Establishing and sustaining authentic organizational partnerships in childhood disability research: lessons learned

Research Involvement and Engagement

Comment

Kinga Pozniak¹  Mary A. Khetani²  Patrick G. McPhee³  Leah Dix⁴  Wenonah Campbell⁴  Michelle Phoenix⁴ 

[1] CanChild Centre for Childhood Disability Research, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada;CanChild Centre for Childhood Disability Research, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada;Department of Occupational Therapy, University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA;Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences, Health Sciences Centre, 3N26, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, L8S 4K1, Hamilton, ON, Canada;Offord Centre for Child Studies, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada;School of Rehabilitation Science, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada;CanChild Centre for Childhood Disability Research, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada;School of Rehabilitation Science, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada;CanChild Centre for Childhood Disability Research, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada;

关键词: Partnership;    Organization;    Childhood disability;    Auto-ethnography;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s40900-023-00466-x

 received in 2023-03-03, accepted in 2023-07-10,  发布年份 2023

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

There is an increased interest from both researchers and knowledge users to partner in research to generate meaningful research ideas, implement research projects, and disseminate research findings. There is accumulating research evidence to suggest the benefits of engaging children/youth with disabilities and their parents/families in research partnerships; however, less is known about the benefits of, and challenges to, engaging organizations as partners in research. The purpose of this commentary is to reflect on successful organizational partnership experiences from the perspectives of researchers at an internationally-recognized childhood disability research centre (CanChild), and to identify and share key ingredients for developing partnerships between organizations and academic institutions. A companion study is underway to examine partnership experiences with CanChild from the partners’ perspective. Four CanChild researchers and two co-facilitators participated in a collaborative auto-ethnography approach to share experiences with organizational research partnerships and to reflect, interpret, and synthesize common themes and lessons learned. The researchers and facilitators met virtually via Zoom for 105 min. Researchers were asked to discuss the following: the formation of their organizational partnerships; if/how partnerships evolved over time; if/how partnerships were sustained; and lessons learned about benefits and challenges to building research partnerships with organizations. The meeting was recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed by the facilitators to identify and synthesize common experiences and reflections. Multiple rounds of asynchronous reflection and feedback supported refinement of the final set of analytic themes. Researchers agreed that partnerships with organizations should be formed through a mutual interest, and that partnerships evolved by branching to include new organizations and researchers, while also involving trainees. Researchers identified the importance of defining roles and responsibilities of key individuals within each partnering group to sustain the partnership. Lessons learned from organizational partnerships included reciprocity between the partnering organization and academic institution, leveraging small pockets of funds to sustain a partnership over time, and building a strong rapport with individuals in a partnership. This commentary summarized lessons-learned and provided recommendations for researchers and organizations to consider when forming, growing, and sustaining research partnerships over time.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s) 2023