A Year of Raising the Village - week #24.
Research- go for a variety!
In our book we write about how learning from research is a major factor in a group's understanding of complex social situations. We believe that a variety of sources helps groups to look at things from many lenses and leads to a more responsive action plan. Research can often be a big shot of confirmation about "why we do this work" and can challenge us to broaden our practice (or at least ask some really juicy questions)!
Within some research organizations there are a great variety and scope of research projects going on at one time. In this month's RTV newsletter we connected with three researchers from very different backgrounds that give a sampling of HELP's (Human Early Learning Partnership's) broad scope of work. Check more at http://www.earlylearning.ubc.ca/ Here is a part of our newsletter...
The following three women have interests and work that literally span areas from politics to culture, from assessment tools to empowering traditional ways of being, from dollars and cents to conceptual frameworks. We asked them each 2 key questions. But first... a short introduction.
Lynell Anderson is a BC-based Certified General Accountant and a Senior Researcher within HELP. Bringing almost 30 years of financial consulting, volunteer and research experience, Lynell has worked with various levels of government as well as children, women, family and youth-serving organizations and advocacy groups.
Michele A Sam is Ktunaxa, a cultural and linguistic isolate group to the world. She is the Senior Aboriginal Researcher for HELP’s Early Child Development Program of Research. Her role is to provide leadership within HELP to ensure that the research needs of Aboriginal nations and communities are met.
Dr. Ziba Vaghri is a Research Associate leading the International Research and Initiatives Program. She began her career as a Registered Nurse and has worked as a health care professional in various countries giving her a rich experience in working within multiethnic settings through which she has gained an appreciation of cultural diversity and has become conversant in several languages.
Question: What is getting you excited about your research right now?
Lynell: I’m working with Paul Kershaw on a new agenda for families with young children. We are just completing refinements to the original benefit/cost analysis described in our 2009 report 15 by 15: A Comprehensive Policy Framework for Early Human Capital Investment in BC. We now have a detailed agenda that shows the benefits, in the near term, as well as the costs of providing families with the time, resources and services they need to effectively balance caring and earning. I’m fired up because this work responds to the great interest in our 15 by 15report – from communities, business and governments – and because the evidence continues to highlight the broad societal changes that are required to help children and families thrive.
Michelle: I am continuing to intellectually lead the growth of a conceptual framework regarding Indigenous Peoples wellbeing, and raising up of our peoples. I am totally fired up because for far too long, Indigenous peoples had our intellectual traditions taken for granted as being easily assimilative into the normative ways of being, doing and knowing, when in fact, much of our intellectual frameworks have been appropriated without clear understanding of the interconnectedness of Indigenous ways of being, doing and knowing, to overall well being for life. Reframing insights from Aboriginal child health, to raising up of our peoples, helps to recentre ourselves within our homelands and understandings that enable meaning-making that is grounded in traditions that predates contact and subsequent colonial activities.
Ziba: In fulfilling its role as the Global Knowledge Network for ECD, HELP is involved in a large multinational project known as the Indicators of Early Childhood Rights (also known as the Indicators of General Comment 7). Through this project, we have developed a series of indicators for countries to use in preparing their periodical reports to the United Nations Child Rights Committee, which is an obligation of every country that has ratified the Convention on the Rights of Children (CRC). This project, strongly supported by UN-CRC, is currently piloting the indicators in selected countries across the globe. A pilot in Tanzania has been completed and a second pilot has been initiated in Chile. This project is particularly exciting to me and I take a great deal of pride in working on it for many reasons, one of them being its large scope of impact. Once the pilots are complete and the tool (the indicators) is fine-tuned, the idea is to have UN-CRC approve/recommend it as the global tool of reporting on the CRC for every country across the globe. Using this tool will help countries to produce a more wholesome and evidence-based report for submission to UN-CRC, which in turn, will enable UN-CRC to fulfill its role as the monitoring body of the convention. Additionally, the tool and the practice of report writing via using these indicators will help countries have a thorough inventory, and will help them to understand what is in place and what is missing, in terms of child right capacities. The scope of impact is worldwide and will encompass children from all corners of the world; from sub-Sahara to the Far East to Europe and… that truly inspires me!
What brings you a “sense of community”?
Lynell: One of the many things that brings me a “sense of community” is the feeling I have when discussing our 15 by 15 recommendations. I see nodding heads and hear comments from parents, service providers and employers that not only affirm the relevance of our findings, but add immensely to the richness of our developing story. I also feel a strong “sense of community” when collaborating with ECD groups to consider how changes in provincial policies and funding can strengthen local services and supports. I’ve learned so much from these experiences, and I know our research is stronger as a result.
Michelle: A sense of community, is a common unity with others, in which we acknowledge interconnections without having to own them as individuals but recognize the collectivity of knowledges and relationships. These are deep ties, not limited to lands or being only in those lands, but also in the hearts of those peoples and places in order to linger enough to be touched and not turn away…to stand self beside the other and show our peoples in their early years how to do the same…and celebrate our humanness of being.
Ziba: In my line of work, when meeting with local people in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Latin America or any other part of the world and seeing them all individually talk about the same values and issues of significance to them without knowing that other person(s) also voiced the same issues, brings me a sense of community. This sense of community creates an invisible yet strong common thread that links individuals and makes a beautiful string of beads that gives them strength and interdependence to one and other. I feel a wonderful sense of community when I see how much each individual is willing to give/do in order to maintain this interdependence. They know that despite all the scarcity of resources, they can count on their neighbors or fellows from church or coworkers to come to their aid when they are in trouble and in need of help.
Village Raising Question: What research or literature has you jazzed right now?
