Community Based Education

Sacred Structures: Narrating Lifeworlds and Implications for Urban Arts Education Practice

by James Haywood Rolling, Jr.

Rolling, J. H. (2011). Sacred structures: Narrating lifeworlds and implications for urban arts education practice. Studies in Art Education, 53 (2), 112-124.

Utilizing the story of an art studio project involving second grade students in a new urban elementary school as they... more Utilizing the story of an art studio project involving second grade students in a new urban elementary school as they explored and engaged with architectural spaces in their community during their yearlong study of the theme of “Community,” the purpose of this writing is to theorize and codify some major tenets of a narrative and reinterpretive approach to urban arts & design education pedagogy—one that recognizes and draws upon the colliding experiences and environments of urban living as an asset to the (re)constitution of identity and community.

Building the HIVe: Disrupting Biomedical HIV and AIDS Research with Gay Men, other men who have sex with men (MSM) and Transgenders

by Gurmit Singh

Co-authored with Christoper S. Walsh

the Impact of Active Citizenship Learning on Disadvantaged Target Groups

by Gabi Recknagel

This brief paper gives concrete examples of the impact of the Take Part approach to active citizenship learning on the... more This brief paper gives concrete examples of the impact of the Take Part approach to active citizenship learning on the empowerment of disadvantaged groups, using the examples of two case studies, one with a Sure Start family centre, the other with a BME disability user group. Prepared for a NECE conference on citizenship education and the empowerment of disadvantaged group, it forms a small part of the current PhD research undertaken on the topic.

Call2_Project Rendering the Real

by Sireita Mullings

Project Rendering the Real, is calling for participants for an interactive symposium and exhibition by project titled the “Fourth Moment”.

March 22nd – April 27th 2012.

www.renderingthereal.com

The intention is to interrogate the visual representations of art practitioners and their project participants, by way... more The intention is to interrogate the visual representations of art practitioners and their project participants, by way of papers, presentations, workshops and artwork.

The exhibition and symposium will run between
March 22nd – April 27th 2012.

Visit www.renderingthereal.com for more information.

Community based divorce education programmes: Short-term and longer-term impacts

by Sherrill Hayes

co-author Lori Pelletier

Evaluation of a community-based parenting education program for parents in conflict over child custody and visitation.... more Evaluation of a community-based parenting education program for parents in conflict over child custody and visitation. The evaluation shows the positive short and longer term impacts of this program on parenting attitudes and behaviors and situates it in similar programs across North America.

The Alliance Schools Project: A Case Study of Community-Based School Reform in Austin, Texas

by Texas State PA Applied Research Projects

Sheridan, Laura A., "The Alliance Schools Project: A Case Study of Community-Based School Reform in Austin, Texas" (1996). Applied Research Projects, Texas State University-San Marcos. Paper 139.
http://ecommons.txstate.edu/arp/139

A local evaluation of Sure Start – Leam Lane area

by Jill Clark

This report was co-authored by Clark J, Hall E, McCaughey C, Mroz M in 2006

This report brings together elements of work from a three year evaluation study conducted by staff in the Centre for... more This report brings together elements of work from a three year evaluation study conducted by staff in the Centre for Learning and Teaching, University of Newcastle upon Tyne. As part of the three-year evaluation study, we have provided several in-house reports which specifically focus on particular phases, or projects within the programme. These formative reports contained both findings and recommendations about all aspects of the projects, ranging from the suitability of the venue to the impact on the children, parents and staff involved. These reports were intended to be tools for programme staff to refer to, reflect on, and improve services. This document, however, intends to integrate and summarise the individual reports and provide a synthesis of the evidence and findings.

Ghosts at the Feast: The role of research centres in supporting innovative practice in local authorities

by Jill Clark

Co-authored with Elaine Hall in the Journal: Studies in research: Evaluation, Impact and Training (2007) volume 2, p. 1-9.

