Engaging with Community
Community-engaged research requires one to BE in the community. With COVID 19, that is going to be a challenge. Nevertheless, we can be with the community remotely through engaging in conversation aided by technology-phone callor zoom. If COVID-19is relevant to how community is coping, by all means engage with the realities of this moment. For this assignment, consider how you can engage with a chosen community of your choice for between60 to 90 minutes. Community can be any group of participants you care and are curious about, either in your research or in your life. For example, you may be working on a research project with particular stakeholders in a school or program. You may be an active parent volunteer at your childs school, interacting with other parent volunteers. The goal of this assignment is to learn how to suspend judgement and assumptions and attune ourselves to the stories/voices/concerns of community stakeholders. Engage one or two participants (or however many you wish, perhaps in the form of a focus group discussion)in dialogue about a community issue that is of interest to you. This could very well be related to the wicked problem you are investigating/researching. Record the conversation (ask for permission beforehand) with audio or video (if you use zoom that would be fairly easy). Write a 5 page analytical essay on your experience to be turned in one week after your conversation. Keep to this deadline, as with time, your insights tend to fade, compromising the rigor of your analysis of the conversation. In the 5 page reflection, you should devote at least a page to a page and a half to framing the issue the conversation focused on. In other words, frame the problem-space for the reader before delving into unpacking your conversation. Your conversation should raise questions for you to continue pondering.
