rojas, ubc

Critical Junctures in Research Practice & Policy November 5, 2010

Faculty of Land & Food SystemsIntegrated Studies in Land and Food Systems

Will ValleyPhD candidateProject CoordinatorThink&EatGreen@School

Yona Sipos PhD candidateProject CoordinatorUBC Based Community Food Assessment Project

Dr. Alejandro RojasAssociate ProfessorPrincipal Investigator Think&EatGreen@School

From Inquiry to Engagement:From Inquiry to Engagement:A Reflection on 10 Years of Community-Based

Learning & Research on Food Security & Sustainability at the University of British

Columbia

• Context

• Culture of fragmentation

• Land, Food and Community series

• Community inquiry & engagement

• What have we learned?

Our pathway

l Fragmentation of knowledge, faculty, community-university relations, learner's persona

l Fragmentation of food persona: disconnect and deskilling

The Land, Food & Community The Land, Food & Community Series Series Structure Structure & Projects& Projects

LFC I: Awarenessà Think&EatGreen@School (Food Security Project in Vancouver)

LFC II: Tools and Methodology àUBC Based Community Food Assessment Project in BC

LFC III: ApplicationàUBC Food System Project

Food System Projects

Community generated research agenda

Externally generated research agenda

Community inquiry

Community engagement

Map of Participatory Research ApproachesMap of Participatory Research Approaches

Community Community EngagedEngaged

ScholarshipScholarship

What have we learned?What have we learned?

• Institutional change can begin in classroom & expand through Community Based Learning

• Space for collaborative inquiry of integrative issues is paramount

• Relationship building takes time, develop through iterative process of Action Research

• Positive outcomes will accumulate

• Model can be used with large class size

UBC Farm in the Winter