{"id":356,"date":"2026-08-27T10:01:50","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T09:01:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/education\/?p=356"},"modified":"2026-08-27T10:01:50","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T09:01:50","slug":"blurring-the-borders-working-collaboratively-across-fields","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/education\/2026\/08\/27\/blurring-the-borders-working-collaboratively-across-fields\/","title":{"rendered":"Blurring the borders: Working collaboratively across fields."},"content":{"rendered":"

By Mercy O. Martins, Dorica Deborah Mirembe, and Chandra Bahadur Lama<\/p>\n

Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n

As part of the British Council ELTRA project<\/a> (Reparative Learning and English Language Teaching in Nepal and Uganda<\/em>), four co-principal investigators worked across three countries and three continents. Recognising the importance of local perspectives and contextual knowledge, the team included research assistants based in Uganda, Nepal and the United Kingdom. While we met regularly through online video conferences, many of us were meeting one another for the first time. Before ELTRA, we had often worked closely with individual co-principal investigators, but the project created a space for us to collaborate as a wider team, bringing together different roles, experiences and forms of expertise.<\/p>\n

Our contributions to the project took different forms. The UK research assistant focused primarily on activities supporting the early stages of the research, including ethics processes and literature review scoping, while research assistants in Uganda and Nepal played key roles during data generation through interviews and participatory workshops. Together, these different perspectives shaped not only what we learned through the project, but also how we approached working together.<\/p>\n

This reflective blog explores what it meant to collaborate across geographical, academic and professional boundaries. Through reflections on shared questions, learning from one another, moments that mattered, and experiences of partnership, we consider not only what we produced through the ELTRA project, but also the processes and relationships that enabled this work. The journey itself became an opportunity to practise the values of care, inclusion and reciprocity that underpin reparative futures.<\/p>\n

Organised around four themes, the blog brings together reflections from the research assistants on the experience of \u201cBlurring the borders: Working collaboratively across fields\u201d. The first theme explores same questions, different contexts; the second focuses on learning from one another; the third reflects on moments that mattered; and the final theme considers broader reflections on partnership and collaboration.<\/p>\n

Same questions, different contexts<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Dorica:<\/strong> Working on this project has been a unique opportunity to collaborate with researchers from the United Kingdom, Nepal and Uganda. Although we came from different countries, academic backgrounds and educational contexts, we were united by a shared interest in exploring how English language teaching can contribute to more inclusive and reparative learning. While our contexts differed,\u00a0 we all recognized that English classrooms should not only be spaces for developing linguistic competence but also environments where learners negotiate identity, belonging and lived experiences. They should be spaces where learners feel safe, are seen and valued, and contribute to healing, inclusion and hope.<\/p>\n

Starting work with people I had never met before was both exciting and unfamiliar.\u00a0 Our collaboration took place entirely online; nonetheless, the virtual meetings became spaces where we exchanged ideas, supported one another and remained focused on the shared goals, despite the geographical distance.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Mercy:<\/strong> I joined ELTRA because I was interested in how language practices shape classroom experiences and the role of English in education. I was particularly drawn to the project's focus on English language classrooms as spaces of repair in Uganda and Nepal. I expected to learn about reparative approaches to language education. What I did not expect was that one of the most valuable lessons would come from the way we worked together.<\/p>\n

Although I had met some of the UK-based co-investigators before the project began, most of our collaboration happened online. I never met the other research assistants in person, yet through regular meetings and shared documents we built genuine working relationships. We were asking the same questions, but our perspectives were shaped by different experiences and contexts. Rather than creating barriers, those differences strengthened the research and challenged me to think differently about collaboration.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Chandra: <\/strong>Although the ELTRA project shared a single core objective - exploring\u00a0reparative learning and English language teaching - bringing it to life on the ground looked vastly different across the three countries.\u00a0There was the UK with its specific policy and academic surroundings, Uganda with its local social organizations, Nepali with its geographical and cultural diversity, with each country characterized by its own features.<\/p>\n

During our work in Nepal, we carried a common set of research questions, but they echoed differently once we addressed them to local communities. It was the local level respondents who listened to our voices and answered us. Questions were same but human experiences, diversity in languages as well as local settings necessitated the reorientation of our data collection process to Nepal situation. What we ended up realizing is that through such variety in perspectives, that became the most exciting aspect of undertaking this collaboration with many different countries.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Learning from one another<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Chandra:<\/strong> Working as a research assistant for an international team, I was one the member to collaborate with colleagues who came from different countries but had never met face to face.\u00a0At the beginning, our exchange was very formal and respectful.\u00a0But as we started to meet through online video calls regularly and also shared with each other our field work experiences openly plus telling stories about the problems we faced, I learned more of them as individuals, and so as a consequence, we became friends and a great team working together. What the Uganda team taught me is really great was about their meaningful local community engagement strategies.\u00a0At the same, it was the British team members who assisted us to make a better understanding of the concepts and global research standards.\u00a0This time from our Nepali side we shared the ways how at local scale issues related to technology and practical problems can be addressed, and through flexible methods.\u00a0It was my personal experience when during the fieldwork a very difficult problem unexpectedly arose that our solution was discussing together with joint efforts to resolve it made me come to the conclusion that what we could do together was by far our best achievement and our most precious resource.<\/p>\n

