Small Group 3: Navigating Community-University Relationships in Research-Practice Partnerships

• In Event: Challenging Extractive Epistemologies and Fostering Participatory Justice: Reflecting on More Than a Decade of Community-Based Research in Philadelphia

Abstract

A critical element of our research-practice partnership is the negotiation and renegotiation of our relationship between our partner university and our research community. As the needs and demands of communities evolve and university practices change across research-practice partnerships (Coburn & Penuel, 2016), this small group will consider the asymmetrical power relationships between universities and communities, and how universities might support community members in their own research and in advancing their epistemic rights. Participants will explore how to foster more just and horizontal university-community relationships.
To anchor the discussion, we spotlight one example from Spring of 2022, where high school youth presented their original research from the partnership at a university sponsored event, in order to advocate for the university to fulfill its financial and civic obligation to the Philadelphia public schools, specifically to advocate for the university and other affluent non- profits to make Payments in Lieu of Taxes to the School District. Inspired by their own interests and inquiries, youth conducted community-based research on the material conditions of learning in their school district, including identifying toxic school buildings imbued with asbestos and lead, which had led to yet another round of school shutterings in our city. Data collection included interviews, participant observation, field notes, and artifact collection. They also shared their findings on the unconscionable counselor to student ratios, the lack of school nurses, the inequitable tracking system, and the need to shift resources from policing to care in the education system and society writ large.
This small group will explore the benefits and tensions of youth researchers calling upon universities to hold themselves accountable for their complicity in histories of oppression, and consider how practices in university-community relations may be reimagined in more equitable ways.

Authors

• Gerald Campano, University of Pennsylvania

• Olivia Vazquez Ponce, Belmont Charter High School

• Daria Ward