Research for Practice – or why I thought the world needed another podcast

By Cassian Rawcliffe

SeNSS Researcher

University of East Anglia, Social Work and Social Policy Pathway

There is a gap between research and practice. Bridging it should be one of our highest priorities, but, if we are honest, the stock tools of research dissemination - the journal article and the conference – are far from the most effective means of doing so.

The journal article is fundamental the validation and dissemination of ideas within the academic community, but in getting new findings to people in the practice of education and social work, it’s not that great. Alternatively, hearing researchers talk about their work at conferences can be highly informative and so much more interesting, but their audiences are comparatively small. It feels uncomfortable pointing this out as I know how important they are and how much work we put into them, but even if practitioners had the time and inclination, and even though they are fundamentally the most important audience, journals and conferences are simply inaccessible to the vast majority of them.

Coming out of social work practice to start my PhD, the chance to talk with other researchers about their work was one of the things I most looked forward to. The interdisciplinary ethos of SeNSS provides a great opportunity to hear first-hand about leading research within the social sciences, and the cross pollination of ideas that can come from such a culture can be transformative. But, whilst counting myself fortunate, I wondered if such an opportunity could be shared more widely. This was the start of an idea for a podcast, which at the time I didn’t think a great deal more about. I have a lot of ‘what if…’ ideas, many of which are as fleeting as they are hair-brained, but this one kept coming back.

We are currently living through a communication revolution. The podcast – the ability to cheaply transmit the spoken word, the innate method of human communication, to be listened to anytime, anywhere, by anyone - is a game changer. So, it becomes almost a moral question. If you know someone who has evidence based ideas that could potentially improve the life chances of others, and you have an efficient method for getting those ideas to people who could put them into practice, do you not have a duty to at least give it a go? That was the uncomfortable position I found myself in for few months. Uncomfortable, because I hate the sound of my own voice, but, for a time, I had the get out clause that it was too much to take-on on my own. Teaming up with fellow PGR Natasha Rennolds, changed all that.

There are a million and one decisions we had to make between the idea and the reality. Some of which will never be satisfactorily resolved with no money, limited time, and no experience. If you continually seek the definitive answers to questions like what shall we call it? what should the artwork look like? what music would be perfect? Then you will never deliver anything because you will always think there is a better name/image/soundtrack, you just haven’t found it yet. 

The core idea was a podcast that could be easily listened to by practitioners in education and social work and which focused on the practice and policy implications of research. All other decisions got in line. This makes it sound straight forward, which is far from the truth. It took quite a bit of trial and error, but we now have a monthly podcast that gives a friendly, relaxed platform to researchers to talk about their work. So far it seems to work particularly well for researchers after thesis submission, giving them a great opportunity to talk about their findings in preparation for the Viva. It’s between 20 and 30 minutes long to be easily digestible on a commute and it’s called Research for Practice, because that’s what we intend it to be. Most importantly, however, it’s a work in progress and all those decisions can be subject to change as we learn and develop.

The first two episodes (Homelessness with Dr Carmichael and Football-coach mentoring with Dr Leeder) are out now on  Soundcloud, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts, and we can always be found on twitter @R4Ppod. Have a listen, spread the word, and if anyone is interested in chatting with us about their research, we would love to talk to you. Get in touch.