{"id":1154,"date":"2013-11-14T16:42:56","date_gmt":"2013-11-14T16:42:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/per\/?p=1154"},"modified":"2013-11-21T13:36:50","modified_gmt":"2013-11-21T13:36:50","slug":"communi-tea-party-at-the-academy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/per\/?p=1154","title":{"rendered":"Communi-tea party at the academy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Julie

Julie Bounford, University of East Anglia<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The academy and community: seeking authentic voices inside higher education – A workshop on creating and sustaining an engaged research community<\/strong><\/p>\n

On 11th November 2013, I facilitated a small workshop where participants explored some of the essential building blocks for creating and sustaining a research community that cultivates and delivers engaged academic practice. The session focused on features outlined in my research poster. A pdf of the poster, \u2018COMMUNI-TEA PARTY AT THE ACADEMY\u2019 can be downloaded \u2013 here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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My doctoral research explores \u2018community\u2019 as perceived and experienced by twelve individuals who have academic roles at one higher education institution. Individual perspectives and experiences of community and also of university-community engagement are subjective and diverse. However, being connected to or being a part of the university community, the status and strength of those connections and indeed the durability of the community itself appear to be significant for many who are in and around higher education.<\/p>\n

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\"COMMUNI-TEA<\/a>

COMMUNI-TEA PARTY AT THE ACADEMY poster \u2013 a cut out kit for you to assemble<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

When invited to talk about any aspect of community, all decided to focus on the university rather than anywhere else, although they did occasionally refer to experiences of community outside the university. More often, they referred to others who are not formally members of the university but whom they considered to be a part of their research or teaching community. This was evidenced by aspects of their academic practice that could clearly be categorised as community university engagement; for example, collaborating with an expert patient who is acting as a co-investigator in their research project or involving service users in their teaching. All my participants had been involved in community university engagement in some form or other. So, for the purpose of the workshop I asked,<\/p>\n