Closing the Gap: Fostering Successful Research‐Practice Partnerships in Counselor Education

Abstract

Research‐practice partnerships offer counselor educators an opportunity to generate scholarship that can promote client welfare and create systemic change in practice and policy. The purpose of this article is to articulate strategies for building and sustaining research‐practice partnerships, as well as suggest methods for evaluating these partnerships.

An ecologically informed transdisciplinary prevention model for Black and Latine family wellbeing

“…However, many of the foundational participatory ideas parallel goals associated with feminist or narrative approaches that aim to deconstruct/reconstruct narratives related to oppression and identify personal plans for action. Additionally, researchers have shared examples for how counselors might apply participatory strategies for program evaluation (Barrio Minton et al., 2021) and in university–community‐partnered research (Hays et al., 2019). PAR frameworks and practices have also been used to develop group counseling interventions.…”

Community‐Engaged Research and Evaluation in Counseling: Building Partnerships and Applying Program Evaluation

“…Counselor educators embed their work in relevant context while also promoting their research agendas, students learn about both research and outreach, and communities find partners to help address local concerns. In their discussion of research-practice partnerships, Hays et al (2019) emphasized how these collaborations result in research that is "applicable, beneficial, and culturally relevant to those whom counselors serve" (p. 280). In short, CEnRE bridges the gap between research, practice, and community needs.…”

“…Engaging with partners may help students increase cultural competence and humility (Kilgo, 2015; as they learn about their local communities and further develop counseling or research skills. Students interested in practice Community-Engaged Research and Evaluation in Counseling may feel disconnected from research, and CEnRE may help them better understand the relevance of studies to their work (Hays et al, 2019).…”

Counselor Education and Supervision: 2019 Annual Review

“…Scholarship in this area was largely conceptual and qualitative, with one quantitative study evaluating research training and faculty departmental research culture as they related to research interests, self-efficacy, and productivity (Wester et al, 2019). Conceptual work covered authorship practices of counselor educators (Swank, Houseknecht, & Puig, 2019); competencies with respect to integrated care (Asempapa, 2019); preparation and rationale for interprofessional work and training in the curricula (K. F. Johnson, 2019); research practice partnerships across professions (Hays et al, 2019); integration of evidence-based practices in school counseling using a three-step model promoting practitioner partnerships to promote use of evidence-based practices in fieldwork (Martin et al, 2019); and relationally oriented research agendas integrating evidence-based relationship factors into counselor training and practice, and describing specific counselor behaviors to support practice and research (Parrow et al, 2019). Qualitative studies included experiences with grant funding (Delaney & Gibson, 2019); Latina student experiences, perceptions, and beliefs regarding teaching experiences (Vela et al, 2019); new counselor educator scholarly productivity (Borders et al, 2019); patterns of qualitative research in professional counseling over the last 15 years (Flynn et al, 2019); and the development and application of a collaboration between counseling students and master's students in a writing program (Reese, 2019).…”