Preparation Exploration Negotiation Implementation
Researcher: The scientific method is the gold standard for research and is the authority on generating reliable evidence. Anecdotes and success stories don't teach us much about the truth.
Practitioner: Not only do we often have in-house research expertise, we work in communities built on generations of local/traditional/indigenous knowledge systems, and we have knowledge about how to use, disseminate, and apply research. The human experience is an important source of knowledge.
Convergence: Considering various forms of knowledge not only provides more context-relevant understanding for the research, it also will be more likely to generate practical solutions that can be readily applied.
Questions Researchers Can Ask:
What type of research or evaluation experience do you have?
What types of local knowledge or indigenous knowledges in the project area could add to our research project?
Who understands the context where the evidence collection will occur?
What connections do you have with marginalized or vulnerable communities?
Questions Practitioners Can Ask:
What is your purpose for producing this evidence?
What research methods will you use?
How do you plan to incorporate practitioner experiences in the research?
How do you plan to incorporate local or indigenous knowledge in the research?