Considering Community Psychology Competencies

A Love Letter to Budding Scholar‐Activists Who Wonder if They Have What It Takes

Bibliographic Data

ID11054855
AuthorsRegina Day Langhout (0000-0001-9607-8539, Psychology Department UC Santa Cruz 1156 High St. 95064 Santa Cruz CA USA, corresponding author)
Year2015
Volume55
Issue3-4
Pages266-278
Publication date2015-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Journal of Community Psychology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0091-0562 • E-ISSN: 1573-2770
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1007/s10464-015-9711-5
PMID25758325
OpenAlexW1975731337
LanguageEN
Citations received18
References cited39

Recently, community psychologists have re‐vamped a set of 18 competencies considered important for how we practice community psychology. Three competencies are: (1) ethical, reflexive practice, (2) community inclusion and partnership, and (3) community education, information dissemination, and building public awareness. This paper will outline lessons I—a white working class woman academic—learned about my competency development through my research collaborations, using the lens of affective politics. I describe three lessons, from school‐based research sites (elementary schools serving working class students of color and one elite liberal arts school serving wealthy white students). The first lesson, from an elementary school, concerns ethical, reflective practice. I discuss understanding my affect as a barometer of my ability to conduct research from a place of solidarity. The second lesson, which centers community inclusion and partnership, illustrates how I learned about the importance of “before the beginning” conversations concerning social justice and conflict when working in elementary schools. The third lesson concerns community education, information dissemination, and building public awareness. This lesson, from a college, taught me that I could stand up and speak out against classism in the face of my career trajectory being threatened. With these lessons, I flesh out key aspects of community practice competencies

Community building · Community psychology · General partnership · Inclusion (mineral) · Pedagogy · Political science · Public relations · Social science · Sociology · Community Health and Development · Early Childhood Education and Development · Psychology · Social Psychology · Youth Development and Social Support

Tools

Open DOISci-HubOpen Access