Sustainable agriculture relies on collaboration among individuals, organizations, and institutions, each with their own roles, interests, and responsibilities.
Parmveer Singh presents his research; Credit: Dibyajoti Burlakoti
Task Team: 14 and 15
Authors: Parmveer Singh (singhparmveer2023@gmail.com), Anil Kumar Chaudhary (auk259@psu.edu),
What is the issue?
Sustainable agriculture relies on collaboration among individuals, organizations, and institutions, each with their own roles, interests, and responsibilities. This teamwork is essential for generating the knowledge needed to address sustainability challenges. One effective approach is transdisciplinary research, which integrates knowledge from a variety of perspectives to develop real-world solutions. Transdisciplinary research aims not only to produce new knowledge but also to deepen understanding and enable practical application. Participating in such research environments requires more than just academic expertise; social and intercultural skills are also crucial, though they are less studied. Researchers often find it difficult to clearly understand what transdisciplinary research involves and how to apply it effectively in real-world settings.
To address these issues, doctoral research titled "Understanding Researchers' Positionality in Integrating and Designing the Transdisciplinary Research Process and Outcomes: A Case Study of Thriving Agriculture Project" explored the following key questions, including:
- To what extent do researchers' attributes (knowledge, motivations, advantages, and challenges) affect the success of transdisciplinary research?
- How do researchers perceive stakeholder participation, the co-production of knowledge, and their practical application?
What did we find and why does it matter?
- We identified gaps in understanding transdisciplinary research. Participants generally viewed it similarly to other research approaches, such as interdisciplinary research (where disciplines inform each other) and multidisciplinary research (where multiple disciplines work together without integrating frameworks).
- Understanding various aspects of large, complex projects can be challenging due to their size, dynamic interconnections with other teams, and logistical factors such as geographic locations. These complexities often acted as barriers to fully engaging with transdisciplinary research.
- Participants emphasized that stakeholder support is essential throughout the research process. This support aids in identifying and revising research problems, refining study designs, and tackling practical challenges and implications that emerge during implementation.
- Participants expressed that the benefits of the co-production of knowledge include enhancing accountability towards stakeholders, understanding new research priorities, improving research methods, enhancing stakeholder engagement, and disseminating quality research findings to broader audiences.
- Many participants have long-standing relationships with certain stakeholders they collaborated with on this project. These established relationships, characterized by mutual trust and an understanding of needs and interests, provide a solid foundation for future collaborations.
- Enhancing conceptual clarity, building capacity through training and workshops, and providing practical experiences will improve researchers’ abilities to meet the demands of complex economic, environmental, and social issues.
Definitions We Derived
- Transdisciplinary research is a process of addressing complex challenges by integrating diverse disciplines and perspectives of researchers and stakeholders, acknowledging the role and influence of contextual factors.
- A transdisciplinary researcher is someone who can conduct applied research by fostering collaborations across different disciplines and with stakeholders, by having a clear understanding of contextual factors and a personal drive to address complex issues.
- Stakeholder participation is an active, iterative, and collaborative process aimed at supporting researchers in understanding current issues outside academic silos.
- Stakeholder identification and engagement are long-term processes that extend beyond academic settings, requiring researchers to develop interpersonal skills, adaptability, flexibility, and scientific expertise. Higher education leadership can support these efforts by providing opportunities to acquire such skills and fostering an environment conducive to expanding disciplinary boundaries and collaborating effectively on environmental and social issues.
What did we do?
- Our research used the Thriving Ag project as a case study and involved 21 participants from the project team. We conducted interviews with 15 faculty members and six graduate students between March and June 2024. The qualitative data were collected online (n = 19) and in person (n = 2); all interviews were conducted via Zoom. Each session was recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using standardized procedures.
Publication completed for this work
Singh, P. (2024). Understanding researchers’ positionality in integrating and designing the transdisciplinary research process and outcomes: A case study of Thriving Agriculture Project (Ph.D. dissertation, Pennsylvania State University). Penn State Electronic Theses and Dissertations.
