Researchers who engage in CES often decrease their legitimacy within the academy since the positivist tradition, which they are challenging, is quite powerful. Thus, in many ways, they join the ranks of the “marginalized.” In short, issues of power and privilege are multilayered. Second, we need to understand, to the best of our ability, how systems of power shape the understanding and actions of individuals, including our own. Third, we need to be open in our communications and unafraid to ask questions that take us close to the central nervous system of racial difference, while also understanding why our questions may go unanswered. Open and frank conversations about race in our society are few and far between, leaving most of us woefully unprepared for how to productively and sensitively engage in such conversations. Fourth, we need to distinguish between individuals and institutions. While many urban universities have been prime movers in gentrifying their surrounding communities, many of the faculty who teach in those places have strongly opposed such actions. Creating spaces for those academics to come together to share experiences, lessons learned, and suggestions for moving forward, as URBAN has done, provides some comfort and support. Fifth, and on a proactive note, researchers need to be mindful of the privileges that often do accrue by virtue of working in a university and, if we are white, the privileges that come from our racial standing. Acting as empowerment agents, we can leverage this privilege in our work with community and youth partners. Finally, we need to accept and live with the knowledge that some tensions will never be resolved. However, if these tensions push us to further interrogate our roles, our work, our status, and our place in the larger fight for social justice, they may ultimately strengthen our collaborative work, enhancing our ability to effect positive social change

InBaltimore,issuesofracialandclassdifferenceswereaccentuatedbythefactthatthemajorityoftheuniversitystudentsinvolvedwerewhiteandfrommiddleclassbackgrounds,whereastheBaltimoreAlgebraProject(BAP)andNewLensmemberswithwhomtheypartneredwerelargelylow-incomeAfricanAmericanyouth.ManyBAPyouthwerestillinhighschoolandhadneithermanyresourcesnortheearof

As such, it helps to broaden our understanding of community-engagedscholarship as it shifts the role of university researchers from participant to audience, listening to and learning from community expertise.

We, the members of Journey for Justice, are comprised of thousands of youth, parents, and other concerned citizens from communities of color across the United States”

Prior to graduate school, the doctoral student had worked for a national school reform network that supported parent and youth education organizing groups.

hegrantallowedtheteamtopursueacommunity-engagedresearchprojectincorporatingresearchthattheuniversityprofessorhadalreadyconducted.Thatwork,whichcombinedGISmappinganddatafromtheBaltimoreNeighborhoodIndicatorsAllianceDatabase,resultedinanannotatedmapthatlistedpoverty,unemployment,andcrimerates,aswellasnumberofvehiclesperhousehold,fortheareasslatedforschoolclosings.Theseindicatorsemergedoutofconversationswithpeopleimpactedbytheschoolclosings.

Shesharedthisfindingwithherstudentsinherurbaneducationclass,whowonderedwhetherthispracticewasintentional.Ratherthanwriteacritiqueoftheschoolclosureplan,sheandherstudentsdecidedtoengageinaversionofcommunity-basedresearchandsharetheinitialfindingswiththecommunitytoseeiftheywouldbeusefultolocaleducationadvocates.

We conclude with a discussion of some of the lingering tensions that characterize community-engagedscholarship

By contrast, the three cases featured in this article incorporated community and youth voice to create pushback to this policy and to contribute to building a large knowledge and advocacy base

In the cases that follow, we present three forms of CES: participatory action research (PAR), in which university researchers and community partners collaboratively engaged in almost all aspects of the process; the engaged learner, in which the researcher documented a community organizingcampaign with the full support of the campaign organizers; and a grassroots listening project implemented without university partners. Despite the different forms of the collaborations, the projects each had to deal with tricky ethical questions around power differentials, race and racism, and ownership and voice.

Abstract: