Critical Reflections From Doctoral Students Engaging in Local and Transnational Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) Approaches to Health Promotion

ABSTRACT

Social work scholars have increasingly adopted community-based participatory research (CBPR) approaches to center community voice in research and action to promote youth’s healthy development. While valuable contributions have emerged to engage in further dialectical learning processes, limited research has examined in depth the participation, critical reflection, and training of social work graduate students pursuing CBPR. This article emphasizes the role of critical reflexivity and collaboration by presenting four social work doctoral students’ efforts designed to engage community and youth in CBPR to enhance health promotion initiatives. We conclude by discussing the importance of engaging graduate social work students in CBPR, the influential role faculty and mentors play in providing opportunities for students to gain experience in CBPR, and recommendations and potential strategies for future social work education and training.

Social work has historically been concerned with eliminating health disparities and ensuring everyone has a fair opportunity to attain their health potential regardless of socially constructed identity markers (e.g., race, gender, class), particularly for marginalized youth. Settlement house traditions provided various nutritional, educational, and enrichment programs as alternative school-linked social work services for children and youth affected by poverty and oppression living in urban slums (Tyack, 1992). This commitment has expanded to the present, where social work practitioners and scholars continue to play key roles in ensuring youth are connected to appropriate services and supports (Jani & Reisch, 2018; Richards-Schuster & Pritzker, 2015). Furthermore, promoting healthy development for youth has become a pressing social issue the profession has established as a grand challenge to address in the next 10 years (Hawkins et al., 2016). With this understanding, social work scholars have further explored alternative approaches that not only prevent and promote positive health outcomes for youth, but also highlight the benefits of engaging youth and communities of color directly affected by health inequities in community and academic research collaborations (Sprague Martinez et al., 2018).

Increasing scholarly literature describes the multiple individual benefits of engaging in community-based participatory research (CBPR) approaches to community health development. CBPR seeks to systematically incorporate the expertise of youth and community stakeholders by transforming the definition of research participants from objects to coresearchers involved throughout all stages of research decision-making processes (Wallerstein & Duran, 2010). While extensive research has been conducted from the perspectives of faculty scholars, limited research examines the training and critical reflexive processes from the perspective of graduate doctoral students who engage in CBPR. Emerging research has increasingly interrogated the multiple roles scholars play in these processes (Stoecker, 1999) and discussed the effect of researchers’ positionality as insider–outsider, or somewhere in between, in addition to cultural humility on community-engaged research (Kerstetter, 2012; Minkler, 2004; Ross, 2010). Moreover, particular emphasis on this critical awareness has been discussed when working with vulnerable populations affected by violence and colonization (Burke et al., 2013; Stanton, 2014). Despite the limited scholarship written from the perspective of graduate doctoral students, critical reflexive processes have led to generating unique first-person perspectives on contesting power, racism, and institutional barriers students are met with when integrating CBPR into dissertation research (Burgess, 2006; Khobzi & Flicker, 2010; Wilbricht, 2017). Alternatives to address these challenges discussed in the literature have included: encouraging faculty to adopt CBPR approaches through incentives (Nyden, 2003) and engaging students in relevant CBPR course content, critical discussions, field practice, and workshops in partnership with community organizations (Anderson, 2002; Lykes et al., 2018).

In this article, we draw on our own research to describe four unique community and academic initiatives aimed at centering the voices of youth and adults of color to improve community health initiatives. First, we present a youth-led health assessment in Las Malvinas II, Dominican Republic, in which youth identified risk and protective factors to adolescent health through photovoice. Second, we describe an evaluation of a CBPR initiative that sought to explore the effect of violence in the lives of Black and Latinx youth in Boston through photovoice and surveys. Third, we present a study that engaged Brazilian immigrants living in Massachusetts in social network interviews and photovoice that found the relevance of information communication technologies (ICT) in promoting social support and strengthening transnational relationships. In the final case, we present a photovoice study in which first-year university students in Zambia served as participant researchers to explore multiple dimensions of health and well-being; highlighting their individual and community strengths and areas of improvement. In addition, throughout the case studies described, we present four social work doctoral students’ critical reflections on their positionality, training, and how participating in community-engaged research has shifted their perspectives for future research. This article highlights the role of critical reflexivity in the leadership development of doctoral social work students engaging in training and experience in CBPR approaches to center the voices of youth and communities in health promotion and development initiatives locally and transnationally.

