Inequitable Collaborations-The Need for FULL ACCESS

Check out the wonderful stop-motion video created by one of our students, Isabella Armas-Leon, describing our research results focused on inequitable collaborations between more resourced Science Institutions and Community-based Organizations.

ICBOs New Project Showcased at PI Meeting in Washington, D.C.

Bobby Wilson ready to share our wonderful workbooks!

Bobby Wilson and Karen Purcell showcased our new NOISE project's poster during this year's Principal Investigator meeting in Washington, D.C.

This event, organized by the Center for Advancement of Informal Science Education (CAISE) is for PI's of projects supported by the NSF Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program and others who take an active interest in broad strategic issues that cut across the informal science education field.

These PI Meetings offer an opportunity to discuss trends and issues in the field and we are excited that this time one of our community researchers who is also a Co-PI attended.

Bobby and Karen also presented at at the NSF PI Panel on Public Participation in Scientific Research/Citizen Science as a Force for Change along with two other researchers committed to community led participatory research.

Monica Ramirez-Andreotta, whose project is focused on building capacity in underserved communities and informing the safe and sustainable production of food sources, and Lucy Robinson who is reaching out to community-based orgs in London to work on bioblitzes as part of their Science Learning + project.

The panel PPSR/ “Citizen science” presents opportunities for authentic science engagement and science learning. Employing this approach in a more than cursory way raises fundamental questions about who determines what science is being done and for what purpose. How can addressing these questions, and engaging communities at the outset, create opportunities for new forms of science learning, and new models of scientific research?

What a nice way to start this year! Keeping it up with the ICBOs.

Bobby and Karen on a selfie ride.

Karen, Bobby and Tina proudly pose in front of our original poster.

Our Community Review Board Agreement of Non-Negotiables

The ICBOs have created a Community Review Board Agreement of Non-Negotiables to guide research and evaluation in our communities. We believe these key agreements will guide equitable, inclusive research that ultimately benefits our communities. This agreement will guide our work -- much like Institutional Review Boards might do so at universities and research institutions, but from the community perspective.

ICBO Community Review Board Agreement of Non-Negotiables

What is non-negotiable as we undertake community-based participatory research?

1. Research in our communities must be conducted with respect and cultural competence.

2. Research in our communities must include our communities from the beginning.

3. Research in our communities will be beneficial and empowering to our communities.

4. Researchers must have a deep understanding of equity*.

5. Researchers must have a high level of emotional intelligence.

6. Researchers will use vocabulary that is easy for everyone involved in the project (and their communities) to understand.

7. Researchers must understand our communities’ priorities.

8. Researchers will not use our communities as guinea pigs. We do not want to be studied or used for the benefit of others.

9. Research in our communities will be honest, transparent, and have high integrity.

10. OUR worldviews ARE NOT THOSE OF THE DOMINANT CULTURE. WE WILL NOT ADAPT SIMPLY BECAUSE IT IS THE WAY SCIENCE IS TRADITIONALLY DONE.  

11. Researchers will be clear and transparent about their agenda.

12. Researchers will NOT use our communities for the benefit of their institutions or for their personal benefit.

13. Research results will always be shared with our communities first and in ways that are accessible and clear to everyone.

14. Consent documents will be clear and to the point so that anyone can understand what they are agreeing to.

15. The intellectual property that is taken from our communities belongs to our community. 

*Equity: Providing the structure, tools, respect, and support needed to give each member the same opportunity to succeed. Working for equity also means identifying and fighting forces and systems that limit opportunities and outcomes.

 

Photos of the ICBOs meeting at our December 11-13 meeting at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. The ICBOs have co-created and signed a copy of our working agreements. Photos by Marilú Lopez-Fretts

NSF Awards New Grant to The ICBOs!

Photo by Jesse Graham of the WorldBeat Center.

More exciting news from our community! The National Science Foundation awarded the ICBOs and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology a three-year $2.5-million dollar grant to create a national community science project focused on noise pollution.

