Why a blog?

I am beginning a new inquiry project and hope to use this blog to document my process.  For the last 20 years (maybe more) the focus on my work has involved one or more of the following themes: civic engagement, service-learning, community partnership, adult literacy, volunteer training, program evaluation, social justice, and participatory education/research.  I am grateful for all of the people who I've learned with along the way.

A lifetime of personal and professional questions about whose voice counts, when it counts, and why it counts has led me to a couple of conclusions.  One, the people around us know a lot. We come to our conclusions from different backgrounds, experiences, but we share a deep desire for a conclusive and optimal way to work towards our respective goals. Opinion here - but if we're lifelong learners and open to being wrong (occasionally), we have something to offer that will inform the goal of a better world for everyone. Two, so many wonderful ways to document what people know exist. Community-based research, action research, inquiry-based research, art-based research, participatory research, interviews, focus groups, asset-based community development, just to name a few.

That being said, how often do you attend a professional meeting where those practices are the norm? How often is a community member or a practitioner/administrator presenting about research? Maybe as a part of a collaboration but rarely as the lead researcher.

Several  of my own unexplored research questions inspired me to find a systematic way to document terms, methods, and practices give voice to the wisdom held by community members, practitioners, volunteers and administrators.  I believe that people who work in civic engagement  programs know much about what works (particularly in their own communities) but they are often sidelined in conversations that preference the experienced professional researcher.  Not sure I need to believe this is intentional, but I do believe that until we find systematic ways to document our knowledge, our voices will be heard

I hope my learning (I have lots of questions!) will lead to increased program quality and offer a paradigm to others interested in having a voice or using participatory tools to encourage others to do research.