Members of the Philadelphia community are making their voices heard and conducting their own research into educational issues they face as part of a collaboration with the Penn Graduate School of Education (GSE).
The Communities Advancing Research in Education (CARE) Initiative is run by Penn GSE Professor Gerald Campano, who teaches in the Literacy Studies masters and doctoral programs, and alum María Paula Ghiso, a professor of literacy education at Columbia University’s Teachers College. The CARE Initiative aims to create an equitable partnership between Penn GSE researchers and doctoral students and the local community to benefit everyone involved.
“In the field of education, there’s a consensus on the idea that families and parents have something important to say about education, but we haven’t really figured out how to leverage their expertise,” Campano said. “We believe that community-based research is one answer to that question — that when families and youth have the opportunities to investigate their own schools and the education system, they’ll have really important knowledge to share with the field.”