This paper reports on the tensions of evaluation for project workers, managers and researchers. In the UK, a great... more This paper reports on the tensions of evaluation for project workers, managers and researchers. In the UK, a great deal of the innovative practice dedicated to improving the life chances of children and their families is developed by Local Authorities under the umbrella of project funding which includes an independent evaluation: apparently an ideal opportunity for researchers and practitioners to work collaboratively but, in our experience, there are key structural problems. We explore why it is that researchers fail to give formative feedback to local authorities and why they can feel that they are unwanted guests – ‘ghosts at the feast’.

Ghosts at the feast? The role of research centres in supporting innovative practice in local authorities

by Jill Clark

Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstract) at the BERA Annual conference
Conference, University of Warwick, 6-9 September, 2006

Co-authored with Hall, E, and McCaughey, C

A great deal of the innovative practice dedicated to improving the life chances of children and their families which... more A great deal of the innovative practice dedicated to improving the life chances of children and their families which is developed in Local Authorities is done so under the umbrella of project funding: Single Regeneration Budget programmes, New Deal for Communities, Sure Start. Researchers interested in issues of access and inclusion, the cultures of home and schools and the interactions between communities and services need to work closely with local authorities in what could hopefully be a mutually beneficial research-practice dialogue. The structure of project funding for local authorities demands that a certain proportion of the budget is always allocated to evaluation, which is to be conducted by independent researchers, usually affiliated to a HEI local to the area. This would appear to be the ideal opportunity for researchers and practitioners to work collaboratively but, in the experience of the authors, there are key structural problems which mean that this relationship is fraught with tensions. In this paper we offer examples drawn from over ten years experience of evaluating projects, programmes and initiatives across several local authorities, funded through variety of sources, such as LEAs, council, SRB (rounds 1-4) and Sure Start to explore why it is that researchers fail to give the formative feedback to local authorities and why they can feel that they are unwanted guests – ‘ghosts at the feast’. Successful locally driven projects, for example the Nuffield-funded speech and language development research (Mroz et al, 2002, Mroz and Hall 2003, Hall and Letts, 2003, Hall, 2005) manage to ground the research agenda in local needs, producing valuable outcomes for all parties, so what are the tensions particular to evaluation work? Firstly, there is a tension between the researchers’ desire to objectively evaluate what has gone on during the project, offset against the needs of the local authority (and the project) to have evidence for positive publicity and PR. This is exacerbated by high profiles and generous funding: for some projects it is not just a case of ‘cannot be seen to fail’ but of being a political ‘flagship’ and as such not even to damned with faint praise. Secondly, linked strongly to very short timescales and limited research funding, there is the tension between the desire of the researchers to give formative feedback and the danger of such evaluation becoming more summative – which is far from ideal for both the funders and the researchers. Our experience suggests that a key factor is the breadth of focus of the initiative: only when the goals of the intervention are clear and achievable can some of these tensions be ameliorated. The final tension, and perhaps most the most important one, is the desire of the researchers and practitioners to ‘shape’ funding agendas rather than just react to them. Currently, all parties involved are not able to set or shape this agenda, as many areas and projects react to particular funding sources. Consequently, all parties are working from a similar default position, and through a continuing default mechanism, which rarely creates a situation which genuinely promotes better and smarter ways of working with families and children.

Reconceptualising Conflict and Consensus within Partnerships: The Roles of Overlapping Communities and Dynamic Social Ties (PhD Thesis 2009)

by Katy Vigurs

Partnership is a dominant theme of public policy and service provision in England and in other western countries. It... more Partnership is a dominant theme of public policy and service provision in England and in other western countries. It is also a concept that remains relatively under-researched and under-theorised, especially with respect to conceptualising underlying relational processes that can shape conflict and consensus within partnerships.

This thesis draws on a richly textured ethnographic study, using an in-depth case study of a voluntarily-founded, network-like, cross-sectoral partnership, which aimed to develop and implement a community learning centre in the village parish of Broadley, located in the English Midlands.

The research sees fieldwork conducted over twenty-four months, using multiple methods of qualitative data-generation including the observation of partnership meetings and activities, semi-structured interviews and the collection of partnership artefacts (meeting minutes, funding bid document, emails). It presents an ethnographic view of the inner workings of one partnership and follows its entire lifecycle. This partnership was not sustained and did not realise the vision to which it aspired.

