Throughout 2024 we co-hosted the Ways of Knowing Symposia with Partners for Advancing Health Equity (P4HE), numerous co-organizers, and support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
From the very beginning it was abundantly clear that we, the collective we, need to transform the Health Science Knowledge System (HSKS) to be more inclusive of diverse perspectives, ways of knowing, and lived experiences. The HSKS includes institutions, organizations, and individuals – such as private and government research funding institutions, academic organizations that train and house many health science researchers, academic journal editorial boards that publish research findings, and other entities – that co-construct what counts as knowledge, how we know things, what information is valued, what qualifies as evidence, and which experiences are valid.
When attempting a change of this magnitude, it is crucial to be strategic, systematic, and organized. This means developing goals, strategies, and tactics and bringing in a wide range of perspectives and people who have long been doing the work as co-conspirators. If you think of a house as a metaphor for goals, strategies, and tactics, the "foundation" would represent the goals (the overall vision or desired outcome), the "architectural plan" would be the strategy (the high-level plans to achieve the goal), and the individual "construction steps" would be the tactics (specific actions taken to execute the strategy).
The Goal
Transforming the HKSK is the primary goal that brought us together for the Ways of Knowing Symposia Series. At the Kickoff Event, the speakers set the stage, expounding on the goal and their reasons for contributing to advancing that goal.
Identifying Guiding Themes & Principles
The questions we, as a collective, now face revolve around HOW we affect the changes in the HSKS that will advance health, Indigenous and racial equity, and inclusion. Throughout the course of the three topically-focused symposia that followed the Kickoff event (Indigenous Ways of Knowing, Transforming Community-Led Health Research, and Challenging the Norm: Redefining Rigor in Health Research), collaboration centered around establishing the principles and practices that underlie our shared goal. Out of these three convenings, several themes with related principles were identified, which we are continuing to clarify and refine.
At the culminating event, we worked toward prioritizing the principles within each theme to inform the development of the strategies. In 2025, E4A and P4HE will bring together decision-makers from across the institutional domains that make up the HSKS to gain insight about the practical implications for implementing the principles and practices.
Co-Developing the Strategies & Tactics in 2025
We will then work with our co-conspirators to develop an action plan outlining the goal, strategies, and tactics to operationalize the themes and principles to create a more inclusive, equitable, and therefore more effective, HSKS.
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