COmmunity Research Ecology Project
CORE
Building knowledge communities
What is CORE?
A COmmunity Research Ecology (CoRE) is a network of researchers and other professional stakeholders, and an evolving knowledge base of research and related resources, oriented by a focal problem space or shared learning agenda. The foundational purposes for a CoRE are (a) to locate, organize and advance (actionable) knowledge in the problem space, and (b) to support professional learning and teaching about the problem space. A CoRE is facilitated by a curator team and reflects the collective work of its members.
Our current projects
A given CoRE is always specific to a focal problem space or learning agenda (focal area) and the researchers and other professional stakeholders who work with(in) it. We are currently engaging in participatory design with stakeholders for two focal areas:
- Improvement Research in Education (IRE-CoRE), co-designed with Don Peurach; and
- Racial Justice in Education (RJE-CoRE), co-designed with Maisie Gholson.
This emphasis on a problem space or learning agenda is intentionally pluralistic and inclusive. CoREs invite professional stakeholders working within different traditions or contexts relevant to the focal area to engage with one another’s work. They are designed to support learning and action across boundaries reflecting disciplinary, theoretical, methodological, sociocultural, geographical, organizational, and professional differences.
How is it designed?
A CoRE is designed to support and honor contributions from a multi-generational, multi-professional community, including (but not necessarily limited to) researchers, instructors, professional developers, organizational leaders, policy makers, and those learning to assume such roles. As our emphasis on collective work implies, the usefulness of the knowledge base for furthering actionable knowledge or for supporting professional learning and teaching depends not just on the work of curators but on the nature of contributions made by community members.
Knowledge Objects
The knowledge base in a given focal area will include downloadable bibliographic information, abstracts, and links to knowledge objects typically found in an academic database, identified and routinely updated through systematic searching and screening. Such knowledge objects include:
- journal articles,
- book chapters,
- dissertations/theses,
- conference proceedings, and
- white papers.
Importantly, the knowledge base will also include knowledge objects reflecting direct contributions from participants, such as:
- user profiles,
- preprints of articles, chapters, or books,
- manuscript drafts,
- blogs,
- project web sites,
- teaching and professional development materials (e.g., syllabi, learning activities, curricula, reading guides, assessments, lesson guides),
- research tools to support participatory design, data collection, or analysis,
- multimedia resources and presentations (e.g., recorded lectures, conference symposia); as well as,
- interactive engagements, such as:
- commentaries, reviews, and ratings of knowledge objects to support evaluations of relevance and quality,
- public annotations of knowledge objects (e.g., highlights, marginal comments) to support interpretation and dialogue), and
- forums for response to posted questions, problems, or requests for resources.
Additionally, contributor analytics and altmetrics will document and honor contributions and engagements, so participants can receive public credit, if they choose, for participation in the community’s collective work.
Metadata
Metadata used to organize the knowledge base, to support searching, browsing, mapping, and interactive engagement, will include the following kinds:
- bibliographic information (compatible for download to multiple citation software programs for quick referencing),
- descriptive terms relevant to the focal area (i.e., codes and categories relevant to IRE or RJE),
- links among related knowledge objects,
- administrative records (e.g., how and by whom knowledge objects were located, coded, and evaluated), and
- user-suggested tags.
Design, Prototyping, & Evaluation
To design, prototype, and formatively evaluate the CoRE model, we are currently funded by a Lyle Spencer Award to Transform Education from the Spencer Foundation. Our work with two CoREs–Improvement Research in Education (IRE) and Racial Justice in Education (RJE)– is helping us to better understand both what features might be relevant to CoREs in general and where tailoring is necessary for different focal areas and community goals.
Substantive decisions about scope and metadata will be made in collaboration with prospective participants and will be unique to each CoRE. Important decisions will also need to be made about the CoRE’s functionalities and governance—including how artifacts get into the knowledge base, how and when quality and relevance are evaluated, what contributions participants are invited or expected to make, how credit for contributions is acknowledged, whether and how established focal area scholars may have different roles than other participants, how the knowledge base can be sustained beyond the life of the grant, and so on. We believe it is important to make these decisions in collaboration with prospective participants to support their ownership and engagement with their CoRE.
To that end, we are partnering with prospective users to engage in co-design using elements of participatory research, both in the initial CoRE design and on an ongoing basis following the launch of a CoRE. Formative evaluation questions are iteratively focused on quality, usefulness, and feasibility of the knowledge base for the purposes of (a) improving its design, and (b) gauging the extent to which its evolving uses support collective work and engage with scholarship spanning disciplinary, theoretical, methodological, sociocultural, geographical, organizational, and professional boundaries relevant to each focal area.