Category: Blog

“Practitioners of community engagement in universities can also misbehave, unless rigorous standards of quality are established and enforced”, thus spoke Prof Darren  of Durban Institute of Technology in a seminar at PRIA last week. His presentation centred around the challenge … Continue reading →

The writings associated with our UNESCO Chair refer often to the co-creation of knowledge as part of a community based research or a community university research partnership process.  But the co-construction of knowledge also happens within the context of curriculum … Continue reading →

Over the past week, several conversations seem to challenge the real meanings of community-engaged (community-based) participatory research. A conversation with scholars from a dozen Commonwealth countries highlighted the growing disconnect between research and teaching functions within Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). … Continue reading →

Rajesh and I have recently spent several days in New York City.  Our time happened to fall on October 31, which is the Halloween celebration in Ireland, the United States and some other countries. Halloween is said to have evolved … Continue reading →

In the history of social movements and social change not enough is said about a category of persons we might refer to as connecters.  Who are these people? Why are they important? Persons who are located outside the reins of … Continue reading →

I have visited universities in Raipur, Bhopal, Lucknow and Mysore in the past couple of months. I have interacted with students, faculty and administrators in these institutions of higher education. Given the admission season and start of the new term, … Continue reading →

Marc Spooner and James McNinch of the Faculty of Education at the University of Regina were the co-chairs of a recent symposium held in the heartland of Western Canada.  The symposium brought together some of the best known critical participatory … Continue reading →

The annual conference of Adult and Community Education (ACE) began with a traditional Maori welcome powhiri. As the ancestors were invoked to bless the deliberations with open mind and open hearts, it became evident that the gathering in Wellington (New … Continue reading →

by Dr. Budd L Hall In 1998, the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council created the funding mechanism called the Community University Research Alliance, which began what is called the institutionalisation period of community, based participatory research in Canada.  … Continue reading →

At the global networking meeting at IAU, held in Montreal on May 7-8, 2015, Dzulkifli Abdul Razak, the IAU President and Jean-Luis Klein, Director of the UQAM based Centre for Social Innovation Research, presented a unique and innovation concept: social … Continue reading →