The ICBOs will be working together, following our rules based on the Jemez Principles to co-create this new project with our communities. What makes the project so exciting is the fact that three of our community researchers are named Co-Principal Investigators. The grant proposal was co-created with the ICBOs and The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, living our mission, vision and values for building and maintaining equitable collaborations.

Our plan is to measure the impacts of noise pollution in inner cities on people and birds with the help of a co-created app. We plan to record noise levels and look at impacts on human well-being. In addition, we plan to create noise refuges and connect people with birds in our communities.

Nine community advisors representing underserved African American, Latino, and Native communities across the U.S., members of the ICBOs, will be part of the project. In addition, Metro Atlanta Urban Farm, in Atlanta, GA., Camp Compass Academy in Allentown, PA., WorldBeat Center in San Diego, CA., and Comunidades Latinas Unidas en Servicio (CLUES) in St. Paul, MN. will be leading the project via community-based participatory research.

The project also includes other wonderful advisors with expertise on the non-auditory effects of noise pollution; community-based participatory research; equity, diversity, and inclusion in science and citizen science.

Congratulations to the ICBOs.

We'll keep you posted with our work!

Stop Motion with Isabella

As the semester is coming to a holiday break, Engaged Cornell student Isabella Armas-Leon got together with community researcher and actor Jose Miguel Hernandez Hurtado and with Karen Purcell to produce a stop motion video. This project is part of the dissemination materials being produced to share the work of the ICBOs in creative ways (transmedia storytelling).

Karen Purcell and Jose Miguel Hernandez Hurtado. Photo by Marilú López-Fretts.

It was fun and refreshing as the two took on  their roles explaining with body movement one of the ICBO Research results: "Access."

Isabella Armas-Leon directs the piece. Photo by Marilú López-Fretts.

Our Workshop at the American Community Gardening Association - So What?

This week’s presentation at the ACGA pre conference was exciting and powerful. We shared our results and latest drafts of our workbooks. The ICBOs used the arts (song and cultural traditions) to present difficult and hard-to-hear results. We are a strong and wild group of individuals!

We had lots of wonderful responses to the four-hour workshop. One of our audience members who runs a community-based organization told us that she had experienced everything in our presentation first-hand - and she wondered how our work was going to change anything. 

The power of our work comes in using  community-based participatory research - to document what communities have known forever: the sciences are not equitable. Our work not only documents the problems, but we also share tools on how to create more equitable collaborations between STEM institutions and community-based organizations.

 - Photos by Marilú López-Fretts. 

Our framework keeps evolving

When we started our journey as community researchers, the framework that we developed contained four main themes for creating long-standing partnerships and meaningful collaborations: Trust and Transparency; Power and Privilege; Realities and Relevance; and Commitment and Collaboration.

Originally, we believed that each one was distinct.

Below is the original framework:

Today, as our framework keeps evolving and becoming stronger, we understand that all of the themes are interconnected and all must be considered when developing and achieving more equitable long-standing partnerships and meaningful collaborations. The new image includes many of the recommendations that have emerged from our research.

Here is the new framework as it continues to evolve:

Walking on Eggshells with Jose Miguel Hernandez Hurtado

Our research shows that community-based organizations don’t feel like they can be honest with partners when they see institutional racism. They feel like they are “walking on eggshells,” because addressing inequity might harm their organization or community.

In this video, Jose Miguel Hernandez, an artist and one of our community researchers, interprets one of the results of our research using body expressions.

Capturing Codes

Last summer we began our research coding process. Between picnic retreats and phone meetings, we discussed the patterns that emerged from the surveys. Based on the patterns found, we developed the four categories that we named Power and Privilege, Trust and Transparency, Realities and Relevance, and Commitment and Collaboration. Sister Sharon Horace, Jose Miguel Hernandez and Fanny Villarreal joined us in person on separate occasions to work on the codes, while other participated over the phone. Thank you all!

 Brigid, Karen and Marilu discuss the codes and share the information with the ICBOs over emails.

