The actionable researcher: Cultivating a process-oriented methodology for studying administrative practice
This article is a first attempt to conceptualize a process-oriented methodology for studying administrative practice. This methodology draws on approaches such as action research and policy mediation. But, first and foremost, the methodology calls for an actionable researcher who is responsive to the inherent resistances and affordances of the process of coproducing knowledge with policy actors, enabling the researcher to act in response to the needs of problematic situations at hand. Bartels, K.P.R. (2012). The actionable researcher: Cultivating a process-oriented methodology for studying administrative practice. Administrative Theory & Praxis, 34(3), 433-455.
Participatory action research as the approach for women’s empowerment
Women’s empowerment is key to the health and rights of women worldwide, and achieving women’s empowerment requires approaches that “promote participation and incite action”(Aziz, 303). This paper describes Aga Khan University’s (AKU) participation in Women’s Empowerment in Muslim Contexts (WEMC), a five-component study that used a participatory action research approach. The AKU-WEMC “adapted the participatory rural appraisal (PRA) tools to explore women’s perceptions and reflections on their existent situation and aspired needs with respect to empowerment, community’s overall health, mental health, reproductive health, daily work load, access to resources, participation in decision-making and violence against women” (Aziz, 103). A five-step…
Designing community-based courses: A guide for instructors to develop community partnerships and create public scholarship courses
This handbook is a guide for faculty, lecturers, graduate students, and staff to create, implement, or strengthen engaged scholarship courses. The handbook contains six sections: Engaged Public Scholarship, Building Campus-Community Partnerships, Developing Engaged Scholarship Courses, Supporting Student Engagement with the Community, Deepening the Learning with Reflection, Developing Evaluation and Assessment for Engaged Scholarship. Avila-Lynn, C., Rice K., & Akin, S. (2012). Designing community-based courses: A guide for instructors to develop community partnerships and create public scholarship courses. Cal Corps Public Service Center, University of California Berkeley. 3-45. Full Text.
The Dialogical Model: Developing academic knowledge for and from practice
In this paper, two management professors propose a new model for conducting engaged scholarship—the dialogical model. This model comprises five activities: specifying a research question, elaborating local knowledge, developing conceptual knowledge, communicating knowledge, and activating knowledge. The dialogical model provides guidance on how to maintain academic value and practical relevance in tension throughout the research process, and on how to justify validity in pragmatic constructivism. The authors explain how the dialogical model was developed in the pragmatic constructivist epistemological paradigm, and suggest how the model can be mobilized in other epistemological frameworks. Avenier, M.J., & Cajaiba, A. P. (2012). The…
Community-based archeology: Research with, by, and for indigenous and local communities
The past two decades have brought important changes to the ways archaeologists engage with indigenous, descendant, local communities and the public at large. This book outlines the principles of CBPR and demonstrates how CBPR can be effectively applied to archeology. It provides theoretical discussions as well as practical examples of CBPR in archeology. Atalay, S. (2012). Community-based archeology: Research with, by, and for indigenous and local communities. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. Full Text.
Community-based participatory research: A strategy for building health communities and promoting health through policy change
This 60 page report to The California Endowment offers an overview of community based participatory research (CBPR) – its definition and principles – and discussion of this research practice as a policy change tool. Eight “promising CBPR practices” are highlighted along with six case studies of CBPR utilized to effect policy change in California. The monograph concludes with a chapter on evaluating CBPR processes and outcomes and comprehensive lists of helpful websites and other CBPR resources. Minkler, M., Garcia, A.P., Rubin, V. & Wallerstein, N. (2012). Community-based participatory research: A strategy for building healthy communities and promoting health through policy…
Youth as partners, participants, or passive recipients, A review of children and adolescents in community-based participatory research
This is a review of the CBPR literature related to youth. The review finds that a minority of the studies (15%) actually partnered with youth in some phase of the research process. This article outlines the content, methodology, and phases of youth partnership, provides exemplars of CBPR with youth, and discusses the state of the youth-partnered research literature. Jacquez, F., Vaughn, L. M., & Wagner, E. (2013). Youth as partners, participants or passive recipients: A review of children and adolescents in community-based participatory research (CBPR). American Journal of Community Psychology, 51(1-2), 176-189. Full Text.
What is good action research? Why the resurgent interest?
What makes a good action research project/paper? This article defines action research as knowledge creation arising in the context of practice requiring the researchers to work with practitioners to effect change through this generation of knowledge. How does action research relate to qualitative research, and business consulting? What are the perceptions, core features, and aims of action research? An experienced engaged scholar writes this paper as a “Note from the Field”. As she outlines her specific experience, she addresses the questions above and also discusses examples of research projects, criteria for scholars looking to publish their work, engagement in scholarly-practitioner…
Learning about scholarship in action in concept and practice
In an address to the campus at the end of her inaugural year (April, 2005), Chancellor Nancy Cantor announced her vision of Syracuse University as a Creative Campus whose faculty and students would be deeply engaged with the world, interacting with local and global communities in productive relationships and activities that she named “scholarship in action.” Recognizing the difficulty of fitting such public or community-engaged scholarship into the traditional framework for defining and evaluating faculty work, she called on the Academic Affairs Committee of the Senate to study the issues related to implementing this vision. This is a study of…
Building a Pathway for Community Engagement Professionals
Post authored by Emily Shields, Executive Director of Iowa Campus Compact and Mandi McReynolds, Director, Community Engagement & Service-Learning, Drake University The shortest distance between two points is a straight line; yet, pathways to careers and research on the field of community engagement follow a winding and hilly road. When you ask most people how they got to where they are, you get some version of a familiar, serendipitous, “I fell into it” story. For sustained institutionalization of service-learning and community engagement, we advocate for offices and staffing to support institutions committed to this work and meeting their civic purpose….
