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SL Research Partnerships

Conducting Research Home Page

Many community partners have research questions and they would like to partner with faculty who have research expertise.  Examples of research needs include assessments, program evaluations, focus groups, and survey research.  A benefit of building relationships with community partners is faculty can learn about and/or brainstorm possible research projects together.

Review these community-based research guidelines for communities and higher education.

Below is a comprehensive list of factors to consider in advance then discuss, including logistics (where, when, and how).

1. Faculty research interests

  • Faculty research interests may focus on a specific population, issue, task, attitude, discipline, area of study, etc.
  • Faculty expertise may determine the methodology (quantitative, qualitative; survey, interview, focus group, observation, historical…)

2. Research question, i.e. what does the community partner (CP) want to know?

  • What are your research questions?
    (more assistance is needed here to further delineate types of questions, perhaps)
  • Who do you want to study?  Will it involve human subjects? Are these people considered a vulnerable population? (see other IRB questions)

3. Result for community

  • Why collect this information? Who will use it? How will it be used? For example, agency staff may use data for grant writing, program improvement, educational materials, identifying or attracting new resources, understanding or assessing needs of their target populations, explaining issues and challenges, creating awareness of the need for action, or designing strategies for change.

4. Results for Faculty

  • Scholarship goals, grant funding, publications, etc.

5. Roles of participants, i.e. who will…

  • Design the study
  • Conduct the study
  • Collaborate on the study with community members (Participatory Action Research)
  • Write results, publish
  • Present

Logistics

Where

  1. Where will this research take place?
  2. Is space available at the agency or in the community for conducting research?

How

1. How will the information be gathered?

  • One-on-one, group, surveys, interviews, focus groups
  • Will participants or researchers need training?
  • How available is the sample population? how big is the sample?
  • Who will gather the data?…the agency, students, faculty, community members?
  • What kind of background or baseline data is available?
  • Is confidentiality and IRB compliance an issue?

2. What resources are needed?

  • Money is/ is not available to help pay for research. If yes, how much and for whom?
  • Personnel
  • Equipment

3 . What resources are available?

  • Lab equipment (recording studio, etc.)
  • Students – SL, interns, GA, RAs, independent study
  • Interview space
  • Online survey capability
  • Printing ability
  • Mailing ability
  • Payment for participation

4. When: Typical duration of research

  • One semester
  • Summer term
  • One year
  • Several years

Differences between Traditional Academic Research and Community-Based Research

  • Primary goal of research
  • Source of research question
  • Who designs and conducts research?
  • Role of the faculty, community partner, students
    Researcher(s): participants/respondents relationship
  • Measure of value of research
  • Criteria for selecting data collection methods
  • Beneficiaries of the research
  • Ownership of data
  • Mode of presentation & dissemination

Strand, et al., Community-Based Research and Higher Education. .San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass; 2003, p. 9