scholarly journals Building Critical Community Engagement through Scholarship: Three Case Studies

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Isobel M. Findlay ◽  
Marie Lovrod ◽  
Elizabeth Quinlan ◽  
Ulrich Teucher ◽  
Alexander K. Sayok ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Community Relations ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Sustainable Communities ◽  
Engaged Scholarship ◽  
Indigenous Science ◽  
Knowledge Expression ◽  
Science And Culture ◽  
Community Engaged Scholarship

Drawing on a shared recognition that community is defined, understood, constructed, and reconstructed through contextually inflected relationships, collaborating authors use diverse interdisciplinary case studies to argue that rigorous community-engaged scholarship advances capacities for critical pursuit of cognitive and social justice. Whether through participant-centred projects undertaken with youth in government care networks, cross-cultural explorations of Indigenous and non-Indigenous science and culture as resources for food security, or facilitated dramatizations of community relations impacted by neo-liberal ideologies, contributors affirm welcoming co-learning environments that engage multiple forms of knowledge expression and mobilization. The respectful spaces held in these community-researcher collaborations enable new advances beyond hegemonic knowledge development institutionalized through colonialist histories. This essay theorizes prospects for building transformative community through scholarship, citing practical examples of the principles and practices that foster or frustrate sustainable communities. It explores the institutional arrangements and power dynamics between and among actors, asking who gets included and excluded, and what boundaries are created and crossed around complex, contradictory, and contested notions of “community.”  

scholarly journals Engaged Scholarship: Reflections from a Multi-Talented, National Partnership Seeking to Strengthen Capacity for Sustainability

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maureen G. Reed ◽  
H. Godmaire ◽  
Marc-Andre Guertin ◽  
Dominique Potvin ◽  
Paivi Abernethy
Keyword(s):  
Biosphere Reserve ◽  
Collective Learning ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Sweet Spot ◽  
Engaged Scholarship ◽  
Cultural Challenges ◽  
Academic Researchers ◽  
Working Together ◽  
Community Engaged Scholarship ◽  
National Partnership

This paper describes a national partnership of academic researchers, government representatives, and sustainability practitioners who sought to strengthen the capacity of 16 biosphere reserve organizations working across Canada to promote sustainability through collective learning and networking strategies. We begin by situating our work within traditions of community-engaged scholarship and appreciative inquiry, and then ask participants to reflect directly on the questions. We then draw attention to four key themes: building and maintaining trust; setting clear and confirmed expectations; establishing structured and multi-lateral facilitation; and finding the sweet spot for our collective practice. Our reflections address common themes of community-engaged scholarship, including addressing cross-cultural challenges and finding joy in working together.

scholarly journals Navigating the Boundaries of Youth Violence Prevention and Reduction: Reflections on Power in Community Engaged Scholarship

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurie Ross ◽  
Katie Byrne ◽  
Jennifer Safford
Keyword(s):  
Violence Prevention ◽  
Youth Violence ◽  
Transformational Change ◽  
Cultural Dimensions ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Engaged Scholarship ◽  
Community Partner ◽  
Youth Violence Prevention ◽  
Community Engaged Scholarship ◽  
Societal Problems

Community-engaged scholars grapple with power asymmetries in community-university partnerships, generally working from the assumption that deliberate practices are required to moderate the researchers’ power vis-a-vis that of the community. In this article, we suggest that this dyadic framing masks the complexity of power dynamics within communities, of which the university is just one part, and examine how power is negotiated in the boundary zones of a partnership. We use Third Generation Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) as a conceptual framework to analyse the structural and cultural dimensions of the boundary zone in which research, learning and action in our partnership occurred (Engeström 1996). A brief story sheds light on our boundary work which uses research and data to span, broker and shake institutional boundaries for the purpose of youth violence prevention and intervention. Our analysis illuminates the potential and limitations of our power to foster transformational change. It also allows us to show that underestimating power differentials and the diversity of values and cultures within an organisation and between a university and a community partner, and certainly across multiple institutions in the case of a cross-sector partnership, can slow down and even thwart work to address societal problems.

Embodying the Field

2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina Hoel
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
South African ◽  
Muslim Women ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Research Experience ◽  
Research Relationships ◽  
Embodied Practice

This article focuses on the various ways in which research relationships evolve and are negotiated by paying particular attention to the embodied nature of ethnographic research. By drawing on my own research experience of interviewing South African Muslim women about sexual dynamics, I critically engage debates concerning power dynamics in research relationships as well as researcher positionality. I argue that researchers should pay increasing attention to the multiple ways in which doing research always is an embodied practice. I present three case studies that highlight the complex ways in which research encounters speak to notions of intimacy, vulnerability and affect. In this way I argue that research encounters forge primary human relationalities that are marked by moments of convergence, conflict and despondency.

scholarly journals Is the Scholarship of Engagement a Meaningful Approach to Foster Change in Community Development Education? Field Notes from Three Community/University Partnerships

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorena M. Estrada-Martínez ◽  
Antonio Raciti ◽  
Kenneth M. Reardon ◽  
Angela G. Reyes ◽  
Barbara A. Israel
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
Engaged Scholarship ◽  
Action Research Project ◽  
Development Education ◽  
University Partnerships ◽  
Scholarship Of Engagement ◽  
Action Project ◽  
Field Notes ◽  
Community Engaged Scholarship ◽  
Epistemological Framework

AbstractPedagogical approaches in community-engaged education have been the object of interest for those aiming at improving community health and well-being and reducing social and economic inequities. Using the epistemological framework provided by the scholarship of engagement, this article examines three nationally recognized and successful examples of community-university partnerships in the fields of community planning and public health: the East St. Louis Action Research Project, the South Memphis Revitalization Action Project, and the Detroit Community-Academic Urban Research Center. We review and compare how these partnerships emerged, developed, and engaged students, community partners, and academic researchers with their local communities in ways that achieved positive social change. We conclude by highlighting common elements across the partnerships that provide valuable insights in promoting more progressive forms of community-engaged scholarship, as well as a list of examples of what radical forms of community-engaged education may look like.

