ABSTRACT
Students are often motivated by a desire to make a difference in the world and worry that their research will have little real-world impact. Community-engaged scholarship represents a powerful motivation for students and much promise for harnessing the resources of educational institutions to address social problems in collaboration with communities. However, good intentions do not always result in positive impact. Challenging norms have been developed in community-engaged forms of scholarship to ensure that collaboration with community partners is ethical and equitable. To meet these demands, students must possess a deep awareness of their own worldviews along with the capacity to hear and understand the beliefs, assumptions, and values of others to co-create knowledge. The “Developing Awareness of Self and Others” lesson plan uniquely equips students with the vital capacity for appreciating narrative (one’s own and others’) primarily through the practice of story circles. This lesson plan represents a critical first step for engaging students in a collaborative mode of inquiry with community partners to make important contributions beyond the academy.
