Supporting Graduate Students to Implement Community-Engaged Research

Abstract

Community engagement is a growing field and engaged research is vital to the field. Community-engaged research has the defining features and principles of community, participation, and action, each of which are described in this chapter. Conducted with and for communities, community-engaged research exists on a continuum with varying degrees of engagement. There are many challenges to developing and implementing community-engaged research and graduate students in non-profit and community-based work require relevant training and experiences to do this work effectively. Key challenges include the timeframe required for community-engaged research, the Institutional Review Board process and ethical responsibilities to the community, students' basic research knowledge and experience, and students' comfort and confidence with community-engaged research. This chapter describes one program's approach to facilitating graduate students' acquisition of community-engaged research skills and offers recommendations to faculty involved in such work.