A central concern of this thesis is to investigate the development of conflict and consensus within partnership practice. The contribution of the thesis is to tease out how these elements are understood. This study challenges naive texts that prescribe simplistic, recipe-based formulas for achieving partnership success. Instead, it illustrates what can happen when partners do not develop sufficiently strong and balanced sets of social ties between one another. Consequently, this thesis sets up a new research agenda focusing more specifically on issues of community overlaps, identities and social ties.

This thesis has value in terms of providing a deeply relational account of challenges facing the development of one cross-sectoral, network-like partnership. It draws together insights from partnership literature, community literature and fieldwork, and provides a strong basis from which further research can be developed.

Learning Brokerage: Building Bridges Between Learners and Providers

by Katy Vigurs

This project was commissioned to identify different forms of learning brokerage and effective strategies for good... more This project was commissioned to identify different forms of learning brokerage and effective strategies for good practice to engage ‘non-traditional’ adult learners. The interest in brokerage arises from its potential to stimulate new demand, both to tackle skills deficits and to improve social inclusion and equity. Brokers include a wide range of organisations and individuals who act as catalysts or agents of change, inspiring adults to take up learning and helping them to succeed. The research objectives are to:
- review the use and application of the term ‘learning broker’
- identify key characteristics of brokerage practice and the benefits for potential learners
- develop understanding of the patterns of interaction between (potential) learners, brokers and learning providers in different contexts
- explore effective approaches to brokerage in relation to specific communities and groups
- identify barriers to effective brokerage and areas for further support
- investigate the role of ICT and its impact on the relationship between learners, brokers and learning providers
- contextualise the development of more widespread and coherent networks of brokers within the contemporary policy environment
- assess the wider implications for learning providers.

Students gain practical experience while serving the community

by Martina Jordaan

Innovate
(Issue 5, 2010)
Magazine of the Faculty Engineering, the Built Environment and Information Technology of the University of Pretoria

Conflicting Cultures of Nature: Ecotourism, Education and the Kayapó of the Brazilian Amazon

by Janet Chernela

Rees R, O’Mara A, Dickson K, Stansfield C, Caird J, Thomas J (2011) Communities that cook: a systematic review of the effectiveness and appropriateness of interventions to introduce adults to home cooking [review protocol]. London: EPPI-Centre, Social Science Research Unit, Institute of Education, University of London.

by Rebecca Rees

Food related ill health has been estimated to account for about 10% of ill-health and death in the UK, similar to that... more Food related ill health has been estimated to account for about 10% of ill-health and death in the UK, similar to that attributable to smoking. The prevalence of unhealthy diets in the UK and other Westernised societies has been linked in particular to increases in the availability of processed foods and pre-prepared and takeaway meals. While the influences on peoples’ diets in the UK are complex and manyfold, there has been concern that opportunities to learn how to prepare and cook food have been lost over the past few decades, leading to a loss of skills, knowledge and confidence. One of the responses to these concerns has been the development of community-based educational initiatives aimed at adults who want to learn to cook. Jamie Oliver’s ‘Ministry of Food’ initiative is perhaps the best-known of the home cooking initiatives currently being provided in the UK, although large numbers of schemes have been set up across the country. Often these initiatives have been part of a wider programme of developments to address barriers to healthy eating and ill-health more generally. While various forms of home cooking interventions have been tried out, and evaluations have been conducted, it appears that there has been no recent systematic attempt to pull together and appraise the findings of the range of evaluation studies that exists. The systematic review described in this protocol aims to address this gap. It will examine claims for home cooking initiatives, exploring their effects on various outcomes, the section of the population that is ultimately reached by them, and what, in practice, is required for their implementation.

Student internships bridge research to real world problems

by Krista Jensen

Community Engagement in Peace and Conflict Studies

by Sherrill Hayes

This chapter offers a foundation for community engagement in the field of peace and conflict studies including... more This chapter offers a foundation for community engagement in the field of peace and conflict studies including community based research, service learning, and provides a community engagement framework. The chapter also provides an example of a how this framework has been used in a graduate level course.

