Students:

Students possess disciplinary knowledge, idealism, time, and emerging research skills to collaborate with community partners on community based research projects. They may assist professors, participate on student research teams, or work as individual researchers with their community partner. Students are fully involved in all stages of the research process from identification of the research topic to disseminating and acting upon the findings. Opportunities to undertake community based research projects include volunteering, as part of class credit, for undergraduate research projects, master's theses and doctoral dissertations, as paid research assistants, and as CBR research fellows.

Community-Based Research Courses:

Community-based research (CBR) courses are a type of service-learning course through which students participate in ongoing collaborative research projects that adhere to CBR principles. CBR courses clearly differ from conventional modes of teaching that are classroom-based and lecture-oriented. However, its social action orientation also makes CBR different from other forms of service-learning, much of which involves students in charity-oriented, direct service-providing roles in the community. CBR's goal of social change means, among other things, that students must engage in some amount of critical analysis of the causes of social problems and also must consider solutions and strategies for change. We believe that this makes CBR a very effective pedagogy for helping students acquire knowledge and skills for active citizenship and democratic participation. (Taken from Strand, Marullo, Cutforth, Stoecker,
and Donohue, Community-Based Research: Principles and Practices for
Higher Education, Jossey-Bass, 2003 -- available spring 2003)