Researching with: A decolonizing approach to community

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Canadian Journal of Action Research Volume 23, Issue 2, 2023, pages 134-137

BOOK REVIEW

Gullion, J. S., & Tilton, A. (2020). Researching with: A decolonizing approach to community- based action research. Brill.

Reviewed by Christine Ho Younghusband, University of Northern British Columbia.

This book is written for researchers or graduate students who are interested in engaging in public, collaborative scholarship, and research from a decolonizing approach. Community- based action research (CBAR) is focused primarily on the community. Members of the community identify a problem, find possible solutions, and implement next steps. The researcher is not seen as the expert doing research on people but rather as a partner and collaborator doing research with people. Relationships, reflection, reflexivity, and reciprocity are essential components of CBAR. The power and privilege of the researcher are minimized. Community members are the experts of their lived experiences. There is an emphasis to create “real change” with local solutions. The results are unique to the community, and its members are integral to solving the problem.

The book has five chapters. The first chapter, Community Health, introduces CBAR by providing some history of the methodology, a definition, and examples from health-based research. Issues are considered and public scholarship is defined. A key idea in this chapter is that research needs to slow down when working with communities. The second chapter, Decolonizing Research, addresses the history of Indigenous peoples and acts of colonization and oppression to make a case for Indigenous research and to emphasize the importance of asking the community for what they need. The third chapter describes Doing Community- Based Action Research. This chapter is the heart of the book. The CBAR process is described in detail, the colonizing approaches of research are called out, and the reliability and validity of findings are questioned. There is an emphasis that the top-down approach used in much research does not often work, and in CBAR, the researcher is more like a facilitator, collaborator, and listener. This chapter concludes with how to get started with key stakeholders, how to collect data and find funding sources, and how to overcome some of CBAR’s challenges. The fourth chapter looks at Research Ethics and sub-divides ethics into procedural, situational, and relational. In doing so, the worldviews and experiences of vulnerable and marginalized communities are acknowledged. The last chapter addresses Getting the Message Out and discusses the limitations of only publishing in academic journals.

The authors recommend going back to the community to brainstorm ways to disseminate

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Book Review Ho Younghusband

The Canadian Journal of Action Research, Volume 23, Issue 2 (2023), 134-137

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knowledge and ideas for collective action. The book includes Appendix A, which describes teaching Participatory Action Research, in community, to graduate students in a qualitative research course.

As an early career scholar, I was inspired to find ways to include aspects of CBAR or Participatory Action Research in my research program after reading this book. I was personally wooed by the idea of working with community in community and shifting my role from ‘researcher’ to collaborator. Building and maintaining long-lasting relationships with community members is appealing and creating long-lasting meaningful change with community in community seemed purposeful and impactful. CBAR is an invitation for scholars to examine how their values align (or not) to this decolonizing approach to research.

I was impressed that the authors wrote from a decolonizing stance and modelled several ideas proposed in the book on how to collaborate, disseminate knowledge, and enact change.

The way I am visualizing CBAR as a framework for research is like pulling in a canoe journey.

All participants have a role in the canoe to propel, direct, and navigate the canoe to reach a desired destination, collectively, knowing there will be waves along the way.

I appreciated how the authors opened the book with a territorial land acknowledgement and introduced themselves by articulating their positionality as white women scholars in the field of sociology and social work. Although the examples were from community health, they were relatable and accessible to researchers in other disciplines who wish to embark in CBAR. Throughout the book, the authors named truths about the ways of being in academia that are colonizing, oppressive, and too limiting to achieve real change. The straightforward way authors shared these perspectives may be off putting or offensive to those who align to the expectations of academia, but I found the book to be affirming. It answered many questions I had about academia and what qualifies as worthwhile scholarship. The demands of tenure track and pressure to publish in high-ranking peer-reviewed journals instilled by the institution are contrary to the work of CBAR and Indigenous ways of being.

Before entering higher education as a career, I was a high school math teacher. I was in the service of others, I wanted to do what was best for the community, and I prioritized students (or vulnerable populations) at the centre of my practice. This book provides insight on what is possible in research that makes “real change” in local communities as a public intellectual.

