Four Essential Skills for Research Literacy

Uncertainty abounds in the future of our work, but I’m convinced of at least one thing: the massage profession 20 years from now will need to be research literate. This is true regardless of modality or business model – research literacy will be as important to career longevity as body mechanics or business skills.
 
When I say this to a group of massage educators, they mostly agree, but each will offer a healthy dose of realism. Like all educators, they contend with scarce resources, bureaucratic stasis, and willful students.  Moreover, most massage teachers feel they lack the research literacy that they’re supposed to instill in students. So it’s one thing to trumpet the need for research literacy, but quite another to create it.
 
What do we mean by research literacy, anyway? What abilities – if we saw them in every massage school graduate — would constitute success?  I suggest these four essential skills as a worthy goal for every massage school.  We should ensure that every graduate has the ability to: