Creating Inspiring Workshops and Courses in Transdisciplinarity: A Guide - Manual / Resource - Page 5
Preface
A decade into my research career studying global environmental changes, I
woke up to the realization that, while developing an understanding of what’s
happening around the world is important, I wanted to spend my energies
trying to help solve some of the problems, both for the sake of people and our
environment. Somehow, I knew from the beginning that those solutions would
only come through collaboration – among research disciplines and across
research-decision maker boundaries. What I didn’t know was how to do that!
Thanks to gifted collaborators and learning-by-doing, we made progress…but
if only I had access to what others were learning!
Over the years, a whole body of expertise has emerged from people involved
in connecting knowledge with action. For example, it has become clear that
one-way flows of knowledge – say, from academic researchers to decision
makers – often fails to help because, among other things, such knowledge is
not trusted. As the Global Environmental Assessment project collaborators
at Harvard found more than 20 years ago, trust requires legitimacy, salience
and credibility. One key to developing trusted knowledge is a collaborative
approach that includes dialogue, co-creation, and co-production between the
research and decision-making communities. Transdisciplinary research (TDR)
is just that. This guide is intended to share what we’ve learned about engaging
in TDR, and how to effectively train researchers in these practices.
The effort that led to this guide set out to collect and consider and learn
from the experiences of the many different efforts that have purposefully
engaged in TDR in the recent past. From published materials and our own
experience, we’ve attempted to identify what researchers should know about
TDR and what a researcher must do and be in order to engage effectively,
and ethically. This guide provides stepwise help in designing tailored trainings
of researchers and others. It walks you through all the components that are
needed to build an audience-specific TDR curriculum - concepts, practices,
proficiencies, leadership approaches, and training tools.
Who can use the training approaches presented in this guide? It is intended
for TD researchers, trainers, educators, change agents, curriculum planners,
and anyone who will facilitate a complex sustainability project. Who are
Preface
the intended learners who would benefit from these trainings? Certainly,
academic faculty and staff researchers who have embraced the need for
collaborative work and are excited to learn the most useful approaches to
doing so will benefit. In my experience, many graduate students are eager to
learn as well. They are realizing the importance of collaborative research and
seek training in TDR as part of or in addition to their other coursework. More
and more, we in academia are looking for individuals who have the knowledge
and skills and talent to take a lead “boundary spanner” role, a special role
increasingly needed as universities encourage engagement and partnerships
with others outside the university. In fact, a few of my students have honed
their skills in that area through their own work and training and see a future
career there.
The effort to produce this guide was a fascinating transdisciplinary experience.
We drew on TD concepts of inclusion, collaboration, pluralism, and on agreed
upon decision-making procedures to ensure continued buy-in to develop our
common goals, plan, and training products. Our team also included a number
of experienced experts in training and educational design – in a sense the
“practitioners” in this project. Our collaboration was an Illustration of building
a cohesive, effective team, fostering trust, with lots of ideating, dialogue,
harnessing the collective wisdom, listening walks, eating together, reflecting,
and even getting lost in a new city. What we developed has been tested in
multiple real-life contexts, evaluated, and adjusted over time. What we have
produced is a usable, accessible, adaptable instrument that can be used for
training workshops, professional development, graduate education, and team
building. We think this is needed, and we hope it encourages many more
researchers to take a different approach, a collaborative approach, because
our old ways of working are not making fast enough progress.
Please, join us, in expanding the field of transdisciplinary work. The
transformation to a more sustainable world may depend on it.
Pamela Matson
p. iv
