By Emmanuel Yakass
‘Wisdom does not reside in the head of one’ – Ghanaian Proverb
The Local Engagement Refugee Research Network (LERRN) course on fieldwork training and cross-cultural research course has been an enlightening experience for me, the module content of the course was well-thought-out and put together to increase my understanding of doing research with refugee and minority groups. The discussions were rich and diverse, and drawing on the experiences of my colleagues gave me a bird’s eye view of research methodologies and strategies for doing refugee research from many perspectives. The time with the lecturers on Zoom also was superb as we got to probe further and receive insight into pressing questions amidst a fruitful intellectual dialogue. While the topics in this course were very interesting and engaging, one that stood out for me was knowledge mobilization. In the ensuing paragraphs, I will delve more into the subject matter.
My opening proverb clearly explains the essence of engaging a broader community of people in acquiring knowledge since everyone has some wisdom, lessons, or experience to share. Knowledge evolves across time and space, and this is why knowledge mobilization cannot be limited to one method or approach. This course presented us with so many avenues for gathering information: interviews, focus group discussions, life history research, oral history and archival documents, surveys, and community-based research. These are incredible ways of gathering data and knowledge for all manners of academic work, suffice to say each method comes with its benefits and challenges. Many academics recommend the use of a combination of these methods in any research study to ensure the complementarity of methods and to achieve more robust findings.
My curiosity was heightened during the final discussions as we looked at ways of disseminating knowledge or sharing the outcome of our research work. As you would have it, dissemination workshops top the list, with many other formats like policy briefs, blogs, peer-reviewed journals, and quite recently the use of social media apps like Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and Instagram among others. These mediums have been of great significance in knowledge dissemination. Recently, the use of social media has been a game changer for the academic community with many research projects having their social media platforms (for instance: @MIDEQHub, MigrationRPC all on X). These groups have built an online community over the years keeping them up to date on any new developments regarding their ongoing research work. With such platforms, it is easier to reach a wider audience and engage more with a broader group of people across a different spectrum, which has made sharing research findings a lot easier and more accessible to people.
However, apart from using social media platforms, there is a need to adopt other strategies for presenting research findings in a way that is suitable to both academic and non-academic communities alike. For example, the use of artistic impressions can tell stories of research findings that can easily resonate with audiences who may not be able to read and understand a lot of the academic terminology. These can be done through storytelling, music, and arts among others. For instance, in Ghana, storytelling, music, and dance have been among the notable forms of knowledge production and distribution for time immemorial. Although usage of these ways to communicate have not been fully explored in many academic fields, I believe there are enormous benefits that can be achieved through such avenues. We have become overly ‘booklong’[1] in our knowledge dissemination.
I think it is time for scholars to go back to their roots and adopt more indigenous methods of knowledge distribution rather than the seeming ‘overreliance on books’. While I do not discount the essentiality of books, I believe the goal of every research is to generate a body of knowledge to bring about an evidence-informed policy. This purpose will truly be achieved through engaging in transdisciplinary collaboration in doing research and through presenting research findings in a way that people can understand what has been done.
This strategy has been effectively used by the Migration for Development and Equality research hub (MIDEQ) in partnership with Positive Negatives in presenting their research findings in animation stories and relatable content in some of their research hubs. This approach enables research participants to appreciate their inputs in the study and gives a better comprehension of research findings to a wider community both in academic and non-academic fields, especially to those who may not be familiar with some academic terminology. This animation dubbed the migration story also gives an overview of the whole Mideq project.
This project was documented in this way to enable all to understand the concept of migration and how it transcends boundaries. Again, in this video at the inception of the project, the MIDEQ team uses a dance portrayal called Lungulugu/Kpormi to explain the concept of migration and the impacts of migration on different populations, with a focus on emotions and the effects of migration. The Covid chronicles also showcase the experience of a Nepalese migrant in Malaysia. These experiences, although they have been documented in books, evoke a different feeling and understanding when communicated through this animated story.
In Ghana, the IOM partnered with a popular musician as their National Goodwill ambassador to drive home their message of safe migration. IOM Ghana has been doing incredibly well in their campaign for regular and safe migration, but with the addition of this musician as an ambassador, their message has reached a wider audience. His songs address issues of irregular migration, the struggles of migrants, the unrealistic expectations of the family back home, and other pressing issues in migration.
I think it is time for the academic community to look at broader spaces for collaboration in disseminating research findings and telling their stories in other impactful ways, utilizing new forms of technology and media. I believe the goal of every research is to initiate or drive change and I am convinced this can happen when the research findings are well communicated to the right policy makers and research stakeholders.
[1] A Ghanaian term like ‘bookish’, but often expressed to mean someone who doesn’t practicalize knowledge.