Research and Community of Inquiry

Youth, school- and community-based researchers and university academics come into the Hiatt Community of Inquiry through a variety of entry-points.  Although each COI participant may not have come in calling themselves “researchers,” they had questions or issues they were grappling with, or a desire for action in the neighborhood, or a focus on their teaching practice.  The Hiatt Community of Inquiry is enriched by all sorts of inquiry and forms of participation. If you are interested in learning more, then please email hiattcenterforurbaned@gmail.com.

Since different types of research require different tools, materials, and supports, the Hiatt Community of Inquiry connects you with a diverse array of resources for your research. Resources include spaces to share your work with university and school-based thought-partners; Clark courses and internships; mentors for conference proposals and various types of publications; and events connecting you with research being done across Worcester and beyond.

There is value in having social and financial support for your work. The Hiatt Center can offer support to COI participants who wish to apply for research and implementation grants from local and national funders. Grant development assistance includes facilitating workshops, working with you to seek out potential grant opportunities and to build strong narratives of your work, making connections with possible community partners, and helping to administer your grants.

The Hiatt Community of Inquiry (COI) Research Summits bring together youth, school-and community-based educators, and academics to share their ongoing research, to exchange ideas, and to build community. Participants share research ideas that are just beginning to take shape to inquiry that has been deepening over multiple years. For example, in the Hiatt COI Summer Celebration researchers come together around a meal and poster presentations. COI participants and the broader public learn about the variety of research occurring across the community of inquiry.

Research collaboratives meet regularly as a group toward developing research practices and deepening understanding. Hiatt research collaboratives include data circles, YPAR (youth participatory action research) teams, book groups exploring innovative teaching practices, and curriculum teams.

Coffee talks provide an informal means for Community of Inquiry (COI) participants to work out ideas with a variety of thought-partners. Hiatt Center staff can help you to coordinate a coffee talk at a community location, school, or at Clark University.

Each year, the Hiatt Center supports a variety of events that bring together local researchers, including workshops centered on youth research and teacher research. For upcoming events, please check out our News and Events on our homepage and follow us at Hiatt Instagram.

The Journal of Youth Scholarship (JOYS) is a peer-reviewed scholarly journal for youth authors run by a youth editorial board. JOYS provides an institutional platform for youth voices across genres through publishing research, essays, memoirs, and creative writing. Youth-produced knowledge is important, powerful, and relevant. Our goal is to create space that empowers youth work to be used as classroom resources, outlets for creativity and exploration, and sources of inspiration and camaraderie for youth everywhere.

Visit the JOYS website

This annual youth summit brings together secondary level students from across Massachusetts to explore various issues that are important to young people. In the past, the youth summit has provided opportunities for attendees to engage in dialogue about the power of youth to make changes in their community and schools, racism and inequity in public schools, and the role that race and class plays in shaping the educational experiences of young people across the nation. The youth summit planned by the Hiatt Youth Council.

Each year, the Gurel Lecture brings a national leader in education to Clark University. Building on the center’s practice of creating spaces where knowledge and research can be co-constructed and shared, the Hiatt Center supports “research exchanges” among the Gurel Lecturer and COI participants. These exchanges have included poster sessions where youth share their ongoing research, meals offering connection on a dialogic level, and site visits engaging participants in the multi-layered work that is ongoing on our community. The Gurel Research Exchanges also build sustaining relationships with education leaders across the country whose work can support, challenge, and broaden our own perspectives and experiences.

Local researchers benefit from opportunities to exchange ideas and collaborate with other educational researchers and stakeholders regionally, nationally, and internationally.  The Hiatt Community of Inquiry continues to explore a variety of forms of collaboration and public sharing through presenting at conferences (COI youth, school- and community-based researchers have been particularly visible at the UPENN Ethnography Conference, AERA, and Free Minds, Free People) , publishing their research, participating in online communities and forms of public media, and building partnerships through visits to community-based research sites.