ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on what can be learned from conducting research with communities in adverse situations such as the aftermath of a disaster. It shows that have contributed to building community cohesion pre-disaster and sustaining community resilience post-disaster. The chapter explores the role of schools in building community cohesion and resilience using findings from three school communities affected by the 2010/2011 Canterbury earthquakes. Those are School community A; School community B and School community C. Each case study took a different approach. School community A engaged willingly but were led by the researcher who had more control over data gathering, processing and production of the findings. School community B had strong ideas about what they wanted to achieve but needed the researcher's expertise and resources to make it happen. School community C wanted the researcher to provide advice on how to get underway and make sense of what they were finding.
