Community-Based Research, Community-Based Participatory Research and Action Research

• CBR is a collaborative enterprise between researchers (professors and/or students) and community members. It engages university faculty, students and staff with diverse partners and community members.

• CBR validates multiple sources of knowledge and promotes the use of multiple methods of discovery and of dissemination or the knowledge produced.

• CBR has as its goal: social action and social change for the purpose of achieving social justice.

• In most forms it is also participative (among other reasons, change is usually easier to achieve when those affected by the change are involved) and .

• Uses a cyclic or spiral process, which alternates between action and critical reflection and in the later cycles, continuously refining methods, data and interpretation in the light of the understanding developed in the earlier cycles.

• It is thus an emergent process that takes shape as understanding increases; it is an iterative process that converges towards a better understanding of what happens.

Why Should Faculty do Community-Based Research (CBR)?

According to Pew Charitable Trust:

1. CBR provides new opportunities to connect with community and to apply research
   
2. CBR increases both “hard” and “soft” skills
   
3. Junior and Senior faculty both benefit from CB
   • Junior faculty like entree into community
   • Senior faculty like to try something new
   • Both like being on cutting edge of publishing and presenting options
     
4. In spite of some evidence that CBPR can negatively impact the efforts of faculty to gain tenure, etc., faculty report in 2003 that the “cumulative effect of individual faculty members’ involvement in CB partnerships was having a positive impact at the departmental and university levels, contributing significantly to institutional buy-in”

The Role of Partners:

• Community partners should be involved at the earliest stages of the project, helping to define research objectives and having input into how the project will be organized.

• Community partners should have real influence on project direction—that is, enough leverage to ensure that the original goals, mission, and methods of the project are adhered to.

• Research processes and outcomes should benefit the community.  Community members should be hired and trained whenever possible and appropriate, and the research should help build and enhance community assets.

• Community members should be part of the analysis and interpretation of data and should have input into how the results are distributed. This does not imply censorship of data or of publication, but rather the opportunity to make clear the community’s views about the interpretation prior to final publication.

• Productive partnerships between researchers and community members should be encouraged to last beyond the life of the project. This will make it more likely that research findings will be incorporated into ongoing community programs and therefore provide the greatest possible benefit to the community from research.

• Community members should be empowered to initiate their own research projects that address needs they identify themselves.

What is the difference between Community-Based Research, Community-Based Participatory Research and Action Research?

Community-Based Research is in the community and benefits the community. 

Community-Based Participatory Research is a “collaborative approach to research that equitably involves all partners in the research process and recognizes the unique strengths that each brings. CBPR begins with a research topic of importance to he community, has the aim of combining knowledge with action and achieving social change to improve (health) outcomes and eliminate (health) disparities.”

WK Kellogg Foundation Community Health Scholars Program

Community-Based Participatory Research is research of the community, in the community, with the community, and for the community (as opposed to say, the ivory tower model of alone, in a lab, for money/glory/tenure/knowledge for knowledge’s sake. There is evidence that the most learning occurs and the best knowledge generated when students are involved. Research by the Pew Partnership for Civic Change and Campus Compact shows that it works best when integrated into academic coursework. This combination of CBPR and service-learning pedagogies increases student learning and greatly increases sustainability and outcomes of the community work.

Action research can be described as a family of research methodologies that pursue action (or change) and research (or understanding) at the same time.

“In its simplest form: Action research is a way of generating research about a social system while simultaneously attempting to change that system.  While conventional social science aims at producing knowledge about social systems (some of which may eventually prove useful to those wishing to effect change), action research seeks both to understand and to alter the problems generated by social systems.”  Kurt Lewin, the social researcher who coined the phrase, explains: “one of the best ways to understand the world is to try to change it.”

Troppe, Marie. Participatory Action Research: Merging the Community and Scholarly Agendas. Providence: Campus Compact, 1994.