The Assembly

Overview

Sat, 31 Dec 2022 00:00:00 -0700

In this overview, we briefly introduce the special issue from the RESHAPE conference, and the conversation that began with the URBAN conference and the special issue published in 2021. We briefly introduce the articles in this special issue that resulted from collaborative research from the summer RESHAPE conference in 2021.

Reimagining & Transforming the Future of Education Research Together

Kathleen Arada, Jason Buell — Sat, 31 Dec 2022 00:00:00 -0700

This article serves as an introduction to the special issue of The Assembly, titled Imagining More Just and Equitable Education Research Partnerships. This special issue aims to share the breadth of knowledge and collaborative efforts across our institutions, as we reimagine and work towards transforming the field of education and Research Practice Partnerships to be anti-racist, anti-oppressive, and de-colonial. The idea for this issue of The Assembly began as part of the 2021 RESHAPE Conference as part of a focused mentoring experience for graduate students and early career scholars. These articles seek to reimagine community research and offer possibility, inspiration, and connection for potential paths forward.

Using Mediating Artifacts to Push for Greater Equity in Research Practice Partnerships

Megan Goeke, Alexandria Muller, Daniela Alvarez-Vargas, Erica Jeanne Van Steenis — Sat, 31 Dec 2022 00:00:00 -0700

Strong research-practice partnership (RPP) relationships are defined in part by having routines and norms the support equitable participation of each partner, but exactly how those routines and norms are achieved is unclear. Utilizing cultural historical activity theory (CHAT), we examine two RPPs who shifted their mediating artifacts – the tools, rules, and division of labor that structure joint work – to move toward more equitable partnership. These narrative accounts provide insight into how RPP participants – researchers, practitioners, and graduate students – can leverage moments of change to maintain or regain equitable power distribution.

Equitable Research-Practice Partnerships: A Multilevel Reimagining

Kemi A. Oyewole, Sumit Karn, Jen Classen, Maxwell M. Yurkofsky — Sat, 31 Dec 2022 00:00:00 -0700

Research-practice partnerships (RPPs) are a promising tool for producing educational research that supports sustainable and equitable school reform. However, the status quo in research-practice partnerships poses some challenges to the achievement of these admirable aims. We use an institutional logics perspective (Friedland & Alford, 1991; Thornton & Ocasio, 1999) to suggest ways neoliberal market, bureaucratic, and professional logics operate between institutional, organizational, and individual levels to compromise the goal of using RPPs for equity. Then, we follow the tradition of Black freedom dreamers by reimagining what research-practice partnerships could be if they were instead rooted in a progressive social justice logic. A social justice logic for RPPs centers interrogations of inequity and strives for authentic, democratic resource allocation and inclusion as seen in: institutional connections to radical participatory research traditions, organizational respect for local funds of knowledge, and individual analysis of intersectional identities. The issues we present and the futures we imagine ask RPP participants, supporters, and leaders to consider how they might reflect, reorganize, and redouble their commitment to creating the conditions for RPPs to flourish.

Reborujando the research process: Re/centering undocumented politics of dis/closure

Maribel Estrada Calderon, Dr. Marcela Rodriguez-Campo, Alonso R. Reyna Rivarola — Sat, 31 Dec 2022 00:00:00 -0700

In this article, three immigrant scholars (two with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and one formerly undocumented) come together to reflect on their experiences engaging in research with and about undocumented immigrants. In particular, the authors use a Chicana/ Latina feminist framework to dissect their experiences as researchers and research participants and how these experiences inform their understanding and engagement with research today. Some of the themes the authors discuss include—but are not limited to—the politics of dis/closure, the spirit of reciprocity, and methodological gaps in post-research reflection for healing and closure.