New global challenges, new knowledge actors, new forms of research: what higher education can learn from the research practices of NGOs

Academic research in the UK is facing an identity crisis. Universities are responding to a national ‘impact agenda’ (HEFCE et al 2011; 2017 Nurse 2015), which calls for the evidencing of applied uses of university research (Bastow et al 2013; Brewer 2013; NESTA/Alliance for Useful Evidence (2016) and the engagement of research users/mediators in research processes (e.g. Rickinson et al 2011; Facer et al 2012; Morton 2015; Wolff 2015), and may blur traditional boundaries around the role of academic research in relation to knowledge produced by other actors (including public-sector think-tanks, private-sector consultancy firms, the media and civil society organisations) (McCormick 2013; Shucksmith 2016)

(Re)assembling Community: The Ontological Politics of Academic and Community-based Research in/on/with/by a Migrant Community in London

This article explores the ontological politics of research in the field of community studies. Focusing on a migrant community in London, UK, it shows how the community is (re)assembled in different ways through the different research practices of academics and practitioners. Guided by a framework based on material semiotics, the article compares the agendas, methods and representational texts that inform the different research practices. It argues that community studies researchers have an ethical responsibility to acknowledge the particular enactments of communities that emerge through their research and the role that agendas, methods and texts play in constructing those enactments

Engaging with research for real impact: The state of research in the INGO sector and ways forward for better practice

Research is more important than ever to international non-governmental organisations (INGOs), who need evidence to plan their work and provide proof of their impact. INGOs are increasingly turning to research as a resource for assessing and improving their activities as well as organisational structures and strategy. This engagement with research can take many forms from adapting, synthesising and using existing research to commissioning new research, participating in research collaborations or conducting their own research in house. Some INGOs are even participating in research governance, working with research funders to support agenda-setting and evaluation. This report supports organisations to thoroughly consider their options for engaging with evidence and develop more strategic approaches to using, generating and communicating research. By showcasing a range of innovative examples of practice and exploring the many challenges involved in this complex work, this report provides guidance to those developing a research approach within their organisation. The report draws on the findings from a three-year research study on the different ways in which UK-based INGOs are engaging with research and the common challenges involved. Funded by the Leverhulme Trust, the study also identified sector-wide support structures which can help INGOs address these challenges

Charting a course to an emerging field of ‘research engagement studies’: A conceptual metasynthesis

The past decades in the UK have witnessed renewed interest by policymakers, research funders and research institutions in the engagement of non-academic individuals, groups and organizations with research processes and products. There has been a broad consensus that better engagement leads to better impact, as well as significant learning around understanding engagement and improving practice. However, this sits in tension to a parallel trend in British higher education policy that reduces the field to a narrow definition of quantitatively measured impacts attributed to individual researchers, projects and institutions. In response, this article argues for the mobilization of an emerging field of ‘research engagement studies’ that brings together an extensive and diverse existing literature around understandings and experiences of engagement, and has the potential to contribute both strategically and conceptually to the broader impact debate. However, to inform this, some stocktaking is needed to trace the different traditions back to their conceptual roots and chart out a common set of themes, approaches and framings across the literature. In response, this article maps the literature by developing a genealogy of understandings of research engagement within five UK-based domains of policy and practice: higher education; science and technology; public policy (health, social care and education); international development; and community development. After identifying patterns and trends within and across these clusters, the article concludes by proposing a framework for comparing understandings of engagement, and uses this framework to highlight trends, gaps and ways forward for the emerging field

Rethinking Research Partnerships: Discussion Guide and Toolkit

In recent years, there has been a drive towards research collaboration between academics and international non-governmental organisations (INGOs). These new partnerships offer exciting opportunities to improve learning and practice in international development, leading to innovation and deepened understandings of the world and, ultimately, a better impact on poverty eradication. However, they also present considerable challenges. How do organisations with different structures, goals and interests collaborate? Can they work together productively around these differences? What tensions exist and what is the impact of these? How is power distributed and which voices are amplified or lost in the process? This guide does not seek to answer these questions, but offers a way of exploring them. It is aimed at people and organisations that are considering embarking on a research collaboration, or are already working in partnership. It introduces some of the key issues that arise when working collaboratively, and suggests tools and activities to help you to critically reflect on them. The guide is aimed at those at the forefront of these partnerships – academics, INGO staff and their respective institutions. However, the content will also be of relevance to funders and others seeking to support or encourage collaborative research approaches. This guide is a toolkit for critical reflection, rooted in the idea that research partnerships must be entered into with care. Attention needs to be given to contexts, power relations and the different interests involved in order to successfully deliver truly collaborative knowledge generation that serves everyone’s interests. The risks are real – partnerships without serious considerations of the power dynamics risk reaffirming certain interests and voices and marginalising others, particularly those already experiencing structural disadvantage, undermining the real benefit that these partnerships can bring. In addition, they can end up placing unfunded and unsupported burdens on particular individuals or organisations, and reinforce existing structures that constrain the intended learning and growth