Article: Completing the circle: inclusion, socially engaged learning and sustainability

by Rob Curran

Unpublished; work towards M.Ed (University College Falmouth), September 2011

Abstract

This research report explores pedagogies of inclusion, relating to equality, diversity and social... more Abstract

This research report explores pedagogies of inclusion, relating to equality, diversity and social justice, and conceptions of socially engaged practice. It seeks to identify the viability of re-imagining equality & diversity practice within higher education, aligning it more closely with socially engaged learning for sustainability.

Education for sustainable development (ESD) is linked to – and arguably interdependent with- issues of equality, diversity and social justice, or more broadly, “inclusion”. The literature review explores the degree to which engaged pedagogy has been linked to questions of inclusion and social sustainability, and looks at recent efforts to evaluate such activity using ESD and civic engagement indicators. A curriculum audit identifies where ESD and inclusion are found in the art, design, media and performance disciplines; a case study of an AimHigher Creative Steps project (which partners university students with children in care in an outdoor, experiential learning environment), together with questionnaires and interviews with creative practitioners and students examine if and how socially engaged learning occurs. The research is informed by the context of increasing student fees and wide financial instability, which raises questions as to how higher educational institutions should be responding to an expectation to demonstrate their contributions and value to society. This renewed focus on the role of higher education is leading universities to address notions of social responsibility through civic and community engagement activities such as community based learning and widening participation outreach (Watson, 2007; Hart, 2011). The study concludes by identifying the potential of socially engaged learning as a pedagogy that can enable learners and educators to make a crucial, positive contribution to more inclusive, socially sustainable communities, even as we move into increasingly uncertain economic and environmental futures.

Key words: education for sustainability; socially engaged learning; inclusion; diversity; social responsibility.

The FotoDialogo Method: Using Pictures and Storytelling as Learning Tools

by Flavia Ramos

Caribbean Community Based Organizations, the Arts, Cultural Programming, Political Leadership and their role in promoting social change – the Case of Barbados

by Ian Walcott

There are two highly successful community based organizations (CBOs) in Barbados, the Pinelands Creative Workshop and... more There are two highly successful community based organizations (CBOs) in Barbados, the Pinelands Creative Workshop and the Israel Lovell Foundation. Both of these entities are
linked to impoverished neighborhoods and over the past 20 years have been successful in social empowerment and transformation through the strategic and creative use of the arts.
Additionally, both these CBOs have strong affiliation with the political representatives and leaders of their constituencies. This combination of CBOs, the arts and political support has
led to a model that is now being duplicated throughout the rest of Barbados and the Caribbean. Of particular interest is the fact that both these groups are now engaging entrepreneurial development as part of their new mandate and social agenda.
This paper will examine the evolution of these CBOs and their models for achieving social transformation. Much of the research will be primary drawing directly from the source of their leadership and members as well as the author’s experience in managing their arts projects through Barbados’ Cultural Action Fund. It is hoped that this attempt to examine this model will serve to inspire further research.

Community-based outreach as a component for engineering education

by Martina Jordaan

Society for Engineering Education of South Africa first biennial conference 10 - 12 August 2011 - Stellenbosch, South Africa

The post- apartheids higher education sector in South African higher made higher education more assessable to all... more The post- apartheids higher education sector in South African higher made higher education more assessable to all South African citizens. This has put a greater burden on higher education institutions to take be accountable for the community at large.
By including a community-based learning module in the undergraduate engineering curriculum, the importance is placed on hands-on task-orientated projects that assist students to obtain and apply knowledge that is useful in understanding their immediate social context, build critical thinking capabilities that will contribute to essential questions about learning and society, and thereby develop a commitment and responsibility to both.
Through community engagement programmes, students may be involved in undertakings that address local needs, while increasing their academic skills and commitment to their communities. Students also develop a sense of responsibility towards society and learn cultural tolerance. Higher education institutions are also beginning to move away from the concept of outreach and focus more on partnership models.
Community engagement can be used to strengthen and expand on teaching and learning in higher education institutions. Linking discovery and learning to the real needs of a local and worldwide community stimulates the work of both faculty members and students.
The paper reflects on the implementation of community outreach modules in higher educations and review the possible outcomes of the implementation of such a module via the feedback from students and a case study.