Women + Girls Research Alliance featured as case study

UNC Charlotte’s Women + Girls Research Alliance is featured as a case study in a new work on the practice of community-based research.

“Community-based Qualitative Research: Approaches for Education and the Social Sciences” was published by SAGE Publications; it was authored by Laura Ruth Johnson, associate professor, Department of Educational Technology, Research and Assessment, College of Education, Northern Illinois University.

“Women + Girls Research Alliance (W+GRA) is honored to be featured as one of three case studies in Dr. Johnson’s text,” said Heather Brown, W+GRA executive director. “Community-based research is meant to be collaborative, critical and transformative. Our case study features the unique ways in which our work promotes collaboration between researchers and community, provides methods and opportunities for new voices to be heard in the research process and shares research results so that communities can use those results to shape practices and policies that are important to them and to their vision for their communities.”

According to the publisher, “Community-based Qualitative Research: Approaches for Education and the Social Sciences” is a practical text that “integrates theoretical perspectives with guidelines for designing and implementing community-based qualitative research projects. Coverage of participatory research designs and approaches is complemented by chapters on specific aspects of this research process, such as developing relationships and sharing findings to strengthen programs.”

W+GRA’s approach to community-based research received recognition at the Society for Community Research and Action’s 2015 Southeastern Ecological-Community Psychology conference. Brown and two graduate students presented a poster on the cyclical process the alliance uses to develop a proactive, community-sourced research agenda for the organization.