And in the end ...: reflections on individual events forensic participation.

• Author: Billings, Andrew C.
• Position: Report

The relationship between participation in collegiate forensic activities and presumed skills, benefits, and successes later in life has typically been implied rather than overt. Far more forensic research focuses on determining what is (or is not) competitively successful (see Burnett, Brand, & Meister, 2003) than on the long term effects, particularly the question of whether people believe they left the forensic activity with skills and experiences that bolstered successes later in life. When the search term learn is entered into the Online Index of Forensics Research (Forensics Index, 2011), just nine entries appear. When the term career is entered, just three articles are offered. However, ties to the educational benefit of the activity are far more likely to be studied, as a search for pedagogy yields 26 articles. Educational outcomes beyond the collegiate experience are inferred in many research offerings within forensic journals, but not nearly enough work has been conducted in the area of forensic education to determine outcomes beyond undergraduate participation.

It is possible that a dearth of scholarly investigation in the area hinders arguments to maintain forensic programs at a time of declining financial support for higher education. In an era in which the long-term measure of job placement and subsequent occupational success is critical to justifying academic programs, it is important to note that educational and career benefits are related, but not synonymous concepts. Moreover, educational and career enhancements are sometimes seen as the only two reasons to compete in an activity such as forensics when perhaps there are more advantages to forensic participation (such as increased cultural awareness and global citizenship) that may not directly connect to these two broad distinctions. In addition to uncovering what forensic participants gained through participation at the collegiate level, it is also important to ask whether, in hindsight, forensic participants would opt to participate again, as this could represent an overarching value judgment on the benefits of forensics.

This study represents an attempt to bridge the knowledge base in these critical areas. More specifically, this survey-based approach queries former individual events participants who have not competed in at least ten years--an amount of time in which roles as graduate assistants and other fairly temporary forensic positions have presumably ended and long-term cost-benefit analyses of the activity are more likely to be engrained within a person's thoughts. The survey asked participants questions pertaining to the strengths and weaknesses of the individual events forensic experience, as well as directly asking them whether the activity was worthwhile by querying whether the benefits of participating outweighed the drawbacks.

RELATED LITERATURE

Few individual events studies have focused on the direct and indirect benefits of involvement (see Ryan, 1998). Scholars who have studied the benefits of forensic participation focused more on the immediate rewards and awards than on the skills, traits, and possibilities afforded to graduates after their forensic careers. Nonetheless, there appear to be some areas that speak to the ultimate demonstrative effects of collegiate individual events competition including: (a) career training, (b) forensics as laboratory, and (c) wellness.

All forms of competitive speaking are criticized for the bubble in which the events often operate (Billings, 2001). However, individual events seem to receive more critical reports of the relationship between what happens at a competition and what inevitably occurs in the world outside of it, perhaps because the direct clash of argument found in NDT/CEDA debate seems directly applicable to law and political professions whereas some individual events, particularly oral interpretation, struggle to offer such direct connections. Meyer (1959) referenced speech training in relationship to being a scientist; Lohr (1981) briefly argued that forensics offers great training for insurance salespeople. Decades of research tend to either directly (see McGlone, 1974) or indirectly (see Howard & Brussee, 1996) claim that participating in forensics yields behavioral outcomes that can be beneficial for the competitors.

The most specific tie to the educational benefit of individual events was identified in the 1980s with the advent of research based on "forensics as a laboratory" (Swanson, 1992, p. 65; see also Harris, Kropp, & Rosenthal, 1986). Scholars such as Bartanen (1981) uncovered the possibilities of using forensics as a testing ground-a learning place-where innovations in argumentation can be tested and ideas can be advanced. However, Aden (1991) argued that such a notion was counterproductive, instead claiming forensics should be seen as a liberal art:

Certainly, forensics may enjoy diminished marketability if it is viewed as less specialized than a laboratory. There is then a possibility that administrators will see forensics as only an activity. [Yet, with a rhetorical perspective] ... the forensics community can more accurately represent to students and administrators what its means and ends are. (p. 105-106)

The end result is a divide (real or perceived depending on the perspective) between forensics as a competitive activity (see Burnett, Brand, & Meister, 2003) and forensics as an educational-based activity (see Mitchell, 1998). This dichotomy, first outlined by Wood and Rowland-Morin (1989), was later exposed as potentially false by Hinck (2003).

Criteria for judging and implementation of pedagogy have been devised (see Williams, 1996), but a perceived tension between the immediate competitive goals and the more longitudinal educational aims remains. Scholars appear to be in agreement in regard to individual events as an appropriate avenue for honing skills in critical thinking (Murphy & Samosky, 1992), ethics (Thomas & Hart, 1983), and outreach (Brand, 1996; Snider, 1994), while simultaneously offering immense possibility for fun (Payne & Stanley, 2003), yet it is unclear whether the competitive nature of the event thwarts or enhances these purported benefits. Controversy over the divide among competition, education, and the future takeaway remains. Scholars such as Dean (1992) believe forensics should be challenged to provide a more direct relationship to the public sphere, thereby becoming less insular (and, presumably, less focused on direct competition) in the process. These scholars attempt to bridge the gap between immediate (competitive success) and long-range (career success) goals.

Moreover, much discussion has focused on whether forensics is a healthy activity at its core. Carver (2004) edited a special issue of National Forensic Journal specifically devoted to the issue of wellness, with contributors basing recommendations for greater wellness on the premise that forensics was an unhealthy activity because of the number of tournaments, travel distances, and larger balance issues related to education, career, family, leisure, and personal life desires (Hatfield, 2004).

In sum, a great deal of research has related to the state of individual events competitions and whether the tradeoff (be it time, cost, or work/life balance-related) ultimately justified the outcome (be it competitive, educational, personal, or work-related benefits). For several decades, researchers in the activity have queried whether the ends justify the means, with the ancillary argument pertaining to how the ends can justify the means more directly and appropriately. However, nearly all of the research amassed has studied people who were actively involved in the activity at the time. An underrepresented population within the literature is former forensic competitors, who are in perhaps the best position to assess the activity's contributions to preparation for myriad career paths and civic involvements. This study attempts to glean insight from this important group.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Clearly, intermingled issues inhere in determining the forensic takeaway when competitors become former competitors and make the full transition to their adult life with all of the career and family commitments that go along with that evolution. The same arguments used for individual events participation at the college level (such as skills, socialization, and networking) should ultimately be part of any longitudinal assessment of what people feel they gained within the process of participating. This study provides insight in these areas by asking people about these intermingled issues at least ten years after they finished their forensic participation-seemingly a point (albeit arbitrary) by which perspective should be gained and memories rise or fade based on their salience more than their immediacy. In sum, I ask three overarching research questions so that the reflections of former individual events participants could be gathered:

RQ1...