Challenges to integration – refining and balancing programmes

Description of sub-theme

Participants identified a variety of issues that challenged research and practice working smoothly alongside each other. The question of how much time should be spent with particular areas of the curriculum and how attention and time could be balanced fairly

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across essential tasks and areas of knowledge was explored across all the data sources. Some difficult experiences were shared and it was acknowledged by participants that the

institutional context can inhibit or affect the ways that research and practice co-habit.

The reality of the effort to bring research and practice alongside clearly at times brought challenges and problems to the programmes that participants were involved with. My prejudice as a researcher was to assume that the integration of research and practice must be a good thing. It was embedded deeply in my research title. However there was important and interesting data collected during the research process that indicated that the coexistence of the two within a single programme could at times be problematic. Almost all participants had something to contribute about potential challenges.

Clinical lecturer Helena from Site KT who acknowledged that she and her colleagues were in a regular process of ‘tweaking’ their programme to allow for practice alongside the research (in section 6.2.5, about finding confidence) expressed a concern that was repeated a number of times in Group- BA. The three experienced lecturer participants in this first focus group acknowledged that in their own histories, they had fully concentrated on practice first, and this had allowed them to grow and develop their therapist understanding. Introducing research had the potential to take significant time away from that development. Another Site KT lecturer recognised that there were always practical challenges about developing good experiences out in the clinical placements, and that poor

relationships with supervisors could affect people’s progress there. She was frank about the difficulty in creating good matches:

…so it’s not always good, in fact I’d say in less than 50% of the time those second year

placements where you’re starting to assert yourself and your personality, the chances of that matching with your supervisor in the second year are fairly small… (Bella 623-626)

If the student was engaged in research about this placement, there was extra potential stress for developing ideas and concepts about the work, and Bella recognised the challenges for students and staff. A further instance of student stress was raised by new graduate in Group-BA (discussed in section 4.2.7). Paloma drew attention to the stress she and her colleagues experienced with preparing ethics applications for their research, and this developed discussion amongst the focus group

participants about how relationships need to be developed carefully with ethics committees and the time this takes, but also the value gained.

During the Site FV visit I felt privileged as a researcher to be allowed to talk with members of the programme team at a time of change and difficulty and was grateful for their openness. One could sense the ‘trial by fire’ experiences that had affected the department, in the introduction of new research modules using very different approaches to usual learning practice for the department. There had been excitement about sharing skills in an interdisciplinary way, but the teaching was also being

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borrowed for expediency and economy from another discipline (under some management pressure) and this was not necessarily a good fit.

Previous analysis of the data indicated a clash of culture between a medical approach and psychological therapeutic approach to treatment and research, and one participant identified

differences in what ‘medical’ and arts therapies’ researchers would look for in student work. She cited examples where ‘intelligence and creativity’ were not understood in a project and were thus ignored:

…if somebody is able to produce some kind of very complex hypertext which may have some visual content and some auditory content which illustrates complex relationships very

beautifully and very clearly and that is somehow disregarded by a marker who is not familiar

with that kind of text, then that seems to be wrong…’ (Anna 475-478)

Two other participants indicated that they experienced low confidence about the pursuit of research, one in anticipation of a future project, and one in retrospect about a completed project. For the first, research was associated with academia and with a sense that relationships with people was a personal strength and but that research was outside his natural skills. For the second person, the hindrances and problems with delivery of the research modules in the previous year (noted earlier) left her feeling that her own research, which initially enthused and excited her, was a dangerous and fraught area. It was still something “I would do again” - but her confidence had been eroded. She was also realistic, but I had the feeling that more supportive supervision would have helped on many levels

… if I think about it. I was trying to do something too big and too complicated. And because I was in it, emotionally in it, it was very difficult to come out of that and so I

would be saying….‘simplify, simplify simplify’. (Hope 346-348)

Other points not observed elsewhere in the findings regarding the challenges are as follows:

Group E also noted inconsistencies about how the range of students managed their studies in the integrated programme they had developed. One lecturer-researcher suspected that some students with strong academic skills did not always engage fully with their own personal development and

suggested that “somebody with fantastically impressive academic letters, [could produce] something pretty dead really” (Kirsty 429). A lecturer at Site KT also shared honestly that her team was

continuing to ask questions and trying to balance between how they managed research and practice. She was open about her doubts regarding current practice and felt they needed to keep open to review. Finally, a Site FV lecturer observed the steps her department had made to manage the ‘clash of

cultures’ they had experienced with different stances on research teaching. She observed: “The new modules have been re-written and students have tried them and they’ve been able to make more of it. And we’ve been able to incorporate and appreciate people’s creativity more that way. There are huge

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cultural issues about being seated in this faculty where there are no other creative arts represented, but a lot of understanding about health and social care.” (Anna 406-410). Their experience had been harsh, but she felt the benefit of reviewing and reflecting honestly.