"¿Qué Hacemos Ahora?" Pausing, Power, and the Changing Context in Community-Based Research

• In Event: What Should We Do? Diverse Case Studies in Intergenerational Community Building

Abstract

In this paper, I focus on a participatory action research group of Latina mothers seeking to improve the relationship between a school and parents. Through ethnographic interviews and observations, I analyze how parents reframed their research goals in response to a district initiative and to Covid19. I describe these obstacles as pauses (Patel 2015), where parents reflected on community needs. I then use Golob and Giles’ (2012) discussion on Foucault’s understanding of power to argue that the district initiative and pandemic enabled action as the mothers collaboratively adapted to their landscape. Furthermore, these obstacles served as a medium through which the mothers understood their roles and agency as they reflected on their power to make an impact on their community.

Author

• Ana Julia Contreras, University of Colorado - Boulder