Nominations Now Open for the 2015 Thomas Ehrlich Civically Engaged Faculty Award
Campus Compact is now accepting nominations for the 2015 Ehrlich Award. The award recognizes tenured or other senior faculty for exemplary leadership in advancing students’ civic learning and higher education’s contributions to the public good, including teaching with engaged pedagogies, fostering reciprocal community partnerships, building institutional support for service-learning and civic engagement, conducting community-based research, and other means of acting on individual and institutional civic commitments. The recipient and finalists will be announced in early fall 2015 and will be honored at Campus Compact’s 30th Anniversary Conference in March 2016. In addition, the winner will receive a $2,000 award. More…
2014 Annual Membership Survey
The 2014 Survey reflects the growth in breadth and diversity of institutions prioritizing engaged activities over the past three decades. Read the survey findings here.
How to do Community-Academic/ University Partnerships Well
Baker, E., Wilkerson, R., & Brennan, L. K. (2012). Identifying the role of community partnerships in creating change to support active living. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 43(5, Supplement 4), S290-S299.Baquet, C. (2012). A model for bidirectional community-ccademic engagement (CAE): Overview of partnered research, capacity enhancement, systems transformation, and public trust in research. Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, 23(4), 1806-1824.Boyle, M.E., Ross, L., & Stephens, J.C. (2011). Who has a stake? How stakeholder processes influence partnership sustainability. Gateways: International Journal of Community Research and Engagement, 4, 100-118.Bradshaw, C. P., Pas, E. T., Bloom, J., Barrett, S.,…
Action Research Literature: Themes and Trends
This resource reviews action research book, edited collections, and relevant literature on the following topics: educational action research, appreciative inquiry, community research and engagement, rural and regional development, organizational and systemic applications, and action learning.
The Wellesley Institute
Based in Toronto, Canada The Wellesley Institute is a non-profit research and policy institute that develops research and community-based policy solutions to the problems of urban health and health disparities (“What We Do, Wellesley Institute website). The Institute focuses on issues in five policy fields: affordable housing; healthcare reform; immigrant health; social innovation; and economic analysis. The website contains many resources on projects in these fields, such as an updated section on news and analysis of community health issues in Toronto, research reports, 18 downloadable “flip sheets” (2-3 page documents on community equity issues), and a media room. Within the…
UNC Thorp Faculty Engaged Scholars
The Thorp Faculty Engaged Scholars (FES) program brings together selected faculty from across campus to engage in a two-year experiential, competency-based curriculum designed to advance their engaged scholarship. Scholars participate in sessions in community settings to learn from Carolina faculty and their community partners. While developing individual projects, each class of scholars forms a learning community along with the faculty and community course directors to support one another’s projects and community partners. The growing network of Thorp Faculty Engaged Scholars reports outcomes including new interdisciplinary collaborations, successful grant applications and both traditional and non-traditional products of their scholarship.
UCLA Center for Community Partnerships
The UCLA Center for Community Partnerships website on civic engagement is a database of articles/books chapters/conference presentations/relevant websites divided into the following sections: Featured Articles, Featured Books, Engaged Scholarship, Scholarship Focused on Engagement, Student Learning, Institutionalizing Civic Engagement, Community-University Partnerships, Comparative Civic Engagement, and Relevant Websites and Blogs.
The Talloires Network
The Talloires Network is an international association of institutions committed to strengthening the civic roles and social responsibilities of higher education that was convened by Tufts University President Lawrence Bacow in 2005. Its first conference gave rise to the Talloires Declaration on the Civic Roles and Social Responsibilities of Higher Education. All signatories of the Declaration have committed their institutions to educating for social responsibility and civic engagement, and to strengthening the application of university resources to the needs of local and global communities. The Declaration “establishes the Talloires Network, with an open electronic space for the exchange of ideas…
Michigan State University, The National Center for the Study of University Engagement
The National Center for the Study of University Engagement (NCSUE) seeks a greater understanding of how university engagement enhances faculty scholarship and community progress. How do scholars engage most effectively with their communities, and how, in turn, does such engagement enhance their scholarship? The Center convenes scholars and community fellows to explore ways of creating institutional support for building truly collaborative arrangements. NCSUE supports research studies and dissemination through publications, a speaker series, conferences, presentations, and workshops.
International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement (IARSLCE)
IARSLCE is an international nonprofit membership organization devoted to promoting research and discussion about service-learning and community engagement. It organizes and sponsors the annual International Research Conference on Service-Learning and Community Engagement.
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