Community Engaged Research: Student and Community Perspectives

Engaged scholarship is defined by Stanton (2008) as research that partners university scholarly resources with those in the public and private sectors to enrich knowledge, address and help solve critical social issues and contribute to the public good. To be truly engaged and of high quality, engagement must take place in the development of the purpose, throughout the research process and in the compilation of the research product. It includes research that incorporates only a few elements of community-engagement, for example having the researchers control the research with the community in more of a consultative role, to research in which both are equal partners throughout the process. This paper will report on a community engaged research course. Feedback from the community agencies and the students involved in the course will be examined in terms of the level of engagement and whether the students were able to make a contribution to the organization.