Bridging Research and Practice Through Conversation: Reflecting on Our Experience

TL;DR

This paper explores how informal conversations with practitioners from diverse fields can effectively bridge the gap between academic research and real-world practice, emphasizing mutual understanding and ethical engagement.

Contribution

It introduces a reflective methodology using collaborative autoethnography to analyze the benefits and challenges of researcher-practitioner conversations across various domains.

Findings

Conversations foster mutual respect and understanding.

Recognizing differing objectives and timelines improves collaboration.

Avoiding data extractivism ensures ethical engagement.

Abstract

While some research fields have a long history of collaborating with domain experts outside academia, many quantitative researchers do not have natural avenues to meet experts in areas where the research is later deployed. We explain how conversations -- interviews without a specific research objective -- can bridge research and practice. Using collaborative autoethnography, we reflect on our experience of conducting conversations with practitioners from a range of different backgrounds, including refugee rights, conservation, addiction counseling, and municipal data science. Despite these varied backgrounds, common lessons emerged, including the importance of valuing the knowledge of experts, recognizing that academic research and practice have differing objectives and timelines, understanding the limits of quantification, and avoiding data extractivism. We consider the impact of these conversations on our work, the potential roles we can serve as researchers, and the challenges we anticipate as we move forward in these collaborations.