CBPR and health promotion

CBPR is an approach to knowledge production where researchers partner with key community stakeholders in all stages of the research process, fostering opportunities to value multiple forms of expertise and shared power (Minkler & Wallerstein, 2011). A central component of this research approach is ensuring the research is codirected by the community stakeholders and that it fosters a commitment to effect change in power relations to achieve equity and justice through action-driven initiatives (Minkler & Wallerstein, 2011). CBPR has been incorporated across multiple fields, such as education (Cammarota & Fine, 2010; Fine & Torre, 2004), psychology (Lykes, 2017), public health (Minkler, 2010; Wallerstein & Duran, 2010; Wallerstein et al., 2017), and social work (Finn, 1994; Jacobson & Rugeley, 2007). CBPR is a valuable epistemology that creates participatory and equitable processes while empowering those most affected by inequities to effect change through research and action inquiry. Research suggests CBPR presents multiple strengths to build healthy communities, reduce health disparities, and inform policy, particularly for vulnerable populations (Israel et al., 2010; Minkler, 2010; Wallerstein & Duran, 2006, 2010). On the other hand, CBPR continues to face multiple challenges, such as the need for more rigorous and mixed-method evaluation of participatory outcomes (Buchanan et al., 2007), and further discussion on navigating insider–outsider tensions, addressing racism and power, building trust, and achieving an authentic community-driven agenda (Minkler, 2009; Wallerstein & Duran, 2010). While scholarly evidence heavily emphasizes the implementation of CBPR approaches in research with communities, emergent research has sought to explore the ways in which CBPR can be integrated into doctoral research and training (Nadimpalli et al., 2016; Stevahn et al., 2016; Van Der Meulen, 2011). Despite increasing scholarship exploring the potential contributions of CBPR to research and practice, limited research examines the preparation, training, and support of prospective scholars engaging in CBPR approaches, particularly in the social work field.

Critical reflexivity

The concepts of reflection, critical reflection, and reflexivity have been used interchangeably and developed in parallel with similarities and differences in the social work literature. Reflection was initially defined as an active consideration of an individual’s beliefs and personal experiences (Dewey, 1997). This concept was further challenged by scholars that discussed the importance of integrating purposeful critical thinking to further challenge assumptions and power relationships (Brookfield, 2017) in the areas of adult learning (Knowles, 1980), emancipatory practices (Freire, 1996), and social work education (Lay & McGuire, 2010). Moreover, critical reflexivity has been concerned with deepening an individual’s awareness of the social and historical factors at play to inform action and transform individuals’ realities (Kondrat, 1999). Findings of a critical review of social work literature present three typologies of reflexivity and its implications for social work research and practice (D’Cruz et al., 2005). While in the first variation, reflexivity is defined based on individual ways of generating knowledge and making decisions, the second and third variations consist of individuals interrogating knowledge-making processes in relation to power, privilege, and structural inequities (Cunliffe, 2004; D’Cruz et al., 2005). While critical reflection develops theories that are generalizable to particular contexts, reflexivity is rather concerned with generating understanding of a given situation without generalizing knowledge (Fook, 1999). Regardless of multiple definitions, critical reflexivity invites researchers to interrogate what assumptions, beliefs, and questions are brought to research. The interrogation then challenges researchers to situate themselves in the context of historical and social forces in social work research (Koch & Harrington, 1998)

