Sharing our research experience in higher education: should doing it differently be the exception?

As academics from the University of Newcastle Department of Rural Health in regional Australia, we embraced our intersecting roles as health professionals and educators in a collaborative research project. Funding encouraged us to move beyond the dominant research paradigm traditionally associated with healthcare. Being unconstrained by our usual requirements for measurable outcomes, we used creative strategies to explore the complexities of our topic via a collaborative approach. Geographically separated, we met in an idyllic setting for two weekend retreats in our own time. Armed with literature, creative materials, food supplies, hiking boots, curiosity, goodwill and a sense of adventure, we questioned, shared, walked and created. We unpacked implications of cultures within and across disciplines; doing this through time, space and funding we do not usually have access to. Taken to the edge of our comfort zones, and sometimes beyond, there was safety in our established rapport and our trust in, and respect for, each other. Importantly, we embraced complexity and continued our conversations beyond the retreat. Through developing this article we have come to realise the exception of our research experience and the value of a praxis-oriented equity framework for understanding the richness and possibilities of self-authored time and space.