Learning and teaching participation : exploring the role of Higher Learning Institutions as agents of development and social change

This paper explores the potential of Higher Learning Institutions (HLIs) as agents of social, institutional and individual change. It argues that while HLIs have a clear role in building the capacity of individuals and organisations to undertake key development initiatives and to practice participation, they are often restricted by internal and external constraints. Perceptions of HLIs as experiencing hierarchical power systems, structural rigidities, traditional elitism, and research which is disassociated from local realities imply that a paradigm shift in the learning and research approaches of HLIs is greatly needed. In response to some of these concerns, a wide range of initiatives and innovations are promoting learning of participation and participatory teaching and learning. These are helping to challenge different constraints and are enhancing the developmental potential of HLIs. In April 2002 a global dialogue on Learning and Teaching Participation (LTP) was launched at IDS with the purpose of sharing innovations and experiences in order to make these stories and lessons learned more widely available, as well as helping to promote learning and teaching participation through a dialogue on strategies, methodologies, processes, practices and theories. This paper draws on the key issues and findings from the dialogue and related research to discuss practice and potentials of learning and teaching participation in HLIs. It concludes that significant achievements have been made in bridging theory and practice, linking HLIs and communities through collaborative research, and developing participatory methods for more effective learning. However, challenges still remain and further research is needed to address the contextual implications of learning and to develop appropriate participatory methodologies to support these ventures

Conceptualising Literacy for Policy and Practice

This article aims to show how a lack of conceptual consensus weakens and confuses the adult literacy lobby with grave implications for policy and practice. By charting the different understandings of literacy and reorganising them into a pragmatic framework, a new coherence may be brought to the literacy lobby, which accommodates different approaches but shows how these approaches interact and overlap. The article concludes by critically examining the conceptualisation of literacy proposed by the benchmarks in light of the framework and suggests how it might be expanded in a more meaningful way. The author is a doctoral researcher at the Institute of Education, University of London

Tanzania and Vietnam: Comparing Policy and Practice in the Light of the International Benchmarks for Adult Literacy

The International Adult Literacy Benchmarks emerged from the larg est ever global consultation of its kind and show that adult literacy programmes can be affordable and effective. However, the ways in which they are interpreted, prioritised and applied will differ somewhat according to the context. As a means of substantiating the benchmarks, follow-up research was conducted in the United Republic of Tanzania and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in collaboration with ActionAid and the Ministries of Education in each country. In exploring two very distinct literacy policy environments, the research aimed to establish the extent to which the benchmarks apply in each country and are in fact desirable. Focusing on the use of the Reflect approach to adult lit eracy by both governmental and non-governmental institutions around the countries, the research also examined the compatibility of Reflect with the benchmarks and the broader policy environment. The author is a doctoral researcher at the Institute of Education of the University of London

Rethinking Research Impact through Principles for Fair and Equitable Partnerships

With renewed investment of the UK’s Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) commitment into research, there is a need to rethink traditional understandings of ‘research impact’. In this article we argue that impact in ODA-funded research should go beyond translating research findings into practice and policy or implementing research in partnership with research mediators/users. Instead, the development agendas of those living and working in the global South, including academics and practitioners, and those working in international non-governmental organisations should influence the research agendas, approaches and the schemes that allocate funding. These stakeholders have profound knowledge of what real world impact looks like, the types of impact needed, local and national realities, and how complex processes of development impact unfold. Drawing on a programme of strategic research conducted by the Rethinking Research Collaborative, we examine eight principles for ‘fair and equitable research partnerships’ using insights from our individual experiences to offer new thinking on ODA-funded research impact