Navigating the Tensions of Community Engagement Evaluation through Culturally Responsive and Equity-Oriented Approaches

For decades, community-campus partnerships have helped transform traditional notions of research. Through approaches such as community-based participatory research (CBPR), decolonizing methodologies, and participatory action research (PAR), community and academic partners have expanded the confines of expertise, centering local, experiential, Indigenous, and professional knowledge in research (Fine & Torre, 2021; Minkler & Wallerstein, 2011; Stanton, 2014). Voices in our field have challenged narrow conceptualizations of who is a “researcher” (Blodgett et al., 2011; Ishimaru & Bang, 2022), redefined concepts like validity to account for the process and impact of research-in-action (Anderson & Herr, 1999; Torre et al., 2012), critiqued racist and colonial practices embedded in traditional research approaches (Chilisa, 2019; Darroch & Giles, 2014), and expanded what research products look like beyond the narrow confines of academic publishing (Chen et al., 2010).