 Another time one of the community researchers, Fanny Villarreal, joined us in person to a picnic retreat.

 Bobby Wilson discusses with Karen the Robin Hood approach during the American Community Gardening Association's conference.

 Our regular meeting schedule with all the ICBOs.

 Karen and her son working in tandem.

 Marilu (not in the picture) in the company of Sunny.

 The four categories that emerged.

 Working it through...

 Coding process...

 Brigid Lucey diligently capturing codes.

 Our setting for our coding picnic retreats.

Our office for that day...

Working late into the night... during a power outage...

Why have Informal Science Institutions not made significant advances in fostering equity, diversity, and inclusion in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics)? Three years ago, 15 community leaders representing underserved communities throughout the U.S.A. set out to find some answers so we could better understand why implementing effective STEM programming in underserved communities remains fraught with challenges. They initiated community-based participatory research, using grounded theory approaches, and asked more than 30 community organizations to weigh in. The community researchers, participated in all phases of the research and collectively created a framework that highlights the following themes: 1) trust and transparency, 2) power and privilege, 3) commitment and collaboration, and 4) realities and relevance.

This work evolved from an NSF AISL grant project, Collaborative Research: Examining Contextual Factors that Influence the Implementation of Projects Designed to Improve Cultural Diversity in Informal STEM Programming. We call the group of community researchers “The ICBOs” (Independent Community-based Organizations). The ICBOs have collectively used their strengths and expertise to delve deeper and more meaningfully into community perspectives. They have led this exploration authentically and independently. 

Sometimes research approaches themselves can be part of the problem when trying to understand equity, diversity, and inclusion in STEM. For instance, even informed researchers may tend to use frameworks and literature that originate in the dominant culture to inform their research; ask questions that may not really get at the issues, and may leave underserved communities feeling as if they are being studied. These problems create an even greater sense of mistrust. Knowing this, the ICBOs wanted to lead research that would, instead, represent our communities’ perspectives.

Check out our video -- A Public Choice winner in the 2018 National Science Foundation Video Showcase:   http://stemforall2018.videohall.com/presentations/1127, where we discuss the preliminary results of our research.

Special thanks to the WorldBeat Center in San Diego, one of the community organizations leading this research, for producing our video. For more information about our work visit: power30icbos.blogspot.com

Meeting in San Diego

The ICBOs (Independent Community-based Organizations) presented their findings at 

the WorldBeat Center in San Diego in March.

Jose González presented ICBO research results at the meeting.

Makeda Cheatom and Berenice Rodriguez presented the Premiere of the Culture Beat's 1st Baja Bird Festival Documentary produced by WorldBeat Center.

 ICBO research materials shared at the meeting.

 Music, beat and STEM come together during the African drumming class.

Our meeting in San Diego involved all of the participants of the NSF AISL grant: Examining Contextual Factors Influencing the Implementation of Projects Designed to Improve Cultural Diversity in Informal STEM Programs.  The ICBOs presented their results to group. 

Participants gathered to say goodbye after their last meeting as a group. 

Why I got here and why it matters

Thirty-year educator John Annoni, founder of Camp Compass Academy in Allentown, Pennsylvania, shares his passion for his work. John is a leading force when it comes to building bridges between outdoor culture and inner city kids from underserved communities. Through "hunting and fishing in the pursuit of Mother Nature," he brings his perspective to our Community Perspectives' research.

Bobby Wilson talks about understanding the community's needs: practicality vs. academic research

This video was taken after our presentation at the Inaugural SEEDs conference. Bobby Wilson, one of the ICBO community researchers reflects on many of the presentations he saw at the conference. He expressed his frustration at what feels like a lack of common sense in Academia. Sometimes our lingo, academic language, statistics, exciting graphics, and empirical evidence just create barriers. Sometimes things can be said in a straightforward manner without using lingo. Sometimes we don't need statistics and high tech graphics to state the obvious. And, sometimes, we are so focused on getting published that we forget to keep it real. Perhaps, if we just sat together with the community and discussed solutions we might be able to accomplish more.

