Practicing School-Based and Community-Based Educators’ Experiences: Barriers and Solutions to Growing Agency in Research-Practice Partnerships

• In Event: Silent or Silenced? Naming and Disrupting Institutional Barriers to Community-Engaged Scholarship in Academic Spaces

Abstract

Research-Practice Partnerships that aim to align research efforts to practice are increasing in education scholarship (WT Grant Foundation, 2019). Practicing school-based (K-12 teachers, teacher organizations/unions, district administrators, etc.) and community-based educators (i.e. community center leaders, non profit organizations, organizers, etc.) collaborate with education researchers to develop strategies to solve localized issues with national implications within their communities. These partners can engage with community-based education researchers for a variety of reasons and they often have overlapping interests. Their partnerships with research scholars can result in significant community improvement. However, they can also experience challenges to truly engaging in research, including dissemination, due to institutional barriers.

The role of school-based and community-based educators and their perspectives are valuable to the process of sharing findings throughout the research process. Institutional barriers can exist in conference convenings and in the research process more generally. For example, relegation of community partners to “just board membership” limits their impact and power. Also, institutions can contract with consultants calling them community members rather than more authentically engaging with community members (Stoecker, 2009). When organizations, organizers, educators, or other partners want to share research findings with researchers as true partners, conference funding can be particularly limited given the often tight budgets of school districts and community-based organizations. These are a few examples of the potentially challenging institutional barriers. This workshop session provides a space to identify additional barriers and solutions from perspectives of these community partners. Examples that will be included consist of the practice of educators as discussants in conference sessions, and approaches to action research.

Author

• Kate Westaby, Urban Institute