Community Interactive Research Workshop Series: Community Members Engaged as Team Teachers to Conduct Research

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Vietnamese women are diagnosed with cervical cancer at twice the rate of non-Hispanic White women and the highest compared to Chinese, Filipino, Korean, and Japanese women. ἀ e Vietnamese Women's Health Project, a community-based participatory research partnership, was developed to address this concern. In earlier studies, community members received research training. OBJECTIVES: To describe how we developed an innovative curricular research training framework. Community members developed their own learning goals and activities, taught alongside a nurse scientist, and participated in a community interactive research workshop series. METHODS: Popular education principles were used to guide team teaching. Topics, learning goals, lesson plans, and an evaluation w ere de veloped t ogether. ἀ ree, 4 -5.5 h our workshops were hosted. Topics included qualitative research, art of hearing data, reflexivity, analysis, validity, and dissemination. Community members and a nurse scientist co-constructed knowledge through participatory methods. ἀe workshops ran concurrent to the study timeline to inform community members' research activities and vice versa. A range from 8 to 20 participants attended the workshops, of which six community members were team teachers and three facilitated at each workshop. In an evaluation, team teachers reported workshop strengths: an empathetic and trusting learn ing environment, a sense of ownership in learning, a greater under standing of roles in research partnerships, and a feel ing of safety to conduct research with academic investigators. CONCLUSIONS: Academic investigators need to be aware that co-constructing knowledge is foundational to long-term sustainability of community-based participatory research partnership (CBPR) partnerships, but requires building team capacity to conduct research collaboratively.