How Can We Build Capacity for Partnership
Download the CIRCLS 2023 Community Report (PDF)Our community recognizes that partnerships are essential to good research and practice. However, many researchers are under-prepared to do this work. Learning how to be a good partner is not something that most scholars are formally trained to do at large research institutions. Indeed, most programs that train researchers value individual scholarship rather than working with either researchers from other disciplines or participant communities. Conversely, institutions such as Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have strong ties to community organizations that serve local needs, yet often do not receive the research funding to investigate emerging technologies for learning with their community partners.
Below we present two projects that demonstrate how to build capacity for partnership research among early career scholars and HBCUs.
We highlight the first project Seeing the World through a Mathematical Lens: A Place-Based Game for Creating Math Walks (MathFinder) from the perspectives of both the PIs and the emerging scholars who worked on the project, describing how early career researchers are being prepared to be good partners with community-based organizations.
The second project, SACS Summer Data Science Academy, shows how an HBCU was able to bring together high-tech research and industry groups with community partners to design experiences that make advanced technologies relevant to the lived experiences of youth and inspire them to see themselves in high-tech STEM careers.
