Role of Facilitation in Legitimizing Community Knowledge: A Critical Reflection on Knowledge Creation

• In Event: Examining Facilitation in Research-Practice Partnerships

Abstract

Objectives
Research-based partnerships have historically undermined local knowledge as marginalized communities are viewed with a deficit, needs-based lens (Wallerstein & Duran, 2008). To contribute to this ongoing work on equitable partnerships (Henrick et al., 2017; Williams, 2004), this study will distill the practice of facilitation and the extent to which it legitimizes local knowledge within a codesign, researcher-practitioner partnership (RPP). Organizational learning theory with an emphasis on knowledge creation allows us to unpack facilitation strategies and the ways in which it inhibited or supported the elicitation and implementation of community knowledge.
Theoretical Framework
Organizational learning is defined as “a dynamic process creating knowledge and transferring it where it is needed and used” (Kane & Alavi, 2007). Facilitation in particular influences the way knowledge is exchanged, accepted, and used in a learning system (Berta et al., 2015). Knowledge creation entails information shared by individuals available in a space, amplifying it in social contexts, and selectively connecting it to existing knowledge (Nonaka & von Krogh, 2009). Additionally, there are multiple forms of knowledge; originating knowledge that is based on individual experiences and emotions, interacting knowledge that is based on development of mental models, and exercising knowledge that is synthesized.
Materials and Methods
The context of this study is a seven series, virtual codesign workshop experience between researchers and local community members to co-create community spaces (e.g. bus stops, grocery stores) for STEM learning. Community members primarily consist of spanish-speaking, immigrant mothers of young children. The dataset consists of recorded workshop sessions that include small group discussions (N=7, ~15 hours), participant interviews (N=10, ~10 hours), workshop memos (N~42), and recorded team meetings with community leaders (N= 4, > 5 hours). Qualitative inductive and deductive coding was implemented to explore facilitation strategies, types of local knowledge shared by participants, and participant perspectives on being co-creators in the design process.
Preliminary Results
Facilitators initiated discussions that foregrounded originating knowledge (e.g. experiences in grocery stores or parks) before diving into co-creation. Such approach elicited design opportunities in these spaces, the everyday STEM practices participants engage in, and what participants value in a community learning experience. These forms of local knowledge drove participant designs of community spaces, and such a facilitation approach informed participant expression of ownership and agency throughout the codesign process. However, facilitation of academic research on playful STEM learning to promote exercising and interactive knowledge informed constant confusion of activity purposes. Facilitation of academic research focused more on big ideas over terminology, thus such disconnection alludes to underlying dynamics that prevented full participation in the design process.
Significance
We found that facilitating practices that orient originating knowledge drove the incorporation of local knowledge within a co-design partnership. At the same time, we question the role that academic knowledge should take in a knowledge creation process that aims to maintain marginalized communities as key contributors. These findings can inform ongoing research on equitable RPP’s with a focus on the valued knowledge in those dynamics (Wallerstein & Duran, 2008).

Authors

• Leiny Garcia, University of California - Irvine

• Vanessa Noemy Bermudez, University of California - Irvine