Experiences of insufficiency: "walking on a ledge in the dark"

During 2009 CARA announced the Iraqi Research Fellowship Programme aiming to enhance research capacity among Iraqi academics. The IRFP allows scholars to conduct and disseminate advanced and modern research projects connecting these to Iraq’s future academic development. This programme takes into consideration fostering and engaging the work of Iraqi academics in exile. One key expectation of the programme is for projects to have a positive impact on development of academia in Iraq in both the short and long term. It also facilitates international academic engagement fostering cooperation with Iraqi counterparts. This account is a reflection from a multidisciplinary team of researcher-practitioners facing these kinds of dilemmas the IRFP is intended to address. The context for the research involves paediatric training in Iraq and the potential extension of curriculum to involve psychosocial approaches to understanding human behaviour. Central to this account is an acknowledgement that in both research and practice, possibly one of the hardest decisions to make is not a choice of whether one possesses sufficient knowledge, but an acceptance that in not knowing we possibly find our way to get to where we want to be. This chapter discusses several challenges faced by an international research team as they embrace uncertainty together.