Posted by Alfiya Yermukasheva
9 December 2025Written by Dr Seher Mirza and Helen O’Sullivan
Seher Mirza and Helen O’Sullivan recently attended ICERI 2025 to present the findings of the CollaborAcademy project, led by Dr Rosie Hornbuckle. CollaborAcademy took a participatory approach with doctoral researchers co-designing a syllabus for ‘learning to collaborate’. The presentation explored the prototype syllabus through six learnings. The research also identified six core principles for ‘learning to collaborate’:
Helen O’Sullivan provided insight from the participant perspective, giving the presentation an in-depth experiential learning angle which underlined the key messages and examples.
Helen reflected on how before taking part in CollaborAcademy, each participant felt that they are largely working in silos. Working collaboratively provided the opportunity to not only deepen their knowledge but to also provide support to one another in what can feel like a very lonely mission. Helen also spoke about the diverse research settings of the participants: science labs, design studios, libraries and classrooms filled with 35 7-year-olds. Which offered material for collaborative reflection and exploration of disciplinary differences.
Helen spoke about the stereotypes and labels applied to our fields, for example some fields are considered more “creative” while others are considered more “methodical/systematic”. However following this experience, the participants were able to appreciate that each research area can be both creative and methodical.
Another area of discussion was around the use of language and terminology throughout the project, including online meetings and when meeting in person during the ‘field trip’ element of the project. Participants explored the limitations in knowledge of other subjects and how they can use dialogue to deepen and support each other’s research.
Finally, Helen spoke about how individualised education is, and how it is largely based on individual merit and achievement. The education system as it currently stands does not allow many opportunities for collaboration or cross-curricular learning. However, CollaborAcademy has evidenced a great need for education at all levels to encourage and teach collaboration in all disciplines.
“Working on CollaborAcademy has reinforced my long-standing belief that collaboration is key to education. By sharing experiences, knowledge and language we can challenge assumptions, break down silos, and deepen understanding. I am excited for the next steps of the project and the syllabus, which will hopefully show others how crucial collaboration is to facilitating innovation and a redesigning a fashion system for a more connected world.”
The conference provided more food for thought for further work, such as the relationship of language and multiculturalism, industry and academia, and at different levels of education. All of this can contribute towards better understanding of factors that can influence and build affective transformational learning, courses and syllabuses for a variety of learners. For example, other papers/presenters explained the use of design thinking and creativity in education in science and engineering fields.
The CollaborAcademy conference paper is available on the Network plus Knowledge Portal and further outputs and resources will be available in the new year.
