Group items tagged

"Yet while faculty members want to (and should) be recognized and rewarded for their efforts, many express frustration that promotion and tenure systems have not caught up with institutional priorities, changes in the dynamic nature of scholarship, or the aspirations of the emerging guard of academic citizens.2"

"We used a case study approach to analyze data (partner dialogs, meeting notes, interviews, and press coverage) from a longstanding community-academic partnership."

"If we want faculty to be involved in communities but reward them for other activities, we are our own worst enemies" [7]."

"Community engagement is increasingly becoming an integral part of research. "Community-engaged research" (CEnR) introduces new stakeholders as well as unique challenges to the protection of participants and the integrity of the research process. We-a group of representatives of CTSA-funded institutions and others who share expertise in research ethics and CEnR-have identified gaps in the literature regarding (1) ethical issues unique to CEnR; (2) the particular instructional needs of academic investigators, community research partners, and IRB members; and (3) best practices for teaching research ethics. This paper presents what we know, as well as what we still need to learn, in order to develop quality research ethics educational materials tailored to the full range of stakeholder groups in CEnR."

Asking questions well is the hardest part of applied social research. I It has two principal components. The first is selecting an issue ofsufficient importance, i.e., an issue with a likely "payoff' in knowledge and/or application. In this regard, not all questions are of equal value (Merton, 1959). Unfortunately, we are often uninterested or unwilling to make judgements about quality of questions, and instead focus most of our attention on research methodology. But research costs a great deal oftime and money. Years are required to even begin to address most questions. A scholar can address only a small number of questions in her entire career; and therefore -- ifshe wants to make a meaningful and lasting contribution, and who of us does not? -- she must choose her questions carefully. The second component of asking questions well is I Some may prefer to think ofsocial work as a profession rather than an applied social science. Certainly social work has elements of both. The emphasis in this paper is on the use of theory in knowledge building for application. In this sense, social work faces issues similar to other applied social sciences such as public administration, commuuity development, urban plamting, and public health, as well as applied branches of academic disciplines, including psychology, sociology, anthropology, political science, and economics. As I discuss in this paper, the fact that social work is also a profession does not change the nature of knowledge, or the requirements for knowledge building. I to frame a research question that will be productive. It is possible, indeed common, to have an important issue but a research question that does not lead anywhere worthwhile. Toward the end ofthe lecture, I suggest that, for the purposes ofthe applied social sciences, certain structures ofinquiry may lead to theories that are more productive than others.

Since 2007, the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) Policy Research Center (PRC) has partnered with the Universities of New Mexico and Washington to study the science of community-based participatory research (CBPR). Our goal is to identify facilitators and barriers to effective community-academic partnerships in American Indian and other communities, which face health disparities.