The Institute for Educational Planning and Administration (IEPA) at the University of Cape Coast is urging researchers in the country’s tertiary institutions to go beyond the theoretical works by engaging intently with communities.

IEPA is confident when researchers engage more with communities they will know their challenges and thus enable them to work at solutions to the challenges these communities face through their research.

This, the institute believes, is a panacea to solving many of the country’s problems rather than the writing of thesis and dissertations that are eventually left on the shelves to rot.

A fellow at the Institute of Educational Planning and Administration, Dr Mike Boakye Yiadom gave the advice at this year’s Students’ Creativity and Innovations Expo at the University of Cape Coast.

He says, in order to promote innovative research methods, researchers should engage more intently with local communities and incorporate that indigenous knowledge into their research methods in order for solutions to be found.

“We need to empower graduate students and advance the communities we serve through this old approach to research. We must transform our theory development by relying more directly on locally informed practices,” he explained.

The Students’ Creativity and Innovations Expo saw many lecturers and students of universities across the country coming together to share ideas on how their researches impact society.

Dr Boakye Yiadom is confident the expo will blossom into a national expo where all universities in the country will converge and share their stories and successes.

Guest Speaker for the event and Associate Clinical Professor at the Center for Diversity and Inclusion in Higher Education at the University of Maryland, College Park, Prof. Candace M. Moore, admonished the audience about the use of conventional and unconventional methods in research and the current trends that solve societal problems.

She quoted the words of the Professor Ama Ata Aidoo, “Humans not places make memories” and began, “You cannot expect the unconventional by employing conventional measures – enact transformational practice,” she noted.

According to her, what is highlighted in higher education that theory informs practice is too narrow and thus graduates must thirst for innovation to improve the lives of their community folks.

“Our graduate students are viable vessels, forging pathways to newly designed and sustainable approaches to scholarship. As faculty and administrators, we have a duty to nurture their imaginations,” she averred.

She continued, “Our classrooms, both formally and informally, have the potential of squashing innovation by relying solely on our traditional methods of teaching. Yet, we also have the potential for fostering educational environments that engage graduate students in exploring their creativity, challenging previously used methodology, and empowering them to craft new theory.

“Our classrooms are those spaces, you see, for a graduate student to imagine decolonizing approaches and uncover multiple ways of knowing. As educators, we must foster those spaces, be open to the uncertainty in knowing, and employ transformative pedagogies,” she stated.

The theme for the expo focused on the promotion of quality graduate education through innovations.