Dignity-Affirming Care in Research-Practice Partnerships

ABSTRACT

Research-practice partnerships (RPPs) have the potential to affirm the dignity of participants through caring interactions, which support good relationships. A key ethical principle to guide the cultivation of good relationships in an RPP is a quality of relating that we call dignity-affirming care. We define dignity-affirming care as speech, actions, and dispositions that demonstrate concern for another and their expressed needs and goals in a manner that affirms their essential worth or value. We provide evidence that RPPs can embody the principle of dignity-affirming care while also noting some ways partners experienced ways of relating that did not reflect this kind of care. Further, we describe four underlying mechanisms that support care: the intensity of and concentration of relationships, a willingness to recognize social identities, and the ability to take on new roles.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the William T. Grant Foundation under [Award Numbers 189569 and MEN-200072] and the University of Colorado Boulder Miramontes Fellowship. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of funders.

Notes on contributors

Robbin Riedy

Robbin Riedy is a Researcher and Evaluator whose work focuses on ensuring collaborative research efforts support individual and community outcomes, holistically looking at both education and health impacts. She is an experienced facilitator and adult instructor and has worked extensively with science educators. Previously, she was an educational technologist and lead professional development for faculty members on instructional design. She earned her M.A. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Washington and her Ph.D. in Learning Science and Human Development at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

William R. Penuel

William R. Penuel is Distinguished Professor of Learning Sciences and Human Development in the Institute of Cognitive Science and School of Education at the University of Colorado Boulder. He designs and studies curriculum materials, assessments, and professional learning for teachers in STEM education, primarily in science. He also studies how contemplative practices and critical inquiry can support educators in cultivating more compassionate learning environments and schools. A third line of his research focuses on how long-term research-practice partnerships can be organized to address systemic inequities in education systems linked to race, gender and sexual diversity, and language. His research employs a wide range of qualitative and quantitative research methods, including an approach his colleagues and he have developed called design-based implementation research (http://learndbir.org). He is an elected member of the National Academy of Education and a fellow of the American Educational Research Association and International Society of the Learning Sciences.