From Academic to Practitioner: Tips for Increasing Engagement With Your Research (Essay on Best Practices)

Abstract

Academics and practitioners all too often have little or no contact with each other; the practitioner does not know what research exists that can inform their practices, and the academic does not know enough about the institutions they primarily study to make recommendations that are specific enough to inform a concrete practice or policy. I leverage my experiences both as an academic and as a data analyst and domestic violence coordinator at Family Court to outline lessons learned in the field. I detail how my academic training hindered my work as a practitioner, and how practitioners differ in terms of conducting internal research and presenting data and findings. I use my lessons learned and subsequently list several concrete practices that academics can begin to work into their work to increase communication with important stakeholders, and tailor their work to practical systemic improvement. Bridging the gap between academics and practitioners will lead to better research projects, and findings that will be able to actively enact changes within systems that academics focus on.