New understandings of communities and ourselves: community-based participatory research with Alaska Native and Lower 48 youth

In the summer of 2014, students from universities in the contiguous United States (Lower 48) and Inupiat youth from Alaska carried out a pilot project as participants/co-researchers in a process called Intergenerational Dialog, Exchange, and Action (IDEA). This action-oriented, community-based, and participatory research method was first developed in 2008, as a platform for structuring dialog between adults, Elders and youth within a community, and for extending resonant ideas emerging from these discussions through Photovoice and digital storytelling amongst youth participants. This pilot study was designed to investigate the feasibility and potential of university students from the Lower 48 and Indigenous youth from Alaska to carry out the IDEA process together as co-researchers. The results of the pilot suggest that it is both possible and meaningful for IDEA to be conducted by a team of youth co-researchers. We found that participation in IDEA expanded the perspectives of youth co-researchers from both Alaska and the Lower 48 in parallel, yet different ways. Exploring the strengths of older community members, being exposed to different ways of living and being, and having opportunities to reflect on and build narratives around these ideas, allowed all the co-researchers to develop a new understanding of their own communities and their roles and responsibilities within them. This paper shares youth co-researcher reflections of the process and the ways in which the process prompted these new perspectives about themselves, their respective communities and their roles within them.     

Using Community-Based Research to Improve BSW Students’ Learning in Community Practice: Bringing the Macro into Focus for Traditional and Distance Learners

This article describes community–university partnership building, course development/management, and evaluation outcomes related to an intensive community-based research project that was integrated in two sections of an undergraduate course on community practice. Pre- and posttest data were collected from 60 BSW students who were enrolled in community practice and who participated in a community-based research project with their state’s fair housing office. The evaluation outcomes focus on changes in professional interest in macro practice, students’ self-efficacy, and differences in students’ learning experiences, based on traditional bricks-and-mortar or distance learning contexts. Results show that students experience increases in self-efficacy related to community assessment and intervention. Qualitative results show that students experienced shifts in their professional goals related to macro practice, increased competence and understanding, and personal transformation. A number of differences emerged between traditional and distance learners. Results are discussed in the context of curriculum development and next steps for institutionalizing CBR in community practice courses.     

“参与式治理”研究述评

参与式治理,是指与政策有利害关系的公民个人、组织和政府一起参与公共决策、分配资源、合作治理的过程.参与式作为一种新型的治理模式,是参与式民主在治理中的运用.参与式治理在世界范围内的实施和推广,改善了当地的政治生态,提升了公民的主体意识,促进了当地经济和社会发展.作者通过对参与式治理的全面考察,认为参与式治理对中国的治道变革和政府治理模式的创新,具有十分重要的借鉴和启示:参与式治理作为一个决策框架,有利于政府自身决策的科学化和民主化;有助于重塑政府与公民的关系;有助于培育公民社会,塑造良好公民;参与式治理从地方和基层入手的实践本质也给出了我们治理创新的方向.     

Implementing a Primary Level Environmental Education Curriculum

Abstract

When an environmental studies curriculum was developed for senior high schools in Israel, special attention was paid to the methodological approach, to content selection, and to the integration of central and school-based curriculum strategies. While central curriculum teams usually have an advantage in their better access to budgets, to specialized sources of information, and to central examination bodies, local teachers are those who best can develop a curriculum unit based on a real, environmental problem, toward which students can actively contribute a solution.

A model is described, which was used to optimize the contribution of both central and school-based curriculum teams. The main implementation problems located were the need to identify local sources of knowledge and the need to train teachers in choosing modular curriculum units, in working with groups on a realistic project, and in project evaluation.     

我国市民社会理论研究概述

市民社会理论是西方政治学、社会学研究中的重要内容,自20世纪90年代被引入我国内地以来,迅速引起了研究者们的广泛关注,并成为学术界的研究热点。我国市民社会理论经历了起源、争论、深入发展到取得新进展等一系列的过程,具有不同于西方国家的独特性。对这一过程进行回顾与梳理,对于我国市民社会理论的进一步发展具有重要的意义。     

参与民主在欧盟的兴起及其理论反思

20世纪90年代中期以来,在消弭欧盟民主赤字的尝试中,欧盟机构实现了对公民社会价值的重新发现,<欧盟宪法条约>以及后来的<里斯本条约>写入了有关参与民主原则的表述.本文指出,欧盟有关参与民主的讨论与实践具有两个显著特征:其一,欧盟关注的不是每个公民的直接参与,而是通过公民社会组织实现的间接参与;其二,欧盟不是把参与作为面向单个公民的内在价值,而是把参与作为提高复杂治理机制中的问题解决能力的一种工具.正是这些特征决定了在欧盟这个特殊构成体中,参与民主只应且只能是代议制民主的补充,而非替代.     

Having it all? Transferring community-oriented research principles to teaching and learning to develop better university engagement

There are increasing demands on universities to develop more meaningful linkages with local communities – from government, from citizens and taxpayers, and from students. But the incorporation of community-oriented praxis into the university mission is not straightforward and requires a significant re-orientation away from ‘traditional’ organizational norms regarding teaching and research. Where community practice involves students, there is a burgeoning literature on situated learning, service learning and problem-based learning; but where community practice relates to research, the literature tends to be very much more disciplinary oriented and the sources are commensurately disparate. Discussions about community perspectives, however, are typically located in another set of literatures altogether. In order to address this deficit, this article reviews the literature on community-oriented research with the intention of providing a more holistic view of the common concerns and issues that arise when universities move their work into communities. This article reveals that – despite different disciplinary origins – the varied literature on community-oriented research illustrates the evolution of consistent principles for good practice. Moreover, it argues that community-oriented research principles provide praxis guidelines for university engagement in communities that are often absent in the literature on teaching and learning or civic engagement. The article then presents a case study of the evolution an integrated institutional response, which combines community-oriented research approaches to teaching and learning and civic engagement, being developed at the University of Limerick, Ireland.     

学习型社会视野下的社区职业教育

人类进入21世纪以来,随着知识经济的兴起,信息网络化、经济全球化时代的到来,教育领域也发生了巨大的变化。构建终身教育体系、建立学习型社会的呼声成为时代的最强音。学习型社会思想实质上是一种教育的可持续发展观念和人的自身全面和谐发展的观念,具体到职业教育,要求我国职业教育的发展要顺应构建学习型社会的时代潮流。本文就学习型社会视野下如何开展社区职业教育作一探讨。