Community-Centered Knowledge Mobilization: Collaborative Program Adaptation With Families From the Greater Middle East

• In Event: All in the Family: Renewal and Repair Through Family-Centered and Community-Driven Approaches

Abstract

Historically, primary strategies to support the integration of research knowledge into educational practice have been disseminating research results and scaling evidence-based programs and practices. Recent research, however, has highlighted the limitations of these approaches. With the support of the National Science Foundation’s Knowledge Mobilization initiative, this study explored a more community-centered approach to scaling research-based knowledge. In partnership with a local community organization, the team studied the process of adapting a family-focused, early childhood informal engineering education program, originally developed with low-income English- and Spanish-speaking families, for recent immigrant and refugee families from the Greater Middle East. Through the process, four focus areas for program adaptation emerged: (a) community goals, (b) cultural diversity, (b) trauma-informed approaches, and (d) family languages.

Authors

• Scott Pattison, TERC

• Mouna Jbali, The Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization

• Andrea Preisz, IRCO Greater Middle East Center

• Smirla Ramos Montañez, TERC

• Julie Julie Allen, Mt. Hood Community College

• Annie Douglass, Oregon Museum of Science and Industry

• Gina Navoa Svarovsky, University of Notre Dame

• Viviana López Burgos, TERC