Organisational Supports

This workshop was held in Aalborg, Denmark. It provided a space for practice researchers to (a) reflect upon evolving definitions of organizational supports for practice research and (b) engage in critical dialogue about opportunities and challenges when engaging in practice research studies with key frontline, management and organizational partners. It focused upon the following key questions:

• How are “organizational supports” for practice research understood?

• Which organizational supports are most important for supporting collaborative projects involving diverse stakeholders?

• What are some examples of practice research projects that feature the importance of organizational supports?  

The first component of the seminar explored a set of working definitions of organizational supports for practice research. The second component provided space for a comparative international perspective (Asia and the Nordic countries). The third component invited participants to engage in a “workshop” by sharing their experiences with organizational supports for conducting practice research.

The Program for the Workshop is provided below: 

Component # 1: 9-10 am

• Welcome and Introductions (Bowen McBeath, USA)

• Session Theme: How do we build a definition of “organizational support” for practice research that features the key stakeholders of practitioners, service users, and researchers?

  • Discussion for clarifying and suggesting basic aspects of “organizational support” using illustrative definitions (handout), especially with service users

Component #2: 10-11am (Bowen McBeath, USA & Heidi Muurinen, Finland)

•  Session Theme: How can we build an archive of cases based upon organizational storytelling that features the launching of practice research projects with organizational supports?

  • Using a modified fishbowl technique where two practice researchers share their experiences in launching practice research collaborations

    • Researcher-initiated practice research (China)

    • Practitioner-initiated practice research (Finland)

  • Engage in follow-up questions on organizational supports and key stakeholder involvement that compares/contrasts their respective experiences 

Component #3: 11am-12pm (Sidsel Natland, Norway)

• Session Theme: How do we support each other in developing research that advances the basic theme of organizational supports for practice research based on ideas generated in previous sessions, especially the involvement of service users?

  • Using a peer consultation approach, conference attendees will be divided into small discussion groups to share their current experiences with practice research

  • The facilitator of each group will then briefly share highlights of the group discussions in the closing session of this pre-conference Practice Research Collaborative

  • Future publication strategies will also be shared