CES3E9-Community-engaged research

We had an interesting conversation with Dr. Balyasnikova, working at York University. In this special summer edition, we got together at Queen’s Park in Toronto to have a chat about educational gerontology and community-engaged research. From Russia to the USA and now Canada Dr. Balyasnikova describes educational gerontology as a subset of adult education and health science that tries to understand learning experiences at a later life. For example, how certain learning experiences affect ageing or how ageist stereotyping impacts learning in older adult learners. She is also interested in community-engaged research which is embedded in the idea of working together to inform research and we see participants as collaborators rather than subjects of study while we build relationships. She invites us to question whether participants need research or not and what form research needs to take. Additionally, Dr. Balyasnikova enjoys using various art and narrative methodologies to understand participants’ lived experiences. She uses arts-based research as possibilities for participants to express themselves and she engages participants with stories, theatre, drawing or painting as multimodal narratives.

Bio
Originally from Saint Petersburg Russia, Natalia Balyasnikova completed her Ph.D. in Language and Literacy Education at the University of British Columbia in July 2019. She explores older immigrants’ educational engagement in community-based settings. Using narrative ethnographic methods, she merges traditional ethnographic data generation with the facilitation of oral, written, and multimodal storytelling. With a focus on community-based research and public scholarship, Dr. Balyasnikova works with attention to the needs of the research partners and facilitates their vision for positive change. By analyzing learning that occurs at the intersection of ageing and immigration, her work suggests new pathways of community-based curriculum and educational policy in the context of changing demographics in Canada.

Cite this podcast (APA):
Ortega, Y. (Producer). (2020, August 5). CES3E9 – Community-Engaged Research. https://soundcloud.com/chasingencounters/ces3e9-community-engaged-research

Sources
Balyasnikova, N., & Gillard, S. (2018). " I Love to Write My Story": Storytelling and its role in seniors' language. Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education, 30(2).
Balyasnikova, N., Higgins, S., & Hume, M. (2018). Enhancing Teaching English as an Additional Language Through Playfulness: Seniors (Ethno) Drama Club in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. TESOL Journal, 9(3), 481-497.

Gómez, D. R. (2016). Language teaching and the older adult: The significance of experience. Multilingual Matters.
Andrew, P. (2012). The social construction of age: Adult foreign language learners (Vol. 63). Multilingual Matters.
Jeffery, B., Findlay, I. M., Martz, D. J. F., Clarke, L. (2014). Journeys in community-based research. University of Regina Press