Research for Social Change
When Morgridge College of Education doctoral students want to put their research skills to work promoting social change, they often take on a project with DU's Colorado Community-Based Research Network (CCBRN).
According to Nick Cutforth, CCBRN coordinator and an associate professor in curriculum and instruction, the network tackles research challenges presented by its dozen or so community partners, mostly state and local organizations dedicated to social justice.
Education PhD students use CCBRN to pursue their research in social justice.
"Community-based research means that the research issue or need comes from the organization, and we work with them on developing a rigorous study that they can immediately use," Cutforth explains.
That differs from more traditional research, in which professors and students tend to work on research questions that have their origins in their academic disciplines or their own interests, rather than a community partner's needs.
Preparing refugees
A recent commission from WorkStyles, a program that prepares refugees and asylum seekers for the realities of the American workplace, asked researchers to prepare a quantitative and a qualitative study.
Jini Puma, then a PhD student in quantitative research methods, worked on the project.
"The primary focus of the quantitative study was to examine whether participants who attend WorkStyles have better employment outcomes than those who do not," she explains. "The purpose of the qualitative study was to provide a more nuanced picture of how WorkStyles prepares refugees to adjust to living and working in Colorado."
Puma welcomed the opportunity to work on a project with such immediate ramifications. "… it allowed me to apply what I learned from the classroom to a 'real-world' research situation," she recalls. "Secondly, it afforded me the opportunity to work collaboratively with other graduate students, a DU professor and community members on a project that impacted policy change. … Additionally, the key people involved in the WorkStyles project are currently working on a manuscript regarding this project, which hopefully will be accepted for publication in an academic journal."
Defending human rights
Still another project was commissioned by El Centro Humanitario, an immigrant day laborer organization working to defend workers' human rights.
"They came to us saying, we would really like to be more articulate about the experiences of day laborers," Cutforth recalls. The organization’s goal was to collect data to present to politicians and to improve the image of immigrant laborers.
DU gives students the opportunity to develop a sensitivity to the needs of the community.
A conventional approach would have relied upon interviews, but given that many of the immigrants were undocumented and fearful of a structured interview, that proved impossible. Instead, the research team developed a series of writers' workshops, in which workers were paid to attend. Participants were asked to write one-word poems, one each about life back home and life in Denver.
"My students sat down with these men and together they turned these poems into narratives," Cutforth says. El Centro Humanitario eventually published these narratives and today uses them to counteract negative perceptions about immigrant laborers.
Working with diverse organizations
"Since 1997, we’ve done about two dozen projects," Cutforth says, noting that he fields several research requests from community partners each month.
Partners include a diverse array of organizations including: Metro Organizations for People, Rainbow Alley, the Colorado Department of Human Services, La Clínica Tepeyac, Highline Academy, the Rocky Mountain Prevention Research Center, and the Horace Mann Neighborhood Center.
Students wanting to participate can take a graduate-level course in community-based research or participate in internships or practica. Much of the work is funded by grants, but when clients have funding for the research, students can also take on contract work.
"Our doctoral students develop a sensitivity to the needs of organizations that help people on the margins," Cutforth explains, adding that community-based research complements DU's emphasis on civic engagement. "It's really reflective of DU's genuine commitment to doing this kind of work."
Published on Feb. 26, 2008