Abstract
Training is often cited as key to embedding public engagement in universities. The literature and professional discussions on public engagement training tend to focus on the training intervention itself (for example, the content and delivery formats), rather than on the learner (for example, current levels of public engagement practice, longer-term career aspirations, and workplace environment). In this article, we share our reflections on putting the learner first. We draw on our own general experiences and in particular our ChallengeCPD@Bath programme (funded by UK Research and Innovation through the Strategic Support to Expedite Embedding Public Engagement with Research call). We argue that many of the challenges associated with the provision and uptake of training and professional development for public engagement with research are not unique to public engagement but relate more broadly to perceptions of training and professional development that exist within the academy. However, putting the learner at the heart of professional development means understanding their public engagement needs, their broader academic/career goals, their disciplinary/institutional cultures of training and their disciplinary/institutional cultures of public engagement. It also entails a shift in how we evaluate interventions, moving beyond measures of satisfaction or enjoyment towards long-term evaluation, in particular accounting for the extent to which learning can be, and is, applied on the job, or looking at how it might change behaviour in the workplace.
Highlights
Over the past decade in the UK, public engagement has become increasingly recognized as an important part of the life cycle of research and a feature of the university landscape
See Kevin Burchell’s (2015) literature review for factors affecting public engagement by researchers, which provides a much richer overview.) There have been a number of broader policy shifts, such as the inclusion of impact in research assessment, which some suggest has acted as a catalyst for further embedding engagement in research (Watermeyer, 2012; King’s College London and Digital Science, 2015; TNS BMRB, 2015; Townsley, 2016; NCCPE, 2016)
When we focus on formal training as an intervention that leads to participation, is this a mechanism about which the communities we wish to engage are largely agnostic, but we risk narrowing the influence of our work, losing the focus on quality, reflection and continual learning
Summary
Over the past decade in the UK, public engagement has become increasingly recognized as an important part of the life cycle of research and a feature of the university landscape. Exploring these frameworks brought to light ethical considerations around practising public engagement as a mechanism to enhance professional skills and competencies – in particular where this benefit for researchers is implicit or undisclosed to community partners and members of the public, who are playing a key role in the education and upskilling of researchers This is largely an under-researched area, but to draw a parallel with student–community engagement, some studies have found that community partners engage with these schemes not because they primarily want to benefit from the resource and knowledge that the university has to offer, but because they see it as part of their core mission to work with students as future leaders and influencers, and educate them about the needs of their service users and communities (Stoecker et al, 2009). We are going to experiment with partially decoupling engagement skills training and development from the practice of public engagement by embedding these ideas into other professional development interventions (for example, probation programmes for early career researchers) or reframing the offer as something more generic such as ‘leadership’.
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