Transcript Community Inquiry Laboratory

Community Inquiry
and LIS
Ann Peterson Bishop
Library & Information Science
U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Community-Based
Research, Learning & Action
Uniting people from all walks of life in
identifying, investigating, and taking
action on conditions that affect the
well-being of local residents.
Definitions and Examples
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Participatory Action Research
Participatory Evaluation
Appreciative Inquiry
Service Learning
Participatory Action Research/
Participatory Evaluation
 Incorporate local knowledge held
by marginalized groups;
 Gain the participation of
marginalized groups in all stages;
 Build capacity and achieve
constructive social outcomes.
http://www.incommunityresearch.org/
ICR has used participatory action research as a
capacity building and prevention approach for youth
and adults in the greater Hartford, CT area. Issues
that have been addressed include sexual identity
and support for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender
or questioning youth, working with young girls and
their mothers as a drug, alcohol and tobacco
prevention model, and engaging residents around
issues of community and family strengthening.
http://www.luc.edu/curl/projects/past/participatory.shtml
CURL promotes an innovative model of teaching and
learning that reaches beyond Loyola's campuses and
classrooms to develop equal partnerships between the
university and Chicago's communities. CURL is guided
by a mission which places strong emphasis on research
that addresses community needs and involves the
community at all levels of research. By working closely
with activists outside the university, the Center
recognizes and values the knowledge and experience of
individuals and organizations in non-academic settings.
http://www.iisd.org/ai/default.htm
Appreciative inquiry turns the problem-solving
approach on its head. It focuses on a
community's achievements rather than its
problems, and seeks to go beyond participation
to foster inspiration at the grass-roots level.
http://www.servicelearning.org/
Service-learning combines service objectives with
learning objectives with the intent that the activity
change both the recipient and the provider of the
service. This is accomplished by combining service tasks
with structured opportunities that link the task to selfreflection, self-discovery, and the acquisition and
comprehension of values, skills, and knowledge content.
Keep your eye on…
• East St. Louis Action Research Project
http://www.eslarp.uiuc.edu/
• Center for Democracy in a Multiracial Society
http://cdms.ds.uiuc.edu/Default.htm
• Urban Exchange Center / Civitas
http://www.peir.uiuc.edu/pi/urbanexchangecenter.htm
• Community Inquiry Labs
http://www.inquiry.uiuc.edu/cil2
Community Inquiry Labs
A place where members of a community come together to develop
shared capacity and work on common problems.
"Community" = support for collaborative activity and for creating
knowledge that is connected to people's values, history,
and lived experiences.
"Inquiry" = support for open-ended, democratic, participatory
engagement.
"Laboratory" = a space and resources to bring theory and action
together in an experimental and critical manner.
A CIL is most importantly a concept…
Community Inquiry Labs
• Web-based suite of Open Source software
tools to support collaboration and
communication (e.g., bulletin board,
document uploading, calendar, inquiry units)
• People create CILs (websites) on their own,
to support their activities within and among
groups
• Inquiry units = lesson plans, action plans,
meeting minutes, research reports,
journals, policy statements, etc.
Community Inquiry Lab Goals
http://inquiry.uiuc.edu/cil/partners.php
How can we:
a) connect learning & life?
b) support participatory design?
c) accommodate diversity & shared values?
Connect Learning and Life: ESLARP
ESLARP Sample Inquiry Unit
Support Participatory Design:
SisterNet
http://sisternetonline.org/ourinquiry.html
• New model for Black women's organizing
• Wholeness through physical, emotional,
spiritual, and intellectual health
• Political strategy to resist oppression and
shape livable communities
• Community health fairs, conferences, and
learning/action circles
SisterNet’s CIL in Action
Taking Action for Water Quality
Spiritual Health Plan
For the Create section -I would like to accomplish the following goals: Once each week
I would like to take at least four (4) hours of the weekend for
my own enjoyment. This will include, but is not limited to, things
like: going to the beauty shop, going out to dinner or to the
movies with my husband, reading my Bible or some other book,
or just praying or meditating. … I also will let my family know
that I love and support them...
Accommodate Difference & Shared Values:
Paseo Boricua Community Library Project
http://www.prairienet.org/pbclp/community_inquiry_lab.htm
• Puerto Rican Cultural Center in Chicago's
Humboldt Park neighborhood
• Galvanizes neighborhood residents around
community projects
• Addresses critical issues: gang violence,
AIDS, social and environmental justice,
literacy, and economic development
Paseo Boricua Street Academy
http://inquiry.uiuc.edu/cil/out.php?cilid=112
Participatory Inquiry
and Information Systems
Design through use or participatory inquiry aims to
respond to human needs by democratic processes.
Through creation of content, contributions to
interactive elements, and incorporation into
practice, users are not merely recipients of
technology, but participate actively in its ongoing
development.
Co-Evolution
Knowledge
Technology
Community
Equitable relations, then tasks
renders the progress of expertise in a community
secondary to a relational and epistemological
practice of confronting differences so that its
participants can come to understand how the beliefs
and purposes of others can call their own into
question.
Clark, "Rescuing the discourse of community"
Active participation
every individual must be consulted in such a
way, actively not passively, that he himself
becomes a part of the process of authority.
Dewey, Democracy & Education
Community Inquiry Track at GSLIS
• LIS 450 IBL: Inquiry-Based Learning
http://inquiry.uiuc.edu/cil/out.php?cilid=29
• LIS 450 PT: Pragmatic Technology
http://inquiry.uiuc.edu/cil/out.php?cilid=46
• LIS 450 SJ: Social Justice in the Information
Professions
http://inquiry.uiuc.edu/cil/out.php?cilid=72
• LIS450CI: Community Information Systems
http://inquiry.uiuc.edu/cil/out.php?cilid=86
• LIS450PAR: Participatory Action Research
http://inquiry.uiuc.edu/cil/out.php?cilid=85
Roles for LIS Professionals
Collaborate in community-based
research, learning, and action!
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Needs assessment and community analysis
Finding and organizing information
Design and evaluation of information technology
Gathering and presenting data
Project planning
Co-teaching in service-learning courses
Resources
Bruce, B. C., & Bishop, A. P. (2002, May). Using the web to support inquirybased literacy development. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 45(8).
http://www.reading.org/publications/jaal/index.html
Clark, G. (1994). Rescuing the discourse of community. College Composition and
Communication, 45(1), 61–74.
Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and education. New York: Macmillan.
Freire, Paolo (2002). Pedagogy of the oppressed. 30th anniversary ed. New
York: Continuum.
Glassman, M. 2001. Dewey and Vygotsky: Society, experience, and inquiry in
educational practice. Educational Researcher, 30(4), 3-14.
Resources
Greenwood, Davydd J., & Levin, Morten. (1998). Introduction to action research:
Social research for social change. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Patton, M.Q. (1999). Some framing questions about racism and evaluation." The
American Journal of Evaluation, 20(30), 437-444.
Rinaldo, R. (2002). Space of resistance: The Puerto Rican Cultural Center and
Humboldt Park. Cultural Critique , 50, 135-174.
http://leep.lis.uiuc.edu/spring03/LIS450PAR/Rinaldo.pdf
Stringer, Ernest T. (1999). Action research. 2d ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Reardon, K. M. (1998). Participatory action research as service learning. In R. A.
Rhoads and J. P. F. Howard, eds., Academic service learning: A pedagogy of action
and reflection (pp. 57-64). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Whitmore, E. (ed.). (1998). Understanding and practicing participatory evaluation.
San Francisco, Jossey-Bass.
Contact Information
Ann Bishop
[email protected]
217-244-3299