“All in Service of the Collaboration”: Approaches for Building Humanizing Research-Practice Partnerships (Poster 3)

• In Event: Educational Partnerships as Collective Resistance: Perspectives From Emerging Scholars and Collaborators

Abstract

Purpose and Theoretical Framework:

While research-practice partnerships (RPPs) are an effective strategy to address educational issues and advance educational equity (Potter et al., 2021), these collaborations are not without challenges, such as determining appropriate roles amongst diverse teams (Farrell et al., 2019) and attending to issues of power (Denner et al., 2019). The way in which scholars conduct their research in these partnerships can matter just as much as what research is being conducted (Denner et al., 2019). Unfortunately, the training researchers receive often encourages maintaining distance from their collaborators, in order to retain “neutrality” (Tuck & Guishard, 2013).

Informed by perspectives from community-based participatory research (CBPR), we address this challenge by employing the theory of humanizing research, which entails “…the building of relationships of care and dignity for both researchers and participants” (Paris, 2011, p. 140), to analyze an equity-focused RPP between a university and an educational non-profit. We argue that by structuring such collaborations in a humanizing way, RPPs can democratize the research process by allowing us to “… push against inequities not only through the findings of research but also through the research act itself” (Paris, 2011, p. 140). Drawing upon researcher and practitioner perspectives, we outline the practices adopted to structure our partnership in a humanizing way.

Methods and Evidence:

As two leaders in this RPP – an academic and a practitioner – we conducted a qualitative self-study (Pinnegar & Hamilton, 2009), utilizing field-notes, reflection memos, and artifacts from the first three years of this partnership. In our joint analysis from our two perspectives, we attend to our identities as participants and analysts, centering reflexivity to navigate these dual roles (Eriksson, et al., 2012). Further, we take an identity conscious stance (Pendakur, 2016) to offer insight on how race and privilege can impact collaborative research (Chavez et al., 2008; Denner et al., 2019).

Results:

Our findings reveal the importance of creating as much proximity as possible in partnerships, to develop authentic participation (Paris, 2011), which facilitates genuine relationships and supports the development of research projects that are deeply informed by the community context. Another strategy that supported a humanizing collaboration was the genuine sharing of self and values, which served to create humane interactions (Paris, 2011), which involves all those in the research process sharing honestly about their life and perspectives, rather than researchers asking for vulnerability from practitioners alone. Lastly, the research team’s approach to the partnership was expansive, to include whomever in their purview could offer support, and flexible, to address the changing needs of the partner site.

Significance:

This study merges disparate, but connected literatures (RPPs and CBPR), to expand understandings of how to facilitate RPPs in ways that attend to the humanity of all involved. We found our approach broadened the capacity of the partnership, allowed the practitioners involved to have greater agency in the research process, and supported the building of deep and trusting relationships, which is of particular importance when one is engaging in partnership work across boundaries of privilege (Minkler, 2004).

Authors

• Jennifer R. Renick, Michigan State University

• Alex Serna, Breakthrough Collaborative