In this post, I invite you to embrace your inner word nerd. Because I want to talk about scholarship, and it is about to get semantic in a totally nerdy way. We’ve been having a discussion at work about core values and moral virtues and character strengths. (Sounds totally exciting right?).

It turns out that scholarship isn’t easily categorized. Even Merriam-webster is confused. Their definition says scholarship is both the character and qualities of a scholar and also the activities and attainments of a scholar. Semantics once again hide important truths. If scholarship is simply what we produce or what we achieve it is simply an outcome. It is a product. It is an ill defined activity that helps us produce.

I can’t erase the numerous ways the word scholarship is used. (To be clear, nothing in this blog will address financial aid in education. Take that definition completely off the table.) When I use scholarship as a value, I mean a deliberate way of being that values and promotes ethical learning. Scholarship then is a series of intentional habits that define how you approach knowledge and learning. It implies a deep and ongoing commitment to seeking knowledge, an ethic of questioning and exploration, an ethical and methodical treatment of subject matter, and a growth mindset. Scholarship is the umbrella stand that organizes all of the intellectual virtues.

To be a scholar means to be a fair-minded thinker who contributes with honesty and wisdom to society. Perhaps its expansive nature is what gives purists fits. They insist that scholarship is not a stand alone virtue, that instead it is a way of being sustained by other intellectual virtues. Potato/potatoe. Scholarship gives shape to the intellectual virtues. It is the tool box organizer in which the virtues and habits of mind are held.

Scholarship has distinct attributes, such as:

Love of Truth: Scholars value real facts over comfortable or convenient answers.

Intellectual Humility: Scholars understand they don’t know more than they actually know. They admit mistakes and accept correction. They are not undone by questioning or criticism.

Curiosity: Scholars cultivate the desire to explore unknown topics and to ask questions in order to uncover hidden ideas.

Integrity: Scholars make sure that actions are right, data is accurate, and personal bias is checked.

Perseverance: Scholars exhibit patience and mental grit.

In my view the expansive nature of scholarship is its strength. To be a scholar means to understand and practice a portfolio of intellectual character traits in an ethical and moral manner. A fair criticism is that this expansive ideal is hard to practice and may lack focused discipline without the explicit teaching and practice of sub traits/virtues. Tomato/tomahto.

My point is that being intellectually humble or curious or having love of learning alone is not enough. How an individual combines traits defines how they live. So a learner can practice perseverance, open mindedness, tolerance, etc. , but scholarship is an internalized commitment to use those strengths in a certain way. Being a scholar means living by an internal code. Scholarship does not cut corners. Scholars do not manufacture data to prove their preconceived ideas, nor do they alter data because it doesn’t suit their narrative. Scholars don’t accept something simply because someone asserts it to be true. Scholars don’t reject information because it conflicts with what is known.

Because scholarship is a commitment to a series of intellectual virtues and defined habits, what is produced is also called scholarship. This stamp of endorsement separates the information created from opinion and slipshod strings of information. Scholarship is a series of filters governed by the intellectual virtues.

The benefits of cultivating scholarship traits are numerous. To be a scholar is to explore new ideas, ask questions, and seek to understand the world. Scholars analyze information objectively, evaluate evidence, and learn to spot flaws in arguments. Scholarship develops structured problem solving methods that allow exploration of complex issues and the discovery of practical solutions. Scholarship provides a strong foundation and the discipline needed for specialized knowledge. Scholarship assumes nuances in ideas and that one will need to work to fully understand and act on the variances.

Perhaps this is why the age of information is so difficult for those who value scholarship (even me). Individuals who value the intellectual character traits have cultivated them in practice until they are embedded ways of being. Social media is full of unserious people (anti-scholars) with microphones who make endless claims in endless content streams. Nuance is not tolerated as everything is reduced to simple sound bytes. Some have said if it takes longer than 30 seconds to explain, you have lost the audience. Scholarship demands so much more. (It takes me longer than 30 seconds to determine the best approach to an idea.)

Scholars use the filters of intellectual virtues to test the claims and often find they don’t stand up to scrutiny. When this is pointed out, unserious people react in unscholarly ways (attack, name calling, cherry picking data, omission, AI fabrication, etc). And so the cycles continue, in an unhelpful and often self destructive merry go round.

What then shall we do? A study in the St. Theresa Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences suggest that individuals who actively use social media for serious discussions, sharing learning resources, and collaboration tend to perform better than those who engage with these platforms only for social or recreational purposes. This evidence frames social media as a potential resource. But only if people are willing to work on developing intellectual virtues and engage accordingly.

Character matters. Whether you agree that scholarship is a core value or understand its place as an organizer of intellectual virtues is irrelevant. What matters is that you cultivate habits of mind that help you ask questions, look beyond the obvious, contextualize information, consider multiple points of view, verify facts, and reason to solve problems that benefit the common good. In a world of tik tok influencers, be a scholar. (Shout out to the small but growing group who are proving that it is possible to be both! And shout out to you if you finished reading this article. Today you practiced perseverance. But that is a topic for another day.)