Click here to view the April 13th INTEREACH webinar, the forth installment in our Spring 2021 series on Boundary Spanning Tools for Research Teams. In this episode we are introduce to two (2) tools for Integrating different ways of knowing, providing transformative insights into the complex problems that research teams often engage. First, we hear from Drs Sibylle Studer and Michael Stauffacher about a tool called The Give & Take Matrix. This tool is used to identify pieces of knowledge to be shared between participants or working groups of inter- and trans-disciplinary projects. It aids knowledge integration by showing which pieces of knowledge can be shared between which subprojects. It can also aid conflict transformation by showing how everyone will contribute to the effort. Sibylle and Michael demonstrate the use of The Give & Take Matrix with our participants by asking each person to individually to formulate what they would like to "give and take” from the presenters & participants in today’s session. Participants indicated they would like to “Take” e.g., “action steps for implementing the tool in their teams”, “learning new approaches for team engagement and integration”, “tools to use with teams in proposal development”, and “Give” e.g., “a layperson’s perspective on the tool’s use”, “experience facilitating conversations across many disciplines, especially focused on inclusivity and social justice”.
Next, Dr Bethany Laursen, shares a tool called Argument Standard Form which uses a logically-ordered list of the reasons (a.k.a. premises) to believe something (a.k.a. the conclusion) is true. Anyone’s perspective can contribute a premise or part of one, so the tool shows how different knowledges can be integrated through logic-based reasoning. It is also good for evaluating knowledge integration to see if it makes sense and includes all relevant perspectives. She uses some real-world examples to demonstrate the tool and its use, including the diversity of perspectives around hesitancy toward the new COVID-19 vaccine, while relating back to boundary spanning work which sees different kinds of perspectives in the form of disciplines, professions and cultures.