From frontline experience to research insight: a methodological illustration of the Everyday Entry Pathway of Everyday Practice-Based Research using food waste in residential aged care

Purpose This article illustrates how the Everyday Entry Pathway of Everyday Practice-based Research (EPBR-E) can support movement from a recurring concern in everyday work towards epistemic and practical clarity. Using food waste in residential aged care as an illustrative case, it examines how frontline experience can become more explicit, coherent, and communicable without being treated as formal empirical evidence. Design/methodology/approach The article presents a retrospective methodological illustration based on the author's frontline catering experience in residential aged care, occasional personal notes, an earlier practice-based preprint, and published literature. These materials were revisited through the conceptual architecture of EPBR-E to reconstruct a pathway involving recurring concern, reflection, pattern recognition, practice-based articulation, and the development of epistemic and practical clarity. The process did not involve formal coding, retrospective quantification, or the reclassification of reflections as research data. Findings The illustration shows how dispersed observations of food waste became organised into perceived waste pathways, provisional explanations, and possible practice-oriented responses. EPBR-E supported articulation and clarification rather than empirical validation, causal explanation, or generalisation. The case also demonstrates that analytical deepening through EPBR-A may become appropriate when a concern extends beyond the explanatory reach of one standpoint, connects with multiple bodies of knowledge, or requires additional perspectives and stronger evidentiary grounding. Originality The article provides a concrete methodological illustration of EPBR-E in use and makes the often-overlooked stage of research entry more visible. It contributes by showing how practice knowledge generated through sustained frontline engagement can serve as a legitimate starting point for inquiry while remaining situated, partial, and complementary to lived, system, and academic knowledge.