Weaving critical reflexivity in social work research and education presents benefits and challenges in its efforts to advance the profession’s values and pursuit of social justice. Incorporating reflexivity in social work research and education has been associated with promotion of accountability, trustworthiness, and rigor, as well as a commitment to ethics toward research participants (Probst, 2015; Sheappard, 1998). Moreover, research suggests integration of critical reflexive practices with social work students enhances learning and improves quality of life (Lay & McGuire, 2010) when working with vulnerable clients (Yip, 2006), evaluating social work placements (Lam et al., 2006), and interrogating researchers’ positionality through autoethnographic and feminist approaches (Anderson-Nathe et al., 2013; Jensen-Hart & Williams, 2010). However, scholars have also been met with time constraints, limited emotional capacity, as well as systematic devaluation of reflexive practices as major challenges (Probst, 2015). Furthermore, a review of 75 qualitative social work doctoral dissertations found that few (45%) referred to reflexivity, and even less (8%) addressed power dynamics (Gringeri et al., 2013). Preparing students to challenge individual beliefs and assumptions in the context of systems continues to interest social workers.

Four case studies from the field

With the support of social work faculty engaged in CBPR at various universities, doctoral students were referred to one another and e-mail introductions were exchanged. Shared interests in community-engaged research and further promotion of spaces for doctoral students at universities and academic conferences were discussed. The following four case studies come from our experiences and efforts in partnering with communities and youth in research and community health development efforts. Through an iterative critical reflexive process we examine in each case: (a) our positionality as researchers, (b) the rationale for incorporating CBPR approaches, (c) engagement methods and outcomes, and (d) the paradigm shifts we experienced informing our future research. The goal is to highlight the relevance and potential of engaging social work doctoral students in critical reflexivity, community engagement, and CBPR to enhance community-driven health promotion and development initiatives.

Case 1: Nosotros los jóvenes tenemos una capacidad: Promoting health and wellness from the perspective of youth in Las Malvinas II, Dominican Republic

I identify as a multicultural Asian Latina, Chinese Colombian American female doctoral student. I am multilingual and fluent in Spanish. My personal and professional experiences as a youth organizer and worker motivated me to learn further about participatory action research. I participated in the Critical Participatory Action Research Institute training at the City University of New York. Additionally, I gained further experience and training coleading various CBPR projects in partnership with multicity community organizations and grassroots leaders while receiving support and mentoring from my faculty advisor who had extensive experience in CBPR. My faculty advisor was invited to implement and evaluate a youth-led photovoice project in Las Malvinas II, Dominican Republic. However, I was referred by my advisor to serve as a lead researcher, trainer, and facilitator of the youth-led photovoice given my linguistic skills, experiences in CBPR, and alignment with my research interests. I received invaluable mentoring, support, training, and financial resources from my faculty advisor throughout the project.

Located in the northeast region of the Dominican Republic’s capital, Las Malvinas II is a vibrant community facing multiple challenges, including unemployment, teen pregnancy, interrupted education, and lack of appropriate sanitation systems. In 2016, Clemson University faculty and students partnered with a local university, La Universidad Iberoamericana; the neighborhood association; and community residents of Las Malvinas II to conduct a community health assessment where five major priorities were identified: sanitation, education, teen pregnancy, diseases preventable by vaccine, and chronic diseases (Lundberg et al., 2018). While adults played a significant role in designing recommendations with regard to adolescent health, there were no opportunities for the young people in the community to share their perspectives on these issues. After reviewing scholarly literature and leveraging individual research expertise areas, Clemson University and Boston University faculty identified photovoice as an appropriate participatory action research method to engage youth meaningfully and support empowerment of youth in identifying health priorities and influencing policy.

Building on existing efforts, in 2018 I was invited to collaborate with all the community partners and stakeholders to implement and evaluate a youth-led photovoice project that sought to explore what factors promoted or hindered the health and well-being of young people in Las Malvinas II. This multidisciplinary, multiuniversity CBPR study engaged eight youth between the ages of 18 to 24 in a week-long participatory photovoice study. Critical pedagogy was implemented as a framework to recognize inequities and empower youth as agents of change by engaging in critical reflection of their personal experiences in relation to the social issues examined. In addition to the priorities identified by adults, youth also identified lack of safety and government support, social media, poverty, and depression as major health threats (Tang Yan et al., 2019). They identified sports and the neighborhood association as assets in promoting health and well-being of youth (Tang Yan et al., 2019). Photovoice findings were disseminated by youth leaders at a community forum where residents as well as key stakeholders engaged in meaningful conversations about the health priorities they identified and potential ways to engage youth in change initiatives.

