Girl on a Tractor Joyce Sutphen

I knew the names of all the cows before I knew my alphabet, but no matter the subject; I had mastery of it, and when it came time to help in the ields, I learned to drive a tractor at just the right speed, so that two men, walking on either side of the moving wagon could each lift a bale, walk towards the steadily arriving platform and simultaneously hoist the hay onto the rack, walk to the next bale, lift, turn, and ind me there, exactly where I should be, my hand on the throttle, carefully measuring out the pace.

Reprinted by permission of the author.

While accepting research as one way of knowing, the research in practice movement also challenges beliefs about who does research. As a university professor and supporter of research in practice, Grace Malicky (2000) noted that research has traditionally been conducted on practice by someone outside of the instructional context, often a university-based faculty member or graduate student. (p. 33)

At the same time, much of the support for literacy research in practice in Canada has been provided by researchers from universities and by practitioners with academic research training. As a result, workshops, courses, networks—and this Guide— have been influenced by evolving practices associated with university-based research. With growing experience, those practices are also being reshaped for research in practice.

Marina Niks (2004), an academically trained researcher, has provided research support for literacy practitioners in British Columbia. Her engagements with practitioners transformed her thinking about research:

Looking back at how I approached the [research friend] role when I first started, I see now that I saw myself transferring to "the field" what I learned in university about how to do research. As I engaged in projects and reflected alone and with the practitioners on these experiences, my assumptions regarding research, knowledge and university values were challenged. I had to rethink my beliefs and understandings.

Today I see myself facilitating the emergence of new ways of doing research by practitioners, questioning assumptions about how research "should" be done and by whom. I recognize that my academic training shapes how I approach research but I also believe it does not necessarily determine it. I believe that universities teach particular ways of doing research and that these are constructed by many as "the ways" to do research. People who have not been trained to do research in academia do not traditionally feel capable of generating knowledge through research. (pp. 13-14)