UNIFIED: A Translational, Transdisciplinary, International, and Multimodal Exchange to Enhance Mind, Brain, and Education Research

• In Event: Bridging the Gap: Opportunities, Challenges, and Lessons From Five Knowledge Translation Initiatives

Abstract

Objectives
While specialized knowledge in education, psychology and neuroscience is important, creating transdisciplinary teams that unify epistemological visions related to challenges in education may yield distinct and perhaps superior solutions than any one field can create alone. This project sought organization improvement through action research by creating a global repository of information that links schools, teachers and neuroscientific researchers. The objectives of this project were to:
1. Connect schools and researchers who have areas of mutual interest, allowing for research collaborations to be formed more efficiently;
2. Allow schools (teachers) to be more involved in the design of research from the conceptual stages of a project;
3. Connect both groups with updated research and resources in interest areas, so that study designs build upon and extend existing work rather than repeating prior study findings.

Theoretical Frameworks
There were three theoretical frameworks that provided the parameters of this project. First, it followed a modified Systems Theory of Learning (Bateson, 1979; Lipset, 2005; MIT, 2019), in which multiple disciplines were integrated to explain the interrelated and interdependent parts of the Mind, Brain, and Education eco-system. Second, it applied Problematic Integration Theory (Babrow, 2001) to address the dynamic processes used to evaluate and respond to problems. Finally, it applied Communication Accommodation Theory (Giles, Reid & Harwood, 2010) to explore frameworks for dialogue in interdisciplinary settings.

Methods of inquiry
This was an action research study aimed at organizational development (French & Bell, 1973). While action research is normally divided into either practical research, in which the main focus is on resolution to a specific problem, or participatory research, in which the main focus is on social inquiry and on work that “contributes to emancipation or change” in society (Mills, 2000, p.2), this study was both practical and participatory in that it sought to resolve a transdisciplinary learning community problem around communication and collaboration.

Data Sources
This study collected both quantitative as well as qualitative data, and divided sources into three dimensions: “experiencing-observing and taking field notes; enquiring-asking people for information; [and] examining-using and making records” (Creswell, 2005, p.563). Over the one-year enquiry, experiencing was achieved through participant observation (as an active participant in the process). Enquiring involved formal and informal, recorded interviews of all participants. Examining included the review of archival documents including the group writing of a journal article of the platform development, audio and video tapes of group meetings, fieldnotes and the final artifact of a new open-source platform to resolve the problem at hand.

Scientific or Scholarly Significance of the Study
Translational research across multiple disciplines in an international context is potentially valuable but little research has been conducted on just how this process occurs in practical setting. With the successful creation of a transdisciplinary project, we then examined the process to inform future collaborations of this nature. Both the final solution suggested by this project as well as the international, interdisciplinary collaborative research process itself which was undertaken may potentially serve as a working model in the field.

Author

• Tracey Noel Tokuhama-Espinosa, Harvard University Extension School