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Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega Profile picture
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11 Jan, 6 tweets, 3 min read
Random planning and organizing thought for the day/week.

Many of you have returned to teaching today (or to class).

For many of us, the realities of online teaching and learning, care work, etc., again are settling in.

I suggest that we Plan for Survival with Cherry on Top
You survived - RIGHT FUCKING ON.

Your family survived - GLORY!

Your friends, students, colleagues are doing as well as they can be? -EXCELLENT

Anything else is the Cherry on Top.

Did you #WriteFor10Minutes - CHERRY ON TOP

Did you #AIC one article? - CHERRY ON TOP.
Did you teach that one first class of the semester? - CHERRY ON TOP

Did you manage to have the readings ready for the first couple weeks of classes? - CHERRY ON TOP.

Did you manage to answer 5 emails? - CHERRY ON TOP.

Right now, the goal is to survive this pandemic.
Anything else that gets done, is The Cherry on Top. Actively de-programming ourselves from planning for life Almost As If We Were Back to Normal takes a long time. I'm struggling with it. I had to dial down my hopes for 2021. Right now, all I want is to survive and a few cherries
I feel like I'm channeling my inner @prof_mirya with these random thoughts, and I just want to heavily promote Dr. Holman's #MHAWS newsletter (AND Fridays writing group).

I have learned so much from you, Mirya, and I continue to be inspired by you.
Here's to a year of Cherries on Top (image source: cz.pinterest.com/pin/4630270238…)

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More from @raulpacheco

Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega Profile picture
10 Jan
DISCLOSURE: I paid for this book stand with my hard earned and very devalued Mexican pesos. I bought it for $499 Mexican pesos (circa $23 USD) at Costco but I looked for it this weekend and I couldn’t find them anymore (I should have bought 3. Two for my home offices, one FLACSO.
A couple of features will be intuitive like this flexible adjustment contraption in the back. This book stand comes without any instructions and there is only one YouTube video and it doesn’t give much explanation.
The feature that was NOT intuitive at all and took me a while to move from locked to unlocked and back was the adjustable base that holds books and papers. That takes a while to tinker with but once you get it, locking and unlocking is easy peasy breeze.
Read 8 tweets
Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega Profile picture
26 Dec 20
THREAD. On writing, note-taking, reading, and synthesizing information. This fall, I taught Research Design at the doctoral level, and a Masters' Research (Thesis) Seminar.

Because of the way I like teaching (research design, research methods and mechanics of research), ....
... I quickly realized that teaching Note-Taking Techniques, Reading Strategies, and Synthesis Methods was complicated. It's kind of a chicken and egg problem. What do students need to learn first, reading or taking notes? Teaching strategies for both is hard to do simultaneously
I tried the following sequence:
- Reading Strategies
- Note-Taking Techniques
- Synthesis Methods
- Writing Tips

Turns out that students are thrust into the "you need to read a lot to understand what I am teaching" model quite early during their programmes. This poses challenges
Read 12 tweets
Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega Profile picture
22 Dec 20
I have been thinking about writing a thread on how to link theory with research, which probably fits with the question that was asked by @PhDForum earlier today - how do we choose a theoretical framework.

I'm going to try to formulate this discussion as clearly as possible.
This discussion about how to link theory with research (and with the method) is one I have had with @salazar_elena and @gcaleman for a while now. How do we link all the theories we read into what we see in the empirical work?

I believe that there are three elements at play.
1) There are various types and levels of theory (grand theory, meso-level theory, micro-level theory), etc.

2) We (scholars, students, practitioners) need to read very broadly to be able to discern across theories.

3) We need to learn how to establish THEORETICAL EXPECTATIONS
Read 20 tweets
Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega Profile picture
20 Dec 20
What I am going to say may potentially make me unpopular, but given that I don't give a crap about my popularity (or lack thereof) here it goes:

Stop making people feel bad about not taking time off over the holidays.

I am going to make a thread out of this b/c it deserves it.
I have loved public policy ever since I realized that it was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Practically everything I do/study/work on is associated with public affairs and public issues.

Populations are heterogeneous.

If you have ever taken my courses, ...
... you will KNOW and remember that the first lesson in Dr. Pacheco-Vega's courses is that POPULATIONS ARE HETEROGENEOUS.

You can't use blanket approaches to developing and implementing public policies when public issues have so many different elements that comprise them.
Read 10 tweets
Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega Profile picture
8 Dec 20
REAL TALK:

I started this week feeling entirely unmotivated to do any work (even though I have a metric tonne of things to do). I was afraid of working on the revise-and-resubmits I have to finish because I was AFRAID OF GETTING THOSE PAPERS REJECTED BY THE JOURNAL.
I have a fairly decent publication record, and to this day I STILL FEEL WORRIED ABOUT GETTING A REJECTION.

(I no longer feel humiliated, but I still don't like rejections).

Public thanks to my writing group, and especially @AcademicBatgirl and @LuxanaRO for help motivating me
If you are starting this academic life, or are in the throes of getting a degree and/or writing a thesis, know that even the most experienced of us feel:
- lack of motivation
- fear of rejection
- stress
- unwillingness to do work (see above)
- overwhelmed feelings.
Read 6 tweets
Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega Profile picture
6 Dec 20
It took me a VERY long time to appreciate my own writing.

Academia instills in you a false sense of humility. You ALWAYS have to be self-deprecating.

I'm a very good writer and I love what I write, and what I write is meaningful, valuable and important.

(yes, I said this).
Also, it took me submitting 3 articles this year, getting 3 R&Rs AND publishing 3 journal articles (two of them in the top journals in my discipline) to feel like I was back to writing as well as I did when I was a doctoral student (back then I wrote with such ferocity!)
I remember a couple of years ago, re-reading my doctoral dissertation and thinking "man, I used to write with such authority and audacity!"

These past couple of years I've just written with abandon.

I love writing, I love what I write and I am happy I am healthy again.
Read 4 tweets

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