Abstract
This special issue includes a set of articles designed to advance the theory and practice of collaborative, community engaged scholars (CCES) in education research and related fields. CCES has emerged across a range of disciplines and research domains, relying upon different methodologies and ethical frameworks, including participatory action research, youth participatory action research, action research, community-based research , and other forms of engaged scholarship like community-based participatory research. In this sense, we use CCES as an umbrella term across this variety of approaches.
Despite centrally important similarities, we call this an emerging field because scholars practicing CCES typically operate separately in their diverse disciplines and methods, with little sharing of best practices in theory and method. To help overcome the silos and cross-fertilize ideas in this field, this special issue brings together scholars who theorize and practice this approach to research in many diverse ways to address a set of issues confronting the emerging field.
Although CCES has a long history in education research and in other fields, it may be entering a new moment. The newly created URBAN network, for example, joins a growing number of networks established over the past 15 years and committed to advancing CCES in a variety of forms, including Imagining America, Democracy Collaborative, Campus-Community Partnerships for Health, and the international Talloires Network. In other words, scholars are looking to connect across disciplines to identify commonalities and differences, share best practices, and clarify theoretical premises, ethical challenges, and methodological practices. The authors of the articles in this special issue are intensely engaged in this intellectual and activist process and offer these articles as contributions to building this emerging field.
Warren, M. R. et al. (2018). Special Issue: Research Confronts Equity and Social Justice-Building the Emerging Field of Collaborative, Community Engaged Education Research. Urban Education 53(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085918763495