When communities become co-researchers

Beth Huebner has done community-engaged research for roughly 25 years.

But it was a project in 2019, working with incarcerated people and prison staff in Missouri, that highlighted a major gap in the field — an accessible, nuts-and-bolts guidebook that could serve as a resource not only for researchers but also for the communities engaged in research.

Huebner, the director of the Arizona State University School of Criminology and Criminal Justice and Watts Endowed Professor of Public Safety, is one of the authors of a new book that seeks to provide just that: “Community-Engaged Research with Marginalized Populations.”

The text is co-authored by Kelli E. Canada and Ashley Givens, University of Missouri, and Janet Garcia-Hallett, University of New Haven. All of the authors were part of the team conducting research with the community of people working at and living in the prison, and it became apparent that some of the participants felt like they didn’t have the background to fully engage with the project.

“The people who were incarcerated really wanted to be a part of the research, but they felt like they needed more research skills to do that,” Huebner recalled about the experience. “They were all in on the program. At their request and with their help, we developed online tools and a research class for the incarcerated people and the staff. It was the first time that I have worked so closely with incarcerated people to co-design this work.”

In the below Q&A, Huebner answers some questions about the book and her experiences with community-engaged research.

Note: This interview has been lightly edited for length and/or clarity.

Question: Who is the audience for this book? Is it designed to help students, or is it more of a guide for researchers to better understand how to collaborate with marginalized communities? Or is it for the communities so they can better understand the process?

Answer: We designed the book so it can be used with communities who want to work with researchers, as well as researchers who want to work with communities. We primarily designed it for students — for a class or project in which newer scholars who haven’t had experience with community-engaged research wanted to take on this model. I feel that community-embedded research can be daunting for people without prior experience. The book describes different ways to get involved in the community — regardless of the community — based on your expertise, level of familiarity or comfort level.

Q: The book begins with a grounding in the historical context of research with marginalized communities, detailing past abuses and highlighting the lack of trust and feelings of neglect from these groups. Why do you think it is important to highlight these concerns up front?

A: Research has not always been conducted in an ethical manner, and marginalized populations have been treated poorly and exploited by research teams. So, it was really important to include this history, partly because these examples are getting older. Many young scholars might not remember, or have not been exposed to, the mistakes of the past. We wanted to set a foundation of responsible, ethical, responsive research. We believed it was crucial to understand the past and for people to ground their work in that understanding, ensuring they would not replicate mistakes of the past.

Q: What will researchers gain from moving marginalized communities from a subject status to a stakeholder and partner status in studies?

A: I think what people will gain is a richer research experience. But most importantly, I think we're going to gain more effective solutions. We need to engage people who are closest to the challenges we're studying. Without engaging those communities, we take the risk of designing research projects and interventions that don't reflect the needs of that community. We could invest a lot of time and interest into a study and then not learn anything or, even worse, potentially harm communities. Additionally, as we warn throughout the book, poor research can harm different groups of people, particularly groups that are overstudied or haven't had their voices included.

Q: What do the communities engaged in the research stand to gain?

A: There's a lot to gain from community-centered research. Communities stand to gain an ability to co-create research, to get a closer look into the academy and the work academics do and to have more buy-in into broader policy discussions. I should say a lot of community groups have been doing this work for a long time and are very invested. We hope this book brings the two groups together so they can have a shared language and goals.

Q: ASU is guided by the principle of inclusivity rather than exclusivity in higher education. How does working with marginalized communities in meaningful ways contribute to that principle?

A: We want to make responsive scholarship that serves our communities, and if we develop research or programs apart from them, then we run the risk of making something that's not responsive to the needs of the community or perhaps makes the problem worse. There are examples where researchers have not asked local community members what they needed or why they needed it. And the resulting research and policy can hurt people or have unintended consequences. That's something that I consider a lot. We think of a new policy, it seems good on its face, but then we don't think about the people who have to enact that policy or who live in the community impacted by the policy. I'm hoping that better public policy and safer communities  — which is our goal in the field of criminology — will come from this community-engaged work.

We developed the book to be responsive to teams who want to engage in or expand their skills in community-centered work. We wrote it not only for people in social work and criminal justice, where the authors are from, but also for researchers in health and social service backgrounds. We hope people will use it, and we hope to continue to learn as we build this type of research in our own programs.

Q: Will there be future editions?

A: I hope so. I feel like this work and methodology cannot be static. I'm sure there are things we will continue to learn in this area. As we move forward with this type of research and hear feedback from our partners, new methodologies and different perspectives will continue to inform the practice.