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While many forms of action research exist, Participatory Action Learning and Action Research (PALAR) combines multiple theories for a comprehensive, dynamic structure for community engagement. Participants will be introduced to the principles and four recurring stages of PALAR as a theoretical framework for social change. A series of presentations and activities will then guide them through applying PALAR to develop action plans. Participants will begin to apply the concepts of PALAR by selecting a provided case study or a self-identified context or project they would like to develop during the workshop. To support participants in developing their case study, presenters will share examples from their application of PALAR to an inter-institutional collaboration between a predominately white institution and a historically black university focused on informal engineering education to develop a living-learning lab with a traditionally underserved community. Participants will then explore applying PALAR to attain impactful and transformative social change. Exploring PALAR will include assessing and attending to knowledge production, power relations, and relationship building. Through centering collaboration with other participants, incorporating personal examples, and fostering an environment for sharing ideas, individuals will have the opportunity to explore their projects and discern how to integrate PALAR into their work. Participants will learn about research methodologies used to measure outcomes in a student-led project outside the classroom, where grades do not define student success. Presenters will share their successes/pitfalls and lessons learned during the project’s first year. Participants will also understand the importance of transparency when collecting data from stakeholders to ensure data authenticity. Finally, participants will use what they learned to draft a data collection plan for their project. Participants will engage in hands-on exercises tailored to the NCORE community, guiding them in applying PALAR principles to real-world scenarios. They will collaboratively develop action plans aligned with the specific needs and goals of racially and ethnically diverse communities, incorporating iterative design for continuous improvement based on reflection and feedback. Join us for an immersive NCORE experience in PALAR, where theory seamlessly meets practical application for impactful social change. 

Academic institutions have always been seen as centers of education and knowledge production, but the information generated by each institution is usually siloed. To increase global competitiveness, especially in STEM, sharing knowledge across institutions is necessary. At inception, our central hypothesis was that an inter-institutional approach to educational transformation, one that was centered on democratizing the practice of innovation across institutional boundaries, would effectively prepare the next generation of innovators and engineers to address systemic and institutional racism and whiteness within STEM. One of the ways we wanted to tackle this was by community engagement. Community engagement in some phases of engineering projects is known worldwide. However, community engagement in all phases, including the grant writing process, is minimal. 

Our central hypothesis is that an inter-institution approach to educational transformation, centered on democratizing innovation across institutional boundaries, will effectively prepare next-generation innovators and engineers to address systemic and institutional racism and whiteness within STEM by challenging educational norms in higher education. This project is focused on co-facilitation and co-learning across Tuskegee University and the University of Colorado Boulder through an informal (outside of the classroom) undergraduate project, with land provided by Harvest Dreams. Undergraduate students from both institutions are a part of a collaborative cohort facilitated by faculty from both institutions to tackle each year's mission based on the faculty's expertise. This first year's cohort is focused on Creation as the inter-institutional group is creating the blueprint for the next four years with students and faculty heavily engaged with Harvest Dreams. Harvest Dreams has continued the legacy of teaching based on lessons from ancestors and has maintained land ownership since 1922. As a place pivotal to Black history in the United States, Harvest Dreams has played a pivotal part in forming such a project. 

Since 2009, the Mortenson Center in Global Engineering & Resilience has been training global engineers to improve the lives of vulnerable people through technological innovation, forming global partnerships, enacting policy changes, and humanitarian service. In 2021, The Mortenson Center hosted over 100 participants from universities, donors, government agencies, and industry partners for a virtual workshop series as part of a National Science Foundation grant to advance engineering education. Together, that group established a comprehensive global engineering body of knowledge. The paper Aligning learning objectives and approaches in global engineering graduate programs: Review and recommendations by an interdisciplinary working group were recently published in Development Engineering.