Co‐designing the Cabriotraining: A training for transdisciplinary teams

Abstract

Accessible summary The research was conducted by a team of researchers. Some of the researchers have experience of living with a disability. The researchers created training for other research teams that include experts by experience. The training has six parts. To decide what happened in the training, the researchers read articles and asked the research teams they trained about what problems they had and what they wanted to know about. The article tells why and how the training was made. It also says what training is needed for researchers with and without disabilities to learn and work together in a way that feels safe and useful. In developing and providing the training, it was very crucial to search for a safe and welcome space for all people involved (Figure 8). As we don't know what is “safe” for the other, this means we have to search together, in respect and with enough time to get to know each other. Abstract BackgroundResearchers collected questions and needs for training from 10 inclusive research projects in the Netherlands. Based on literature research and the information collected, six training modules were developed. Researchers sought to learn how to develop and provide training and coaching to inclusive teams on organising collaboration in the different stages of their research projects. MethodAn iterative training development process to support inclusive research projects was initiated by a research duo backed by a transdisciplinary team including researchers, trainers and designers. Some members of the team have experiential knowledge based on living with a disability. ResultsLiterature research resulted in four guiding theories, including Universal Design for Learning, Derrida's concept of Hospitality, post‐materialist theory looking at agency as an assemblage, and Romiszowski's model situated within Instructional Design theory. Insights gained during development of the training modules are documented with text, figures and vignettes. A core finding was the need to add “Level Zero” to Romiszowski's model: a collective term created for all the interacting issues trainers had to consider because of research group diversity. ConclusionsHospitality formed the heart of “Level Zero.” Creating a failure‐free space for learning is an important pre‐condition for the development and organisation of training. Training can inspire exploration and reflection on collaboration and can illuminate how to conduct research within transdisciplinary teams. Essential practices included working with nonverbal research methods, as these are (more) fit for purpose when including the knowledge of experts by experience and incorporating practice‐ and stakeholder‐based knowledge.

Inclusive Research: Is the Road More or Less Well Travelled?

“…All blogs and vlogs were published (in Dutch) on the site of Kennisplein Gehandicaptensector (https: //www.kennispleingehandicaptensector.nl (accessed on 14 January 2022)), the Dutch online knowledge exchange platform on disability, inclusion, quality of life, care, and support. The diary notes, blogs, and vlogs were created during the four phases of the research project: (A) literature research and introductory meetings, (B) exploration of needs and gradually building up the training program, (C) expanding the team and involving more research projects, and (D) adjusting and reorganising the training (Sergeant et al 2020). Every quote used for this manuscript is assigned to Researcher 1 or Researcher 2 and to a research phase A, B, C, or D in the Findings section.…”

“…Firstly, as already stipulated, the large team of researchers (all authors) provided valuable feedback and suggestions for improvement. Secondly, the research work was conducted over four years: this prolonged involvement yielded a large amount of data, retrieved in various settings and situations, over four research phases (Sergeant et al 2020). The third strategy is triangulation: we used different instruments of data collection, as explained above.…”

“…The training development process was designed in an actionoriented and iterative spiral of learning, building and creating modules, evaluating and reflecting, adjusting the training modules, etc. The development of this training has been described in Sergeant et al 2020. We learned from international research about the importance of training, team building, talking things over, and collaborative reflection.…”

“…The training was developed because training and coaching for inclusive research teams were not available in The Netherlands (Sergeant 2021), despite increased calls for inclusive research, including from Dutch and international funding agencies. The data on which this article is based were collected while the inclusive research duo created the training together (Sergeant et al 2020). In this iterative process, the research duo shared all tasks, explored what this collaboration needed, and reflected on the themes and problems they encountered on the road to jointly developing and organising the training.…”

Shared decision making in inclusive research: Reflections from an inclusive research team

“…The core members of the inclusive research team were two coresearchers with intellectual disabilities (Anneke and Henk) and an academic researcher (Kristel, PhD student), all employed by the Radboud University and Medical Centre. They followed a training course for inclusive research teams (Sergeant et al, 2020). The decision making reflected upon in this study was part of a 3-year collaboration by the inclusive research team who worked together on a weekly basis to execute the research project (March 2017-July 2020).…”