Process, Relationships, and Snacks: Context and Challenges in an After-School Participatory Action Research Project

• In Event: Lessons Learned: Challenges, Constraints, and Signs of Hope in Local Public Education Contexts

Abstract

Recent work on the tensions between university-community partnerships highlight the struggles around conducting research within the community (see Kohfeldt, Chhun, Grace & Langhout, 2011) and the present study adds to the growing body of research on this topic. This paper focuses on the last year of a three-year long after-school participatory action research project at a middle school. Rather than seeing this project as “failed” (Sarason, 2004), this paper provides stories about the ways in which this project was successful as well as why there were challenges. With a focus on providing context and discussion about why and how the project developed rather than just the content (Primavera, 2004), this paper discusses lessons learned from a challenging school-based research project. This paper discusses tensions that arose not only within the university-community partnership, but also within the research team itself. Using ethnographic field notes and interview data from the graduate student researchers and undergraduate research assistants, this paper presents the challenges and difficulties of conducting community based research within a school setting.

Author

• Sarah Grace, University of California - Santa Cruz