been aware.
"Knowledge transfer is something that needs to be imparted to future generations", Professor Clyne said.