Community-Based Research and Higher Education Principles and Practices

"Community-Based Research and Higher Education is the long-awaited guide to how to incorporate a powerful and promising new form of scholarship into academic settings. The book presents a model of community-based research (CBR) that engages community members with students and faculty in the course of their academic work. Unlike traditional academic research, CBR is collaborative and change-oriented and finds its research questions in the needs of communities. This dynamic research model combines classroom learning with social action in ways that can ultimately empower community groups to address their own agendas and shape their own futures. At the same time it emphasizes the development of knowledge and skills that truly prepare students for active civic engagement.

Kerry Strand is the Andrew G. Truxal Professor of Sociology and director of the Center for Community Research, Hood College. Sam Marullo is associate professor and chair of the sociology department at Georgetown University and cofounder and director of the community Research and Learning (CoRAL) Network of Washington, D.C. Nick Cutforth is associate professor of educational leadership in the College of Education at the University of Denver. Randy Stoecker is professor of sociology at the University of Toledo. Patrick Donohue is assistant professor of political science, Middlesex County College, and interim director, Trenton Center for Campus and Community Partnerships.