Bobby Wilson, Karen Purcell, José González and Marilú Lopez-

Fretts presenting at the Inagural SEEDs conference

Our Rules

Photo by Marilú López Fretts

After meeting in Philadelphia this November we've determined the working rules for the Community Perspectives Researchers (also known as the Independent Community Based Organizations or ICBOs).

Working Rules

The ICBOs have agreed to follow the Jemez Principles for Democratic Organizing:

1) Be inclusive

2) Emphasis on bottom-up organizing

3) Let people speak for themselves

4) Work together in solidarity and mutuality

5) Build just relationships among ourselves

6) Commitment to self-transformation

Decision-making:

-We will strive for consensus and embrace solidarity and mutuality among ICBO members.

-Transparency and honesty are expected among all ICBO members and collaborators.

-All members will be kept informed at all times and will have multiple opportunities to weigh in and provide input ahead of deadlines.

-All ICBO members will be included/invited to meetings that affect our collective work.

-All ICBO members will have access to research findings in all phases of the research process.

-We focus on strengths.

Presentations and publications:

-First authorship is determined by niche/topic/area of expertise; who is taking the lead; who might benefit the most; or alphabetical order. Transparency and honesty are key.

    

-One ICBO representative will take on the role of coordinating any requests for presentations stemming from our Community Perspectives Research. This role will be held for 4 months and then we will rotate this responsibility. Fanny Villarreal has taken the role of the ICBO coordinator until April 2018.

    

Photo by Marilú López Fretts

-We have developed a short application for potential presenters (ICBO members and/others). The application can be found here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/6C92HJC

    

-We will make major efforts to ensure ICBO participation/representation in Community Perspectives research presentations to guide and interpret our work and messaging in the right manner. Let the ICBOs speak for themselves.

    

-Every member of the ICBO research team and participating community-based organizations will have a copy of all our findings, publications, and presentations as soon as they available. Each member will have a printed version of our standard research poster of results and share as they see fit.

-The posters, presentations, and publications will always acknowledge the authors and participating community-based organizations and be clear about who has done this work.

-The ICBOs will always speak for themselves. The research should be shared broadly without requiring in-person representation from dominant-culture institutions, including the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Blogs and videos:   

-The ICBOs will always post from the heart.

-Blogs and videos are democratizing tools to share our community perspectives and the work we do.

Motivations and Benefit:
-We value inclusion and authenticity
- We value working through conflicts
- We value doing the work lovingly by “living the mission”
- We believe that community-based organizations and leaders benefit by valuing and communicating their worth
- We expect due credit and equitable compensation for community expertise

-We demand self-reflection, transparency, and honesty in understanding motivations of our work.

-We demand self-reflection, transparency, and honesty in understanding who will ultimately benefit from our work and from products of our work.

-We focus on social inequalities, work for social change,  and believe the primary benefactors of our efforts are the communities we represent.

-We expect mutual benefit of all partners.

Bobby, Makeda and John share how their work impacts their communities

Bobby Wilson Describes our Research to Increase Inclusion in the Sciences

Our Research Methods

Our research is led by fifteen community leaders from historically underrepresented communities in the sciences. They lead community-based participatory research in collaboration with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and have engaged a total of thirty community-based organization perspectives to better understand equity, diversity, and inclusion in citizen science. The questions, methods, analysis, results, and dissemination are determined by these researchers. 

They began their work three years ago out of frustration that their community voices were remaining unheard in the sciences and a strong distrust of dominant culture institutions that hold the balance of power and have been called on by funders to solve problems in their communities.

This work has been supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF DRL#1422022).

Photo by Marilú López-Fretts

ICBO Research presentation at ACGA Conference

Karen Purcell of The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and Bobby Wilson of Metro Atlanta Urban Farm shared preliminary results of the ICBO (Independent Community-based Organizations) research. The ICBO research explores issues that affect collaborations between community-based organizations and informal science institutions.