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Co-designing a Children’s Cabinet: a school district–university partnership for youth well-being post-pandemic

Rebecca Lowenhaupt (Carolyn A and Peter S Lynch School of Education and Human Development, Boston College, Boston, Massachusetts, USA)
Whitney Hegseth (Carolyn A and Peter S Lynch School of Education and Human Development, Boston College, Boston, Massachusetts, USA)
Gabrielle Oliveira (Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA)
Betty Lai (Carolyn A and Peter S Lynch School of Education and Human Development, Boston College, Boston, Massachusetts, USA)

Journal of Educational Administration

ISSN: 0957-8234

Article publication date: 28 October 2024

Issue publication date: 29 November 2024

47

Abstract

Purpose

This paper presents a case study of a school district–university partnership to co-design a Children’s Cabinet, a cross-sector initiative bringing together institutional and community leaders to address youth well-being in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. In a vibrant, immigrant-serving community in the Northeast United States, the partnership was initiated by district leaders in Spring 2021 after pandemic disruptions led to a youth mental health crisis.

Design/methodology/approach

Our descriptive, qualitative case study focuses on the structure and emerging design principles of the research–practice partnership, which established a Children’s Cabinet comprised of educational, government and community leaders along with researchers. From Spring 2021 through Spring 2024, we collected and analyzed member and youth interviews, ethnographic observations and artifacts from all meetings and process interviews with key partners.

Findings

We describe the structure of the partnership, including how researchers and district leaders collaborated on meeting facilitation and how researchers conducted and shared applied research. We then discuss three design principles that guided the work, including centering relationships, sustaining focus on key goals and embedding applied research.

Originality/value

As embedded research partners, our team is uniquely situated to narrate the nature and structure of the partnership and reflect on the design of our cross-sector initiative. Increasingly, universities are partnering directly with districts on school improvement initiatives. Our work shows how engaging in RPPs to bring together school, community and research partners can facilitate local leadership and collaboration to address complex, cross-sector goals such as increasing youth well-being.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

We have received generous funding for our Research-Practice Partnership from the Lynch School of Education and Human Development and the Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society at Boston College. We also wish to acknowledge the caring and inspiring leaders from our partner city, particularly the school district leaders who have led the initiative and with whom we continue to work closely to support youth well-being through the Children’s Cabinet. We also want to thank the EdRedesign Lab at the Harvard Graduate School of Education for guidance, as well as members of our research team who have contributed to this ongoing project.

Citation

Lowenhaupt, R., Hegseth, W., Oliveira, G. and Lai, B. (2024), "Co-designing a Children’s Cabinet: a school district–university partnership for youth well-being post-pandemic", Journal of Educational Administration, Vol. 62 No. 6, pp. 638-653. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEA-11-2023-0290

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2024, Emerald Publishing Limited

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