To engage youth meaningfully to participate in existing local grassroots efforts and initiatives side by side with adults, it was essential to provide opportunities for youth to further develop leadership and research skills with a critical understanding of health at multiple levels (for example, structural, interpersonal, individual). While this has often been discussed in the literature, limited emphasis has been given to the role adults can play to enhance, discourage, or challenge youth-led action research initiatives. I engaged in ongoing critical reflections through journaling and consulting with my advisor to grapple with this gap in the literature and recognize power dynamics manifested in the collaboration as an adult facilitator in relation to the youth researchers. This experience has challenged me to shift my attention from focusing on CBPR approaches and methodological precision to addressing the ways adults and youth contest with unequal power dynamics that affect the principles and sustainability of CBPR. This includes consistent and continuous reflection on the importance of education and training, particularly for adults, researchers, community partners, and key stakeholders when addressing systems of oppression as well as competing institutional priorities and expectations.

Case 2: Constructing meaning about exposure to community violence: CBPR with urban youth of color in Boston, Massachusetts

Black youth are exposed to violence at alarmingly high rates (Gardner & Brooks-Gun, 2009; Ozer, 2017). To understand the effect of exposure to violence and find solutions to decrease prevalence, social work researchers and practitioners should attempt to come up with unique ways to gather information about their experiences. As a Black/African American–identifying female social work doctoral student, my research interests represent my desire to understand and advocate for my own community. Born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, I have been exposed and personally experienced different levels of community violence. I engage in scholarship that brings the Black community to the forefront, and focuses on the diversity, strengths, and assets of this population as opposed to deficits. My overall research interests are on the effect of trauma and violence in Black communities. My experiences working with Black families who lost loved ones to sudden, traumatic death (primarily homicide deaths) fueled my interests in CBPR approaches. I have a strong belief that the most meaningful research is done on the ground with the people who are affected by the social problems social workers seek to solve. My secondary mentor, who has extensive experience conducting CBPR projects, suggested that I participate in a CBPR study as a staff/support person to gain experience working with people and organizations directly in the community. It was meaningful for me to gain hands-on exposure and training on how to conduct CBPR in partnership with youth and with an emphasis on issues surrounding community violence for urban youth. Although I did not have extensive experience, I was supported and trained by my mentor while embarking on this study.

The study grew out of a larger CBPR initiative, a joint effort between Boston University, Boston Medical Center, and a local community center in summer 2018. Local youth researchers (15–19 years old) were hired to explore health promoting and hindering factors and youth-driven solutions to community health problems. I participated in CBPR trainings with staff who worked with the youth researchers. I also attended the dissemination session where youth shared their research findings with community stakeholders, such as the Boston Police Department. After youth researchers completed the photovoice project, I conducted focus groups with the youth researchers to learn more about their research process, findings, and conceptualization of community violence. The study aimed to identify the perspective of youth researchers on the effect of community violence on Black and Latinx youth’s well-being in Boston. Document review (photovoice, surveys, research dissemination activities), key informant interviews, and focus groups with youth researchers were conducted.

Interview and focus group youth participants discussed different ways that violence manifested in their communities and how their well-being was affected by that exposure. They identified the extent to which violence affected them and their peers. Youth researchers described the presence of violence in all spaces surrounding them, which resulted in instilling feelings of fear, stress, and lack of safety. Additionally, youth described experiencing barriers to well-being, such as lack of access to healthy food and accessing quality health care. They also offered up solutions for prevention, which included support from adults and positive peer influence. This study shows how CBPR engages youth in analyzing and working to change the social, economic, and political conditions that shape their schools and communities. By engaging youth as researchers, they can offer up significant contributions to addressing the important social problems that youth face today. The study also supports the idea of scholars establishing a research and practice agenda that engages meaningfully youth to identify health disparities while advancing community-driven health development initiatives that strengthen protective environments for youth.

