Research in Practice Seminar Edmonton, October 24th to 26th

Exploring Tensions and Possibilities for Research in Practice: Notes towards a presentation!

Jenny Horsman

1. Introduction/background

I want to raise a series of very basic questions... to prompt our discussion

I will illustrate them (not answer them!) from some of my experience in research

I hope to invite others to engage with the questions from their own experience

My experience includes:
Many years in the Toronto based, Participatory Research Group
Involvement in the beginning couple of years of the Ontario Field Research Group
Involvement in some fashion - advisory committee etc. with a variety of types of research projects....
Right now I'm doing research under the umbrella of CCLOW (Canadian Congress for Learning Opportunities for Women)....

I often think of myself as "living" in the divide between university and practice, not quite in either camp:
I did university-based research as a student and teach occasional university courses

I also ran a program in West Africa, have done stints in programs in Canada, do a variety of "practice" based contracts

I have a bias towards bridging and narrowing the gap between the two areas!

2. Controlling research?

Who controls the money
Who controls the knowledge
who gets it/gets to use it
What or whose knowledge counts?

Important questions about control...

I see practitioner research as part of a tradition of critique of academic research, (or some forms of academic research).

I notice we have quite a range of names for this research or "inquiry" we are talking about and wonder how important that is - eg. Is there a difference between program based research and practitioner research?

I have a concern that research by practitioners - could be just research on the cheap or are we talking about "control" based in programs, of all research, and seeing the program as a place of "knowing" from which to critique university research as well as carry out research?