As a decolonizing approach, CBAR has the potential of being transformative in K-12 schools where stakeholders are many and commitment to a project that would address social issues relating to inequity, bias, racism, or marginalization for students or the broader school community would be welcomed, and certainly needed. Instead of the top-down approach as a means to motivate interventions for social justice in school organizations, CBAR and grassroot local solutions created and defined by community might be more meaningful and purposeful.

At the heart of my work is finding ways to improve the learning experiences of students. As a teacher educator, some of the learning objectives I have for teacher candidates are to build capacity and awareness of Truth and Reconciliation, understand the role of the teacher and how to be an anti-racist, and create safe learning spaces using trauma-informed practices.

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CBAR is a methodology well suited for educators who are intent on advocating for social justice, collaborating with community in community, and engaging in problem solving to develop local solutions through collective action. CBAR with a decolonizing approach has the potential to develop collective efficacy (Donohoo, 2017) within the school community over time, where people believe they can make a difference together. According to Hattie (2016), collective teacher efficacy is the number one factor that influences student achievement.

I believe the authors wrote this book as an act of decolonization and reconciliation. The book provides realistic aims, relatable personal experiences and real-life CBAR examples (i.e., the HIV project), and compelling reasons to consider CBAR as a worthy and humbling pursuit.

CBAR provides an opportunity to right the historical wrongs done to Indigenous peoples, advocate for vulnerable populations, and solve problems with community for community as a co-researcher. CBAR is an exemplar of the First Peoples Principles of Learning (First Nations Education Steering Committee, 2008) as seen in BC education, as well as to BC’s Curriculum (Province of BC, 2022), the Professional Standards for BC Educators (BC Teachers’ Council, 2019), and Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action (Truth and Reconciliation Commission, 2015).

The thought of participating in public scholarship and collaborating with community as an educator, researcher, and second-generation Chinese Canadian is empowering and hopeful.

At present, part of my research program focuses on program evaluation in teacher education and teacher professional learning as action research to critically reflect on my practice and how I can improve as an educator in higher education. CBAR with a decolonizing approach takes it one step further to critically reflect on teaching practices as a community (in K-12 schools) with community and assess the impacts we have, or may have, on the people we serve (the students). This is well aligned to who I am and would like to be as a researcher. I value relationship building, collaboration, and co-construction of knowledge. I want to be a co-researcher with community. I admire the authors’ work in CBAR, their voice, and honesty.

The authors claimed that this book was a feminist project, but I see it also as an act towards truth and reconciliation. I hope to engage in addressing social issues in K-12 education such as racism, marginalization, and oppression and their impacts on student learning in rural and remote communities in northern BC. I would highly recommend this book to researchers, teacher practitioners, and graduate students who wish to learn about in CBAR, decolonizing research, or public scholarship.

REFERENCES

BC Teachers’ Council. (2019). Professional Standards for BC Educators. Retrieved from https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/education/kindergarten-to-grade-12/teach/te acher-regulation/standards-for-educators/edu_standards.pdf

Donohoo, J. (2017). Collective efficacy: How educator’s beliefs impact learning. Corwin.

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First Nations Education Steering Committee. (2008). First Peoples Principles of Learning.

Retrieved from http://www.fnesc.ca/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/PUB-LFP- POSTER-Principles-of-Learning-First-Peoples-poster-11x17.pdf

Gullion, J.S., & Tilton, A. (2020). Researching with: A decolonizing approach to community- based action research. Brill.

Hattie, J. (2016). Visible learning for teachers: Maximizing impact on learning. Corwin.

Province of British Columbia. (2022). BC’s Curriculum: Curriculum Overview. Retrieved from https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/curriculum/overview

Truth and Reconciliation of Canada (2015). Truth and reconciliation of Canada: Calls to action. Retrieved from: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/british-columbians- our-governments/indigenous-people/aboriginal-peoples-documents/calls_to_actio n_english2.pdf

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE:

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Christine Ho Younghusband is an Assistant Professor in the School of Education at the University of Northern British Columbia. Christine’s research program focuses on professional learning for K-12 educators, program evaluation in teacher education, subject matter acquisition in K-12 math education, ethnic identity of teachers and cultural competencies, ethnomathematics and formative assessment, and sense-making through e- Portfolios.

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