Being a part of the Culture of Health Accelerator project gave me information on how to conduct this work in urban settings. This being my first time engaging with CBPR, the biggest shift that needed to happen for me was allowing youth to take the lead in discussing and researching the community issues that are most important to them. I also had to take the role of learner in understanding how CBPR operates as an epistemological approach to research, and then honor that operationalization in the study I was tasked with conducting. I believe that there is also a need for more research conducted by youth and adolescents that focuses on their experiences navigating life in their communities. This experience has challenged me to confront the systems that create power hierarchies that do not favor youth. I also had to put aside my own expertise in the area of community violence in Black neighborhoods, and allow for youth to discover and reflect based on their own personal experiences and expertise.

Case 3: Immigration in the age of information and communication technologies: Implications for social support and health

Transnationalism, social networks, and culture: implications for health and behavior, also known as Aqui Lá (Here There, in Portuguese) is a community-engaged research project in Massachusetts between three universities and two primary community partners: Brazilian Worker Center and Dominican Development Center. I was recruited as a master’s student by my faculty mentor to coordinate the Brazilian arm of the project alongside faculty, students, and community organizers. My positionality as a Brazilian immigrant allowed me to work as a liaison between the community and the academic world. My intersecting identities—young, female, Brazilian immigrant—facilitated my ability to gain trust during outreach and recruiting. Some interviews took place over coffee at a participant’s home so my understanding of Brazilian culture and my capacity to code-switch for language and behaviors (Auer, 2005) was as important as the research skills I learned in the classroom. Although my theoretical and methodological training prepared me to perform successfully my assignments, my intersecting identities and linguistic and cultural competencies facilitated the recruitment and data collection processes.

My faculty mentors as well as the community organizers empowered me to participate in every step of the research process. For a community-engaged project, the research was a participatory and democratic process, and we were all encouraged to participate in every decision. Community members collected data, and participated actively in designing decisions and preliminary data analysis. A community partner collected 14 of the 30 interviews for the Brazilian arm of the project. Another community member led focus groups. I was trained to facilitate trainings for community stakeholders and students throughout the project on research methods and qualitative analysis. During this project, I built meaningful bonds with faculty mentors and community partners that have supported me during my whole career.

The study was exploratory, casting a wide net to learn more about cultural practice changes since migration, influences of American culture in the participants’ lives, perceptions of participants about differences between cultures, as well as social network influences on participants’ health beliefs and behaviors. Among the findings, we explored Brazilian immigrants’ use of ICT to maintain and strengthen transnational ties. The methods used to collect data were photovoice (n=5) and qualitative social network interviews (SNI; n=30). For the photovoice, photos were analyzed for meaning and a narrative was developed with the participants using the SHOWed framework (Wang et al., 2004). The qualitative SNI data were transcribed verbatim in the languages in which they were collected, which were English (n=3) and Portuguese (n=27), and uploaded into NVivo. Thematic analysis was used to explore the meanings and implications of ICTs in the lives and emotional health of Brazilian immigrants in the United States (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Three key themes related to ICTs and participant well-being emerged from both the SNI and the photovoice: importance of ICTs in daily life, immediacy of smartphones, and closeness and maintenance of ties abroad despite inability to travel for some.

The findings from this research illustrate the importance of ICTs to bridge connections between Brazilian immigrants in the United States and family and friends abroad. ICTs allow Brazilians to live truly transnational lives, here and there, and might be an important feature of Brazilian immigrant mental health. The limitations of these results are that the main focus of the overall study was not ICT usage and meanings for health, thus these results could have more depth in further investigations.

