Elaborating From Practice on the Theoretical Model of Engaged Scholarship

Abstract

Engaged scholarship (Van de Ven, 2007) is a collaborative form of inquiry involving academics and practitioners working on complex problems to co-produce knowledge. Van de Ven and Johnson (2006) proposed broad conceptual foundations for such scholarship based on five essential elements, a focus on big questions grounded in reality whose dimensions can only be understood by using a diversity of perspectives; a collaborative learning community that includes both academics and practitioners; an extended time frame; multiple models and methods of research and research designs; (re-)examination of researcher assumptions and awareness of epistemological standpoints. In addition, they acknowledged the potential for conflict as a result of likely differing epistemological orientations of academics and practitioners. In this paper we report on research that explores the implementation of engaged scholarship principles and also finds that not only are there epistemological differences between academics and practiti...