Literacy instructional coaching for inservice teachers through a community-engaged partnership

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tala Michelle Karkar Esperat
Keyword(s):  
Professional Learning ◽  
Instructional Coaching ◽  
Time Frame ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Inservice Teachers ◽  
Engaged Scholarship ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Instructional Coaches ◽  
Coaching Model ◽  
Community Engaged Scholarship

PurposeThe purpose of the study was to provide an example of instructional coaching for inservice teachers within the context of community-engaged scholarship (CEP), involving professional learning communities (PLCs). This study seeks to encourage policymakers to allocate budgets for instructional coaches, as well as resources for schools.Design/methodology/approachAn exploratory case study design was used to examine the factors that contributed to the partnership and how the PLC sessions impacted the inservice teachers' practices. Data sources included interviews, focus groups, written reflections, observations of grade-level teachers' meetings and administrative meetings.FindingsThe study uncovered important factors that impacted the community-engaged partnership (CEP) positively, such as partners having a unified agenda, a common focus on the school's needs and an understanding of the culture of the school. Principals are the gatekeepers in such partnerships.Research limitations/implicationsThis study yielded the description of a model of instructional coaching within a CEP that other universities around the world could replicate. The limitations of this study include the length of the study and the time frame in which the PLC content was planned. The study was conducted over 1 year to limited funding. The instructional coach developed the PLC content during the ongoing academic year and that impacted the teachers' initial perceptions and their commitment to the PLCs.Originality/valueThis study offers a new coaching model for CEPs that focuses on closing the gap between theory and practice by integrating PLCs, content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and face-to-face visual support.

Puzzling and powering in the city: two case studies on collaborative research

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Duiveman
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Collaborative Research ◽  
Knowledge Development ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Research Practices ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Living Labs ◽  
Urban Issues ◽  
Policy Problems ◽  
Collaborative Knowledge

Abstract Cities are turning to urban living labs and research consortia to co-create knowledge that can better enable them to address pervasive policy problems. Collaborations within such practices help researchers, officials and local stakeholders find new ways of dealing with urban issues and developing new relations with one another. Interestingly, success in the latter is often closely related to accomplishing the former. Besides of analysing this phenomenon in terms of learning—as is common—this paper also delves into the power dynamics involved in collaborative knowledge development. This perspective contributes to a better understanding of how puzzling and powering are simultaneously involved in making research relevant to policy-making. By presenting two collaborative research consortia in the Netherlands, we demonstrate how developing knowledge involves both re-structuring problems and the urban practices involved in governing such problems. Collaborative research practices are predominantly concerned with learning as long as restructuring the problem leads to research findings that are meaningful to all actors. Power becomes manifest when one actor insists on restructuring (often reproducing) problems in a manner judged unacceptable by others. Analysis of two case studies will show how the familiar three faces of power express themselves in collaborative knowledge development. It is recommended that these new practices also require methods for better orchestrating power besides a methodology for successful structuring learning through collaborative research practices.

scholarly journals Reflect, Analyze, Act, Repeat: Creating Critical Consciousness through Critical Service-Learning at a Professional Development School

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 148 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Andrews ◽  
Susan Leonard
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Service Learning ◽  
Critical Consciousness ◽  
Professional Development School ◽  
Engaged Scholarship ◽  
Traditional Service ◽  
Community Engaged Scholarship ◽  
Service Learning Projects ◽  
Learning Projects

Universities engage students in traditional service-learning projects that often yield “good feelings”, even a savior mentality, but typically leave the root causes of social justice issues unexamined and untouched. In contrast to traditional service-learning, critical service-learning bridges this gap with an explicit focus on justice and equity, situating scholars’ work with the community rather than for it. A public university in the southeast offered a doctoral course that focused on critical service-learning in the context of a professional development school partnership. Designed as an ethnographic multi-case study, each graduate student in the on-site course represents a case. Data collection included interviews, observations, written reflections, and artefacts. The analysis revealed that developing critical service-learning projects with educators—rather than for them—supported participants’ critical consciousness. Findings and discussion highlight that facilitating community-engaged scholarship through critical service-learning impacts graduate students and middle-grades educators’ research interests, work, and future directions.

scholarly journals Intense, Pervasive and Shared Faculty Dialogue: Generating Understanding and Identifying “Hotspots” in Five Days

2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 19-35
Author(s):  
Emily Janke ◽  
Barbara Holland ◽  
Kristin Medlin
Keyword(s):  
North Carolina ◽  
Faculty Support ◽  
University Of North Carolina ◽  
Engaged Scholarship ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Promotion And Tenure ◽  
Community Engaged Scholarship ◽  
The University

Once an institution has chosen to recognize and reward community-engaged scholarship in its university-wide promotion and tenure policy, what are some strategies for aligning unit and department policies as well? This chapter describes the path followed at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro to align policies across all units and departments. Discussed are core strategies used to generate faculty support for community-engaged scholarship in promotion and tenure policy and practice, the themes revealed as a result of a weeklong dialogue initiative, and recommendations for continued improvement.

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