The opportunity to contribute to this project was a formative experience for me. I learned and practiced new research methodologies and experimental designs. My faculty mentor also connected me to an important research fellowship that afforded me access to additional opportunities. As a result of my work on the project I was awarded a diversity supplement training grant from the National Institutes of Health and Health Disparities, which connected me to training resources at the federal level. This experience also connected me with research collaborators and doctoral-level social work education. I was able to work alongside my community in a fluid insider–outsider role that enriched my understanding of the Brazilian immigrant community, and my place as a Brazilian researcher. I learned about the importance of community voice in knowledge construction. Community-based projects offer the collaborative pathway to the construction of authentic knowledge that is missing from academic settings. Through investment in partnerships that students and faculty have already leveraged with community stakeholders, we could better support projects that empower communities to construct their own knowledge based on their lived experiences and priorities.

Case 4: Engaging first-year university students in Zambia: Exploring well-being through their own lens

Much of the current research on university students in Zambia focuses on risky behaviors and health outcomes, primarily risky sexual health behaviors, human immunodeficiency virus, and excessive alcohol consumption (Chittick, 2013; Menon et al., 2016; Raising, 2003). To minimize risky behaviors and subsequent health issues, social workers must consider how young people fair holistically in Zambia, thus understanding how well-being contributes to health promotion and overall positive youth development. This project developed to center youth voices in conversations on health and well-being, due to a lack of CBPR, visual methodologies among youth, specifically university populations in Zambia, with the support of my primary social work advisor who works on various CBPR projects.

My primary advisor encouraged me to develop my own independent study, in which students in Zambia could define and document their experiences of well-being, largely missing from the literature. The process of creating the independent study began with connecting with students and faculty in Zambia to discuss the methods, feasibility, and need for the project. In conjunction with faculty in Zambia and my advisor I drafted a project proposal, submitted Institutional Review Board forms, received letters of recommendation, and secured funding. Throughout this process, reflecting on my insider and outsider identities, as a Zambian-American, was important to ensuring the photovoice project was led by the experiences, expertise, and ideas of students, research assistants, and faculty in Zambia.

For this project, local faculty and research assistants recommended student participants, who were active community members, among first-year social work students, to participate in the photovoice project. For many of the students this project was a continuation of their existing initiatives toward health development in their community. Photovoice was used to answer the following questions: (a) What is the meaning of well-being among students in Zambia? (b) What are the classifications of well-being among students? and (c) How do students practice well-being? To answer these questions students completed a pre–posttest, at the beginning and end of the photovoice process, to assess their knowledge of photovoice and experiences of well-being. A total of five photovoice sessions were conducted, with each session lasting two to three hours. Students were trained in photovoice methodology, with the primary focus on documenting their experiences through photography, writing descriptive captions for each photo, and coming up with themes relevant to all of their photos (Shimshock, 2008).

During the project students agreed that well-being is a multifaceted concept; however, they expressed that many people in Zambia still see it as strictly tied to physical health. Students identified 12 classifications of well-being, which included cultural, spiritual, and political well-being. To express how they practice well-being, students’ photos highlighted individual and community well-being through social activities, recreational activities, group study periods, and mealtime. From the pre–posttest a majority of students reported that photovoice helped them to realize that they are dissatisfied with the well-being of their community, but they also believe that everyone can find time to improve it. To close the photovoice project, students came up with action items for improving community well-being, which included organizing a well-being walk, outreach in local high schools, and social media campaigns. Students also reflected on the strengths exhibited in their individual well-being, and room for self-improvement.

This study highlighted that documenting overall well-being can reinforce existing strengths and serve as a call to action to improve health. Students’ reflections and initiatives should be more widely acknowledged in future research, programs, and policies on youth development, beyond a focus on risky behaviors. Upon the completion of this project I believe it is imperative to allow for more time and resources for doctoral students and students in the community to work together from the project inception, to ensure that it is sustainable. Furthermore, acknowledging full youth participation in CBPR research may give youth a larger platform on which they may choose to ask different questions, use other research methodologies or focus on varying topics. I plan to conduct further exploratory work on well-being, with various Zambian communities, to document evolving definitions and practices of well-being, toward health equity.