Mercy:<\/strong> One of the things that struck me most was how expertise moved around the room. Whether we were discussing translation, ethics processes or interview guides, everyone brought different forms of knowledge shaped by their experiences and contexts. Supporting the ethics process, for example, showed me that research governance looked different across Uganda, Nepal and the UK. It was a reminder that there is rarely one right way of doing research. As an early-career researcher, I found this incredibly encouraging. Expertise was not defined by academic titles or seniority, but by a willingness to listen, share ideas and learn from one another. Every meeting became an opportunity not only to contribute to the project but also to grow as a researcher.<\/p>\n

Dorica:<\/strong> As a junior researcher, one of the most valuable aspects was learning from the senior researchers. Their experience, guidance, willingness to answer questions created an environment where I felt encouraged to learn and grow. Watching how they approached different stages of the project developed my understanding of collaborative research and gave me more confidence in my own contribution. This also taught me that collaboration is not just about producing the expected results, but also about mentoring, learning and growing together.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Momen<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

ts that mattered<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Mercy:<\/strong> The moment that stands out most was leading one of our project meetings for the first time. Before it began, I was incredibly nervous. I remember wondering how I was supposed to lead a discussion with experienced academics whose work I admired. I questioned whether I was qualified to be facilitating the conversation at all. Very quickly, those doubts disappeared. My colleagues were encouraging, generous and genuinely interested in hearing my perspective. Rather than feeling like I was leading a room full of experts, I felt like I was working alongside colleagues who wanted me to succeed. By the end of the meeting, I was no longer thinking about whether I belonged there. I was excited by the opportunity to take on more responsibility and contribute in new ways. When the team later visited the UK, I experienced that same openness in person. Conversations felt collaborative rather than hierarchical, reinforcing that I was not simply supporting the project but contributing to it.<\/p>\n

Dorica:<\/strong> My greatest takeaway from this project was recognizing the transformative potential of reparative learning in English language classrooms. As is well known, children spend a significant proportion of their lives in school. In addition to acquiring knowledge, they develop relationships, identity, values and attitudes. What they read, discuss and write about can have a lasting influence on how they see themselves and others. In Uganda, where many learners have experienced the effects of conflict, displacement, poverty, peer pressure and other forms of social adversity, education has a role that extends beyond academic achievement. It can help learners rebuild themselves and their communities, or it can overlook their lived realities and reinforce existing inequalities. I realised that classrooms can be spaces where learners encounter stories of resilience, reflect on real-life challenges, or develop empathy for others. Interacting with teachers, teacher educators, and analysing English language textbooks from the perspective of repair challenged me to think differently about English Language. It is not simply a subject to be learnt, but a powerful medium through which healing, inclusion and social transformation can be nurtured.<\/p>\n

Chandra:<\/strong> We were thousands of miles apart, but when I read report from Uganda, I found more or less the same things like ours. At that point, I realized that we are separated only by different skin colors and languages, yet we are united as human beings.\u00a0People I had never met in person started to feel less like colleagues and more like friends walking the same path, working toward the same mission. As a research assistant, there was no more fulfilling reward for me than to have a local voice carried from the community onto a global platform. This project was never just a job or a responsibility for me; it was a real turning point in my research journey. What began among unfamiliar faces has grown into deep professional and personal bonds.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Reflections<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Dorica: <\/strong>Looking back, this collaboration blurred geographical borders. It bridged differences in experience, discipline and perspective, and created a supportive research community. It showed that collaboration itself is reparative, as it fostered trust, belonging, respect and shared growth.\u00a0 I leave this project with new skills, greater confidence and a deeper appreciation of collaborative research. More importantly, I leave convinced that reparative learning offers an important lens for reimagining education, one that responds to not only what learners need to know, but also to who they are and the realities they live through.<\/p>\n

Chandra:<\/strong> We were taught that doing fieldwork is simply completing questionnaires; yet, after this time, I realized the work is much more than that: in fact, it is the art of connecting people's emotions, understanding local settings as well as identifying links with the global picture.\u00a0Once you become an open person with a thirst to know, you can realize that borders will disappear without a need.\u00a0This participation in the ELTRA project was the perfect example of how a truly multicultural collaborative project should be like.\u00a0It has empowered me with both courage and zeal needed to be part of any multicultural teams.<\/p>\n

Mercy:<\/strong> Looking back, ELTRA gave me far more than new research experience. It gave me the confidence to try things I might previously have avoided, to trust my own ideas and to embrace opportunities that once felt beyond my reach. More importantly, it changed how I think about collaboration. I no longer see it simply as people working towards a shared goal, but as creating space for others to grow through trust, respect and shared learning.<\/p>\n

For me, one of the most powerful aspects of ELTRA is that the project did not only explore reparative futures through its research. It practised them through the relationships it fostered and the way the team worked together. We approached the same questions from different contexts, and it was those different perspectives that strengthened both the research and the people involved. I leave the project not only as a stronger researcher, but as a more confident collaborator, with a deeper appreciation of what meaningful collaboration can make possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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