Engaging Community Voices Through Participatory Research: Developing Curricula

Purpose and Goals for Course Transformation
The purpose of the Urban Research and Curriculum Transformation Institute (URCTI) is to provide faculty with direct avenues for community engagement so they will be better able to incorporate diverse community voices into research and teaching practices in social sciences andgender and ethnic studies courses. The Institute is designed to give faculty the experiences, time, and effective space to test participatory action research ideas, skills and techniques, weave them into their courses, begin to create dynamic links between universities and communities, and to increase the opportunities for engagement.

Ultimately, the goal of this Institute is for the concerns of civic activism and community-based organizations to inform training and stimulate universities to create greater field-based research opportunities for students. It is envisioned that as such students gain first-hand experience of original research in the context of community engagement, the social sciences come alive resulting in increased chances that students will want to continue to do research.

Faculty attending the Institute will:

• Read, discuss, and further their knowledge about participatory action research.
• Write a new or revised course outline.
  
• Receive input from 20 Chicago community organizations about research needs and issues during Institute roundtables.
  
• Learn about field research issues of students by meeting with and doing a half-day follow-along with one of the Institute's intern ethnographers.
  
• Receive support from and develop camaraderie among fellow Institute faculty.
  

Required activities at the Institute will include:

• Attend weekly faculty sessions.
• Attend three URCTI roundtables with community-based organization members to discuss research topics and concerns, providing both community members and faculty members with insight and new knowledge about each other.
  
• Do a follow-along with one of the seven URCTI student interns who will each be working with some of these organizations conducting ethnographic field research and planning innovative dissemination methods.
  
  
  • Try out supervisory skills and participatory action research ideas as students report on methodological, ethical, and logistical issues that they encounter in daily fieldwork in the communities.
    
    
• Lead a small group discussion as part of two community identity programs within neighborhood-based Cultural Connections initiative. You choose two of about 12 programs during Fall 2004 or Spring 2005. Attended by Chicago teachers and the general public at ethnic museums/centers in the area, this allows you to connect with communities and meet teachers from neighborhood schools. For type of programs, visit our Cultural Connections program page.
  

For more information contact Rebecca Severson at rseverson@fieldmuseum.org, phone: 312 665 7480

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The Urban Research and Curriculum Transformation Institute has been made possible by a generous grant from The Ford Foundation.

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