Exploring Relational Practices in Partnerships That Center Social and Racial Justice

• In Event: A Focus on Equity: Participant-Centered Research Alliances

Abstract

Purpose
We describe emergent practices in our RPP that enabled community-centered forms of collaboration across lines of difference. In the paper, co-authored by the director of a social justice youth leadership program and two research team members, we critique metaphors used by some researchers when aiming to bridge the assumed “gap” between researchers and practitioners, such as focusing on one-way translation or prioritizing fidelity to a standard protocol (Fagan, 2008; Young, 2011). As an alternative, we describe efforts to create spaces for collaborative meaning-making and building upon practitioner expertise.

Theoretical Framework
Vakil et al.’s (2017) concept of “politicized trust” informs our approach to collaborative research partnerships that center racial justice and address issues of power. Politicized trust recognizes that trust is not merely earned by good intentions; it is an ongoing project that requires reflexive attention and sometimes repair. Second, we draw on a cultural community lens (Lopez, 2019; Villenas et al., 2006) that invites all parties to bring expertise to the table, sets aside ego towards a common goal, and values group collaboration.

Methods/Data
We developed claims based on reflection and analysis of our meeting notes from the past 12 months. Consistent with community-based participatory research, our method for making meaning and generating claims was through reflective discussions about our work together, including dialogues that invited clarification and different points of view (Fine, 2008; Jackson 2008). Re-reading meeting notes gave us a way to look critically at past discussions and perceive patterns that we may not have noticed in the moment.

Results
Centering collaborative, communal theories of leadership. The director’s approach to leadership is nested in collective/community-based perspectives, which framed our partnership work (Ferreira & Gendron, 2011). This approach set a tone for the group and created opportunities for open meeting practices where newcomers to the RPP, whether new graduate students or program staff, felt invited to share their perspectives.

Acknowledging and leveraging positional identities. Our group is diverse along lines of race, class, and gender. During meetings these identities were affirmed for the purposes of building relational vulnerability and upholding our political commitments. Participants sought to develop a politicized trust that acknowledged dynamics of power and privilege while affirming our shared political project of transformative student voice.

Meaning-making relationships. Knowledge was shaped by team members’ different political commitments, relationships, and worldviews. The partnership moved away from the assumption that university-based knowledge should be considered a one-directional process. This process was reinforced through varied meeting practices including personal check-ins, nuanced updates from partners, collaborative decisions, and, unplanned phone calls.

Challenges. We also discuss tensions, such as when lines become so blurred that researchers struggle to stay in their lane, or how to expand active membership in the RPP collective to high school students participants.

Significance
Partnerships are key to building knowledge that is collaborative and accessible to multiple stakeholders (Tseng et al., 2017). This paper generates reflections that challenge traditional notions of whose knowledge is valued and offers collective RPP practices that support praxis.

Authors

• Ben Kirshner, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Solicia Lopez, Denver Public Schools

• Adan Garcia, University of Colorado - Boulder