Approaches to Collaborative Data Analysis With Students and Teachers in Community-Engaged Research

• In Event: Youth Participatory Action Research on the Next Level: New Complications in an Evolving Field

Abstract

Framing: Community-engaged research (CER) encompasses several approaches to collaboration among university researchers and social actors. Whereas Participatory Action Research (PAR) strives for maximal collaboration that challenges the binary between research and activist (Cammarota & Fine, 2008), some partnerships maintain a clear division of labor between researchers and activists while still being engaging in joint knowledge construction toward justice (e.g., Oakes & Rogers, 2006). We have seen PAR often treated as the goal for CER, but in some cases local actors may want to collaborate with researchers but do not have the time or desire to carry out the data collection and analysis themselves. It is this latter situation that we explore in this paper.

Background: Our work exists within a multi-year Research Practice Partnership (RPP) with the Student Voice and Leadership (SVL) program of Denver Public Schools. SVL creates opportunities for students to carry out justice oriented YPAR and action civics projects, with the support of educator “coaches,” aimed at transforming their schools and district to be more just and culturally responsive. Our primary relationship is with the professional staff of SVL, but in this paper we explore how to be accountable to key “secondary” partners in this work -- namely high school students and their coaches. We focus on a two semester-long effort to “report back” to and engage these secondary partners, specifically HS students, in knowledge construction for justice. We also consider the important role undergraduate researchers played in this process.

RQs:
In CER projects that have a clear division of labor between researchers and community partners, how do we engage in meaningful sensemaking with secondary partners to inform praxis?
What strengths can undergraduate students bring to CER projects that center student voice?

Data Sources and Approach to Analysis: Data sources for this paper include artifacts from “report back” sessions, semi-structured post session reflections, and notes from planning sessions and meetings with partners. Our analysis focuses on methods we used to engage students and teachers in mutual sense-making and insights we gained from the process. We evaluate what worked well and what needs to change for future report-backs. We also explore dilemmas, including ethical dilemmas about what to do when secondary partners ask to use data for new purposes. In the full paper we will elaborate on our process for collaborating with primary and secondary partners, how we organized the work internally and key decisions made along the way, as well as the specific structures and interactive designs of the “report back” workshops.

Contribution: This paper will offer specific practices for student voice CER projects where there is a more traditional division of labor between researchers and community partners. The full paper will discuss specific recommendations on how such projects can engage HS students in contributing to praxis, as well as offer suggestions for how research teams can position undergraduate researchers as experts.

Authors

• Melissa R Campanella, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Ben Kirshner, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Laura-Elena Colorado Porras-Holguin, University of Colorado