Group reflection

Step 1
Choose a canvas for reflection

In this section, we provide guidance for choosing one of the models or texts to initiate a reflection on roles of scientists.

Select a model or a text

Questions for all scientists or for evidence-informed professionals collaborating with scientists:

I’m interested in exploring…

• what scientists generate knowledge for (e.g. for scientific debate, for answering concrete questions from society and politics, for achieving a goal defined with other stakeholders).
  Model 2 or 7
• who/what different target group scientists can generate knowledge for.
  Model 2 or 7
• the different ways scientists can support the decisions of policymakers.
  Model 2 or 7
• the different intensities of scientists’ interactions with other stakeholders and the implications thereof for their roles.
  Model 1 or 2
• the different foci of interaction when scientists conduct research with other stakeholders.
  Model 1

Questions for scientists who are already aware of different roles of scientists and have experience with performing roles at the science–society–policy interface:

I’m interested in exploring…

• the purpose of my role in different situations or areas (e.g. providing access to knowledge, providing advice based on it, supporting social learning and collaborations).
  Model 2 or 4
• different roles in knowledge integration.
  Model 6
• process-oriented roles.
  Model 3, 4 or 5
• tensions between different roles and how to deal with them.
  Model 4 or 3
• the different normative orientations scientists bring along.
  Model 3 or 4
• the high diversity of roles in my inter- or transdisciplinary research team.
  Model 2, 3 or 6
• the boundaries between academics and practitioners (and questioning them).
  Model 5 or 1
• the boundary between scientific action and public engagement and the incorporation of scientific activity/knowledge into activist thinking.
  Text 1, 2, 3 or 4
• self-reflection about my role(s) / reflecting about our role(s) with my team.
  Model 6 or 3
• the spectrum of roles in sustainability transitions in a group of scientists and of extra-academic change-makers.
  Model 2 or 5

Select photos

Instead of models or texts as a canvas for reflection, you can also use photos showing concrete examples of scientists in action in situations that may enable sustainability transformations (see for example figure 4).

You can use these photos for generating a reflection on roles (see step 3). E.g.:

• Scientists doing lab work in interdisciplinary and multicultural teams;
• Scientists on field excursions with local actors;
• Scientists contributing to assessing scientific understanding (e.g. IPCC or IPBES);
• Scientists intervening in the media;
• Scientists intervening in public spaces, e.g. climate activists;
• Scientists participating in roundtables or workshops with societal partners;
• Scientists doing desktop research;
• Scientists moderating a stakeholder dialogue;
• Scientists facilitating and participating in a game with local actors to explore understandings of a sustainability issue
• ...

Step 2
Choose questions for reflection

Do you want to reflect on your own?

Understanding and acknowledging the spectrum of roles (Awareness Raising)
Set 1

Strengthen your competences to position yourself more effectively in interactions with other actors engaged for sustainability transitions (with a target audience that is already aware of the spectrum of roles) (Improving Competences)
Set 2

Do you want to facilitate a group meeting on roles of scientists?

Support the group’s understanding and acknowledging of the spectrum of roles (Awareness Raising)
Set 1 + 1a

Strengthen your group’s competences to position themselves in interactions with other actors engaged for sustainability transitions (with a target audience that is already aware of the spectrum of roles) (Improving Competences)
Set 2 + 2a

Step 3
Design your workshop

This section provides important building blocks for a workshop, summarised in the table below. In addition, in the following sections we provide further elements that can be used to craft an inspiring workshop.

Key elements for designing a workshop

Working with case examples to strengthen awareness

On our website examples of how change-makers perceive scientists in sustainability transformations are provided. In the last section of each of these case examples, change-makers’ perceptions of scientists are linked to a selection of the models of scientists’ roles.

If you decide to use one of these examples, we suggest that you first provide an input on the selected model (Step 1); then you can provide participants with the case example taken from the website and ask:

For students:

• Which of the presented roles are new to you? What would you need to feel prepared to perform this role?
• You can also ask learners to match the roles described in the text of the case described with the roles in the models (while hiding the matching done by the authors of the case examples), or you can ask to what extent they agree with the matching of roles done by the authors of the text.

For representatives of public administration:

• Which of the presented roles are new to you?
• Which of these roles do you consider especially supportive?
• How would you proceed to find people able to perform thes roles?

︎ Visualisation of roles

To initiate lively group discussions, it may be helpful to ask participants to position themselves in a visualisation of typical roles of scientists.

• Either you can use photos of scientists in different roles as an input (Step 1), and provide participants with sticky dots to mark their favourite picture/role.
• Or you can use a model from chapter 2 as an input and provide a spider diagram of the spectrum of roles. Then ask participants to draw their profile in their own copy of the spider diagram (see for example fig. 5).

See question Set 1a and Set 2a for ideas regarding how to induce a group discussion based on such visualisations.

Questions for debriefing

Before closing a workshop, it is helpful to discuss how the workshop experience might influence participants’ future work. Some of the reflection questions already contain a certain ‘call for action’. You may complement them by asking:

• What is your main take away? What is the favourite sentence you heard or reflected on during this workshop?
• Have you found new words for how you talk about roles of scientists? If so, which ones?
• To what extent did this workshop strengthen your desire to do impactful science? (see example 2)
• Where do you think you will act differently in future, based on your awareness of different roles of scientists?
• ...

General facilitation tips

• Irrespective of which discussion basis (model or set of photos) you choose, we recommend that you add the role «others» to provide space for additional roles that may not be explicitly mentioned in the model or set of photos, but correspond to something experienced by participants.
• We recommend that you invite participants to reflect first individually for some minutes and then to meet in small groups, before going into a plenary discussion.
• Make sure that the models are used as a basis for discussion, not as an analytical instrument to draw lines between roles: The strength of models of roles is to show that a person can contribute to knowledge co-coproduction, engagement, or knowledge brokerage with different work attitudes/intentions in a professional setting. For a specific activity, it is often difficult to draw the line between roles. However, discussing boundaries between roles may be helpful in a real-world situation, especially to clarify expectations, power issues and potential conflicts of interest. If conducted on an abstract/theoretical basis, such a discussion aiming at demarcations is less productive.
• If not all your participants are scientists, you may us models that describe roles of scientists (as described by scientists themselves) as well as the perceived contributions/roles of scientists (as perceived by other societal actors). We used model 2 for that purpose, see example 3. A recent article used the typology proposed as model 5 in this guide, describing a much larger spectrum of roles that can be performed by scientists and other societal actors.
• In group settings, the spider diagrams filled in by individual participants can be displayed in a joint picture. This makes it possible to discuss the constellation of roles present in the group. This in turn enables a discussion of a division of tasks within the scientific system and teambuilding within the group (if applied in a research team).