Cultivating Virtual Communities of Care: Reflections on Community-Based Research in Times of Sociopolitical Precarity

Abstract

In this paper, we examine the nature and impact of coalitional work within a research–practice partnership (RPP) between university-based researchers, families, and youth as we navigated shared investigations into educational equity within a digital mediated space. We conceptualize our community and collaboration using Montoya’s metaphor of trenzas to highlight our understanding of our interwoven identities, spaces (both digital and physical), and literacies in service of educational change. Amid global and local precarities, we found that members of the partnership leveraged what we refer to as their digital coalitional literacies to repurpose the virtual space. Drawing from participatory research and practitioner research methodological tenets, our findings show how research partners engaged in digital coalitional literacies as they (a) collaboratively mobilized their literacies and their cultural and experiential resources to repurpose digital platforms; (b) worked in solidarity to cultivate communities of care across boundaries; and (c) created art that evoked critical thinking on critical issues for advocacy and change. Lastly, this article provides implications for RPP and classrooms.