Discussion

The four cases presented in this article illustrate relevant implications and lessons for social work research, practice, and education. These lessons can help inform how social work doctoral students can incorporate critical reflexive and CBPR approaches to research. Although these case examples cannot be generalized, major themes across the four case studies are consistent with the literature describing valuable insights and reflections to consider when engaging in CBPR and critical reflexive approaches to research, particularly from perspectives of doctoral social work students. We elaborate on three major themes that emerged from the four cases and that also highlight relevant actors, roles, and elements that influence CBPR and critical reflexivity training: (a) student-led research and community engagement through CBPR and critical reflexivity, (b) role of faculty and mentors, and (c) increasing support and training in universities to promote sustainability of CBPR.

Student-led research and community engagement through CBPR and critical reflexivity

While all four cases varied in students’ roles, social contexts, population, and community engagement and participation, students’ critical reflections highlight the importance and value of integrating CBPR and critical reflexivity into social work education. Consistent with the literature, across all projects, CBPR approaches to research generated a nuanced understanding of health-promoting and risk factors in partnership with youth and communities of color directly affected by health inequities (Minkler, 2010; Wallerstein & Duran, 2010). Across all cases, students partnered with vulnerable youth and community stakeholders to center their voices in advancing health development efforts, which is deeply aligned with the profession’s mission and core values of promoting social justice and change (Abramovitz, 1993; Bisman, 2004; National Association of Social Workers [NASW], 2017; Reamer, 2013). Engaging doctoral students in CBPR and critical reflexivity practices presents benefits and opportunities to enhance social work education and research.

Our intersecting identities and roles as researchers affected our work in meaningful ways and provided us with lessons learned for future studies. As doctoral students, we must constantly negotiate our diverse backgrounds and power dynamics being in the role of researcher. Consistent with the literature, the four cases presented grappled with insider–outsider ethical tensions that provided greater access and also compromised the potential for bias (Minkler, 2004; Muhammad et al., 2015). Each case presented critical reflections on sharing intersectional identities and memberships with community partners; challenges with relevant implications to the research were presented. The acknowledgment of reactivity through reflection about how our identities influence our research is a common thread throughout the case studies that must be included in research that uses CBPR. We made sure to incorporate time for reflection through various methods, including journaling and speaking with faculty advisors. There is a mutual understanding that even when researchers shared identity and cultural competency with communities, they still critically reflected on assumptions and power dynamics.

Finally, in all four cases, engaging social work graduate students in community-engagement research presented multiple benefits that can be potential strategies to strengthen social work education. Consistent with scholarly research, engagement through community and academic partnerships in all cases enhanced students’ learning experiences by providing a hands-on learning approach to develop relevant skills (Herald et al., 2014; Lee & Priester, 2015; Wayne et al., 2010). While scholarly literature has examined the benefits of community engagement, limited research in the social work field from the perspective of doctoral students engaging in CBPR have been documented (Delemos, 2006; Wood et al., 2015). To give graduate students more capacity to engage in the work, more engagement opportunities should be provided.

The role of faculty advisors and mentors

Across all case studies, faculty advisors and mentors played an essential role in providing training, exposure, and support to students engaging in CBPR. Social work academic institutions play a crucial role in building and sustaining research collaborations between university- and community-based organizations (Begun et al., 2010) in addition to mentoring students to support their personal and professional growth throughout the academic program, particularly students of color (Ghose et al., 2018). Across all projects, experienced faculty members in CBPR were major sources of support in connecting social work students with existing CBPR projects while providing additional training, financial support, and mentorship. Most importantly, students expressed having meaningful learning experiences across all projects where valuable training was gained and specific research areas were explored. While scholarly literature has defined mentoring based on students’ success, effective and powerful mentoring with respect to professional socialization and modeling in the context of institutional expectations and demands is a challenge for social work faculty and academic institutions (Gutierrez, 2012). Results of a national student survey suggest that most satisfying aspects among doctoral students in social work were independence, collaboration, praxis, and reaching milestones (Shapiro et al., 2017). Instead of engaging students in administrative and operational tasks, such as translating or preparing research documents, faculty partnered with students to create intentional learning opportunities to further develop students’ knowledge and skills aligned with their professional career aspirations.

