CHC Student Publishes Case Study Research in Scholarly Book
“When I submitted my assessment, I had no idea that it would lead to a peer reviewed publication by a major academic publisher.”
When Wendy Nelson first enrolled in the Master of Social Science Leadership program, her interest was simply to get her credentials for a future role in senior social science leadership. Having served overseas for some years with the international non-profit organisation Youth With A Mission (YWAM), enrolling in the course made sense.
She said: “I wanted to learn how to complement my practical experience with theoretical leadership and management frameworks. And I wanted to conduct research that makes a difference. The postgraduate program at CHC seemed like a good fit.”
While enrolled in the subject SO542 Leading and Facilitating Strategic Change, Ms Nelson conducted case study research into managing change in change-resistant institutional environments. Her literary analysis involved Pope Francis and his influence on the Roman Catholic Church. With encouragement from her unit lecturer Dr. Johannes M. Luetz, who is also the Convenor of the postgraduate degree, Ms Nelson agreed to attempt turning her assessment essay into a jointly authored publication.
She said: “My lecturer was so passionate to support my idea and offered valuable feedback, input and writing support. Together we spent weeks analysing, rewriting and restructuring the contents methodologically to meet the requirements of a peer reviewed publication. It was challenging. I learnt so much.”
Following preparation, paper submission, peer review, revision, resubmission and acceptance, what started as an innovative student essay eventually became a student-lecturer co-authored peer reviewed publication by leading academic publisher Springer Nature:
Nelson, W. & Luetz, J. M. (2019). What Can We Learn from Pope Francis About Change Management for Environmental Sustainability? A Case Study on Success Factors for Leading Change in Change-Resistant Institutional Environments. In W. Leal Filho, & A. Consorte McCrea (Eds.), Sustainability and the Humanities (pp. 503-524). Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95336-6_29
Ms Nelson is proud to be a published author and already has her second peer reviewed paper in the production pipeline (and is currently preparing her third for review). She said: “When I embarked on my studies at CHC, I had no idea that I would become a published author. My grandpa even bought the whole book, although it is quite expensive to buy.”
She said with a smile: “I can now cite my own paper, not bad, hey?”
Meanwhile Ms Nelson is working on finishing her Master Thesis with an empirical study on the intercultural competence of Australian High School Students embarking on short-term overseas immersive experiences.
The School of Social Sciences proudly congratulates Wendy Nelson on her scholarly achievement!
Master student Wendy Nelson has published her case study research on Pope Francis in a scholarly book, published by Springer Nature Switzerland.