@article{f93ee342ee1c4c54883a51935afabaec,
title = "Scholar/practitioner research in international development volunteering: benefits, challenges and future opportunities",
abstract = "International development volunteering (IDV) is the practice of sending skilled international volunteers to exchange knowledge and skills with community-based organisations and individuals in a partner country. IDV is a popular form of development assistance in many countries. As the popularity of these programmes grows, so too does the need for–and interest in–better understanding of their impacts and dynamics. Scholar/practitioner research collaborations provide opportunities for improved knowledge development in this field of study. To better understand the dynamics of these collaborations, researchers collected survey data from 22 scholars and practitioners involved in IDV research, as well as notes from a workshop with 40 stakeholders from the IDV community. Thematic analysis of these data considers the distinctive features of collaboration models used in IDV research. Taken together, these data identify several benefits to collaboration and/or research partnerships as well as significant challenges that limit the scope and impact of their work. The findings from this study provide insights into opportunities for enhancing effective practices and designing new collaborative efforts for engaging in scholar/practitioner collaboration in IDV.",
keywords = "Collaboration, development, international, research, volunteering",
author = "Rebecca Tiessen and Jessica Cadesky and Lough, \{Benjamin J.\} and Jim Delaney",
note = "The challenge of limited time emerged as the most common concern. For example, insufficient time to invest in the collaboration, particularly in relation to the funding structures involving practitioner evaluations, require short turn-around times for data collection and reporting. For academics with research grants, research funding may extend for longer periods than project funding provided to practice organisations. By the time research funding expires, practitioner organisations may have moved on to other initiatives or evaluations. Thus, the dynamics of accessing various funding mechanisms and fulfilling their requirements previously discussed in the literature section is reinforced by our data. Practitioners{\textquoteright} busy schedules were also considered as a key time-related challenge to collaborating on research: “CSO colleagues are very busy … it is very difficult to find time to discuss work in progress”. These challenges negatively affect the collaborators{\textquoteright} ability to ensure a truly collaborative process, and inhibit the frequency and effectiveness of communication. They also detract from collaborators{\textquoteright} ability to complete work within coordinated time-frames and to ultimately build trusting and meaningful relationships. As one participant noted: “trust is a big factor, and trust isn{\textquoteright}t won in 15 minutes”. For example, Canada{\textquoteright}s Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) now includes several research funding streams (Partnership Grants, Partnership Development Grants, Connections and Engage Programs) – all of which require collaboration in the grant application, requiring matched funding and in-kind support from non-academic communities. Similarly, IDRC developed the Canadian Partnership Program in 1994 that supports collaborative research between actors from higher education and civil society organisations, amongst other sectors (Chernikova ). Small grants for the Academics and Civil Society Partnership began to emerge in 2005 and aimed to motivate these actors to collaborate. As a result, 15 partnerships were fostered with actors such as the Halifax Initiative and Mining Watch Canada (Chernikova ). Acknowledgement",
year = "2021",
doi = "10.1080/02255189.2020.1841606",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "42",
pages = "394--415",
journal = "Canadian Journal of Development Studies",
issn = "0225-5189",
publisher = "Routledge",
number = "3",
}