Increasing support and training in universities to promote sustainability of CBPR

The case studies presented above also have implications for training of doctoral students in CBPR epistemologies. CBPR principles of empowerment, participation, and commitment to social justice (Minkler & Wallerstein, 2011) are connected with social work values and have potential to contribute to achieving the field’s goals (Branom, 2012). Research suggests that designing coursework engaging students in community-based research encourages skill development and empowerment in decision making through experiential learning while building relationships with community partners and meeting their needs (Anderson, 2002). Moreover, creating, implementing, and evaluating an accessible CBPR interdisciplinary training curriculum and opportunities for students, faculty, and community stakeholders can potentially enhance CBPR partnerships (Van Olphen et al., 2015). Schools of social work should design courses that expose students to hands-on learning opportunities in CBPR research and support students’ professional development. While there should be more opportunities for students to work directly with faculty as part of their CBPR training, departments should also incentivize and support graduate students to conduct independent CBPR projects and dissertation research.

Limitations

Despite the benefits of engaging doctoral students in critical reflexive practices and CBPR, there are multiple challenges and limitations. First, although the case studies presented illustrate a wide range of benefits, these case studies are not generalizable to the experiences of all social work given the specific contexts and heterogeneity. In some projects, students played significant roles as facilitators of qualitative CBPR methodologies, engaging directly with youth participants. In other projects, students’ participation in research processes were nested within CBPR collaborations to gain further experience and exposure. Projects presented variability in terms of youth and community participation. Across all projects, critical reflexive and CBPR approaches to research presented benefits and challenges. Consistent with the literature, youth- and community-engaged research requires a significant amount of time and resources for researchers and community partners (Branom, 2012). Moreover, conducting critical reflexive and CBPR research is challenged by limited funding opportunities and funding reporting demands of traditional research. Additionally, as described in detail, insider and outsider tensions can emerge when engaging in CBPR research where students and faculty are constrained with institutional expectations and power in comparison with youth and community partners (Minkler, 2004). CBPR projects incorporating critical reflexive practices have also been met with challenges regarding community involvement, action dissemination, and time constraints (Minkler, 2005; Probst, 2015). Regardless, the benefits in adopting these approaches outweigh these drawbacks.

Conclusion

The integration of critical reflexivity and CBPR approaches to research is essential to social work if we wish to uphold the principles of the profession, namely advocating for social justice and equality with communities who are oppressed (NASW, 2008). As stated above, there is limited scholarship that examines the training, education, and critical reflexive processes from the perspective of graduate doctoral students who engage in a CBPR orientation to research. This article sought to present four community and academic initiatives aimed at centering community voice in health promotion and development strategies from the perspective and critical reflections of doctoral students. We found that partnering with youth and communities in social work research and action generated nuanced understanding of health and well-being. Moreover, we also found that critical reflexive practices deepened our understanding of our own positionality working with youth and communities, and its effect throughout all stages of the research.

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the faculty at Boston University School of Social Work and University of Michigan School of Social Work for their support fostering this collaboration among doctoral students. The authors also acknowledge youth and community stakeholders for their support and contribution to the research.

Disclosure statement

All authors acknowledge there has been no conflict of interest or benefit that has arisen from the application of the research. There is no potential conflict of interest reported by all authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities; Boston University Institute for Health System Innovation and Policy, Boston University School of Social Work; Office of Behavioral and Social Science Research; University of Michigan, School of Social Work Office of Global Activities.

Notes on contributors

Catalina Tang Yan

Catalina Tang Yan is with the School of Social Work at Boston University. Kendall Johnson is with the School of Social Work at Boston University. Change Kwesele is with the Joint Social Work and Psychology Program at the University of Michigan. Cristina Araujo Brinkerhoff is with the School of Social Work at Boston University and a board member at the Brazilian Workers Center. Linda Sprague Martinez is with the Macro Department, School of Social Work at Boston University and a research fellow with the Center for Promise.