Research with ‘other’ disciplines and ‘other’ countries

Professor Geri SmythSchool of Education

University of Strathclyde

Queries and a Case Study

Why?How?Problematising the conceptConceptualising the problemsCase Study – Refugee Integration project

Why?

Funder imperativesSharing of knowledge base and research skillsCreative approach to specific issueDevelopment of existing collaboration (not research based)Do these reasons conflict; produce different outcomes?Are there other reasons?

How?

Internally funded project

– Bridging the GapExternally funded project

– NordForsk– FP7

Unfunded collaboration

– Teachers in TV projectJoint supervision of research students

– Formal / informal

• And other models?

Problematising the concept

If we are convinced of the need to work with ‘other’ disciplines, what is ‘our’ discipline?

– What is your academic identity?– Is a project multidisciplinary if there

is a collaboration between a sociologist and an educational sociologist? / between a Department of Linguistics and Linguists in a Department of Education?

What does Education bring to the collaboration?

– Are there specific fields of expertise?

– Why do ‘other’ disciplines want to work with Education?

Which country are you representing in an international collaboration?• Europe; UK; Scotland ---

What are the languages of the collaboration?– Formally and informally

Where do you position yourself in the collaboration?– UK centric; UK peripheral;

Eurocentric

Conceptualising the Problems

What is most important: the outcome; the process; the future engagement?

How is mutual understanding gained?How are differing perspectives acknowledged as offering added

value?How are conflicting imperatives addressed?

Conceptualising the Problems in 2013 UKWho owns the research?Where do you publish?Joint authorshipFuture ImpactIs the UK one country?Which collaborations count?

Refugee Integration: a case study

Funded by Institute for Advanced Studies• Now Insight Institute

Multidisciplinary

– Education; Law; Business; Sociology; Human Geography;

• Modern Languages; Creative ArtsMultinational

– Scotland, England, Sweden, Slovenia, Croatia, Australia, Canada

Multi-sectored

– University, EU, UK, Scottish and local government, 3rd sector agencies

Refugee Integration: a case study

Not an empirical research projectSeminar based

– Hosted by different partnersRange of outcomes

– Performance– Annotated bibliography– Special Issue Journal of Refugee Studies– Continuing collaborations

Best Practice

What are the key issues in effective multi-disciplinary/multi-national/multi-agency research?