Compassion, Community, Care and Collaboration in Research
by Anna CohenMiller
Dr. Miller contributed to the The Sage Handbook of Online Higher Education. Find previous Sage Research Community posts from Anna CohenMiller here.
What is the illusion of perfection? And how does it relate to research?
Recently I was invited as a keynote speaker to talk about these ideas as related to gender research at the International Conference on Comtemporary Women’s Studies at Karadeniz Technical University in Trabzon, Turkey.
In the keynote, I talked about moving away from the "illusion" of perfection for ourselves as researchers (and people) through drawing in what I refer to as the 4C's of research: Compassion, Community, Care and Collaboration into our research praxis to develop as individuals and researchers. (This work expanded upon my previous work around the illusion of perfectionism for research and teaching in higher education at an invited talk I gave last year at Nord University.)
In the session, I discussed ways we can incorporate wellbeing as a means towards recognizing and accepting ourselves and others, thus opening us up to become more present and ready to accept and listen to others, becoming more ready to collaborate and address large-scale global “wicked” problems (e.g., educational access, gender equity, climate change).
Through a journey of introspection, thinking through questions, ideas and next steps, the session was developed to create an interactive space. Just as in research, instead of researching on or at people, we can have a chance in today’s research work to create participatory spaces where everyone is welcomed into our research, scaffolding learning together.
I sought to create a place for transformation and critical self-reflection, practicing contemplative inquiry through a 3-minute braindump. Contemplative inquiry practices such as these are guided by researchers including Valerie Janesick, Kakali Bhattacharya, my book with Nettie Boivin, and my recent book addressing transformative learning and qualitative research.
These processes were developed as a means to find directions towards equity, inclusion, and justice-centered research, and unpacking these approaches for our research and practice. Ultimately, through compassion, community, care, and collaboration, we have an opportunity to enhance our practice and move towards our own ideals in research and selfhood.
The 4C’s in research suggest steps towards how critical self-reflection and contemplative inquiry can help us better understand ourselves and our positionality. They give us insight to how practicing compassion and care can situate us as researchers as more accepting of ourselves and others. And lastly, how recognizing the illusion of perfection can encourage community and collaboration, facilitating directions towards equity, inclusion and justice-centered research.
These topics align with the work I'm continuing to explore with colleagues Nord University and Iook forward to the next steps. The conference continued for two days and incorporated fascinating topics around gender, such as related to technology, environmental justice, parks, media, theater, mothering, motherhood and more.
A huge thank you to Fahriye Altinay for the invitation and Prof Dr Aytekin İŞMAN and Assoc Dr Dilan Ciftci for the organization of an excellent research conference.
Sage Research Methods Community Posts about collaboration
Anna CohenMiller helps us drawing on the 4C's of research: Compassion, Community, Care and Collaboration into our research praxis to develop as individuals and researchers.
This collection of open-access SAGE journal articles includes a variety of perspectives on collaborative research and writing.
Julie Reeves discusses some important points about internal and external collaborations in this interview and post.
Getting started with a new collaborative project? Think about approaches for working with others within a group, intra-group collaboration, or across groups, inter-group collaboration.
Research and writing can be solitary activities. This post from Natalia Reinoso Chávez follows one by Janet Salmons about how two independent researchers have found value in collaborative friendship.
Some barriers to collaboration identified in business relationships can help us think about how to prepare for potential obstacles to success in collaborative research or writing projects.
Dr. Majbritt Lyck-Bowen offers suggestions for collaborative research assignments that include everyone in an online class.
The Director and Assistant Director of the Bass Connections program at Duke University share lessons learned and open access resources for team success in interdisciplinary collaborative research.
Big Data can mean the research is too big to conduct on your own. In this post, find four types of research collaborations involving Big Data, with open-access examples.
Researchers often collaborate with community partners, as discussed in this guest post from PhD candidates from Duke University’s Cultural Anthropology and African American Studies programs.
The focus for October 2022 is on collaboration. What do we mean when we use this term?
In this post Becky De Oliveira discusses lessons learned and practical tips based on her recent doctoral research with older research participants.
Emma Geen, Matthew Lariviere, and Helen Manchester discuss speculative storytelling workshops as a way to use creativity and collaboration to study attitudes towards ageing.
Read this guest post about collaboration and action research by Melissa Parenti.
Interdependence counters isolation some feel as indie researchers and scholars. Friendship helps, as discussed in this video conversation.
What does "Interdisciplinarity" mean for researchers? Key principles are outlined in this post.
How can you learn to be a researcher, particularly in emerging fields of study? Hear this student panel discuss what and how they learned through hands-on research projects.
How can you use comics in research?
Reflections about co-creation in research.
Hear John Creswell and daughter Johanna Creswell Báez discuss their new book, 30 Essential Skills for the Qualitative Researcher.
Want to edit a book? Learn more about the role of the editor.
Enjoy this collaborative post about creative thinking for research and academic writing by Jane Shore, Narelle Lemon, and Janet Salmons.
Collaboration is essential to the work of academic researchers and writers. Learn more from this selection of presentations.
This comic you can use illustrates positive strategies research teams can use to create good working relationships.
The way that science is done is changing. More and more, research is conducted in collaborative teams, pulling together scientists from a variety of areas of experience and geographic locations. This is particularly true in environmental sciences, where the types of complex, multifaceted issues faced by society can only be addressed by bringing together researchers with multiple perspectives. Across a wide range of fields, there is evidence that multi-authored research is more highly cited, suggesting that this shift in the culture of science is producing novel and exciting results...
Learning while doing: collaborating on a book about collaboration.