Community-engaged student research: online resources, real world impact Catherine Bates and Kenneth Burns DIT and UCC

Structure of presentation Community-based research – introduction CBR process On-line database of project ideas Evaluation of use of database Acknowledgements Resources/links

What is CBR? National Strategy for Higher Education to 2030 recommends course-based civic engagement strategies Also known as science shop Staff/students collaborate with disadvantaged community partners (local groups, charities, not-for-profit organisations, DEIS schools, etc) to work on real-life course-based research projects, from community research questions Often use participatory action research approach Outcome must be in usable form for community Must be for mutual benefit

What are the principles of CBR? Collaborative enterprise between academic researchers (staff and students) and community members Validates multiple sources of knowledge and promotes the use of multiple methods of discovery and dissemination of the knowledge produced Has as its goal social action and social change for the purpose of achieving social justice (Strand et. al., 2003, p. 8)

How do students benefit? Research comes alive Positive impact on external civil society organisation Develop discipline-based research skills Receive course credits Develop essential transferrable skills – for life and for CV Learn from and with communities (and about sector) Students’ civic engagement Increase social awareness (and societal impact of discipline)

How do HEIs benefit? Increased responsiveness of HEI to society, especially to underserved groups Increase in knowledge production Innovation in research Increase in peer-reviewed papers Widening participation Simultaneously fulfill 3 missions of teaching, research and civic engagement (Hunt, 2010).

How do academic staff benefit? Adds real-world expertise and energy to teaching, from community partners Facilitates new areas of student learning, such as collaborative working, social awareness Possibility of interdisciplinary/multi- annual projects

How do communities benefit? Increase research capacity, including collection of evidence base for work/funders Build long-term productive collaborations with staff/researchers and students in HEIs Opportunity to educate future professionals about community needs, and influence direction of research in HEI

UCC and DIT CBR structures UCC – group of academic staff voluntarily supporting CBR projects, mainly in social science – CARL DIT – centralised administrative staff unit supporting CBR across all disciplines - SLWC

Collection/ advertising of community research questions Recruitment of interested student and supervisor Research agreement negotiated Research conducted, assessed, shared and disseminated CBR process

On-line databases of research topics

Evaluation An essential resource Needs to be promoted and supported by academic staff to be effective Compilation of topic list requires care Additional support materials online are essential Effective post-application form process is crucial Dissemination of research results online is very effective

Acknowledgments Thanks to community partners, students and academic supervisors involved in the work of SLWC and CARL Some of the work discussed in today’s presentation has received funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/ ) under grant agreement n° (the PERARES project).

Links/contacts