Countering silos and hierarchies through peer-to-peer research-in-progress conversations
Project team
Led by Prof. Richard Smith
with team members:
Dr Gill FrigerioLink opens in a new window
Dr Andy HindLink opens in a new window
Project aims and overview
Across many university departments, research isn't widely discussed among colleagues during the conceptualisation and planning stages but only showcased when complete. This excludes many individuals due to hierarchies, contract types, or lack of integration. Indeed, conversations about research across different specialised interests have decreased since the pandemic, hindering the formation of new interdisciplinary relationships.
Warwick Applied Linguistics, despite – in theory – being interdisciplinary within itself, mirrors these issues, making it an ideal site to develop, trial and evaluate structured peer dialogue activities designed for broader application across university discipline and status boundaries.
Specifically, the project aimed to design sets of suggested questions to inform guided conversations about research, which were then piloted with Applied Linguistics colleagues at a voluntary away-day in June 2024 for around 25 interested staff and students. The approach was carefully evaluated and guidelines are being prepared for wider dissemination in and beyond the university.
Project background
This project was inspired by a successful previous initiative (for WIHEA) Link opens in a new windowled by the PI which involved development of a set of a questions for peer dialogue about teaching. The procedure involved active listening (with guidelines for this) as well as a series of suggested prompt questions to lead participants to deeper understanding via respectful, down-to-earth communication. The WIHEA initiative turned out to have a more powerful than expected effect – participants were able to share useful insights across disciplinary and status boundaries and the procedure was found to have broader potential relevance, including as a means to enhance collaboration and compassion among HE professionals. Guided empathic, non-hierarchical interaction and reflection in peer-coaching dyads similarly lies at the heart of the present project's approach, being extended to research-related conversations.
Project activities
1. All staff and students in or associated with the Department of Applied Linguistics were invited to complete a baseline questionnaire (41 respondents out of 128).
2. The project team designed, piloted, and planned structured conversation activities for a Research Conversations Away-day (see left and below).
3. A Research Conversations Away-day was organized. This was a one-day event from 9.30-4.30 on 14 June, accommodating 24 participants (staff from diverse professional categories and career stages, and PhD students). Activities included a report on questionnaire results, structured peer dialogues, unstructured conversations during lunch, a conversation group Q&A card 'game', and individual reflective writing as well as evaluative discussion of the activities.
4. A follow-up questionnaire was sent to all participants (18 responses)
Outcomes & Resources
Report on initial questionnaire.pdfLink opens in a new window
Away-Day programme for participantsLink opens in a new window
Structured peer dialogue guidelines and questions
Group Q&A card game with instructions
Report on the follow-up evaluation questionnaireLink opens in a new window
Next step (24/25)
The next step will involve further trialling, dissemination and embedding of similar, structured research conversations to build relationships across the newly formed school that Applied Linguistics has recently become part of (SELCS) and more widely across disciplinary/status boundaries in the university.
Looking for interdisciplinary partnerships for a new phase (25/26)
We are looking for academic departments to collaborate to build on the current and next stage of the project, to further develop and trial activities and guidelines for Research Conversations across disciplines and academic departments.
For any enquiries, please contact the PI, Prof. Richard Smith (R.C.Smith@warwick.ac.uk)