Pausing in the pandemic: Using a co-inquiry approach to advance relational and reflective learning in a university-community partnership

This article demonstrates a reflective and collective inquiry process among eight stakeholders of a multi-year partnership between a university social innovation center and a youth play non-profit during year one of the COVID-19 pandemic. We asked whether “pausing” a University-Community project for reflection and recalibration was an ethical response to disaster contexts. Drawing from cooperative inquiry (CI) and collaborative developmental action inquiry (CDAI) methodologies, as well as co-authorship and reflective journaling, we developed a co-inquiry process that revealed the disparities between University and Community actors within a long-term partnership. Co-inquiry helped us reattune to power-sharing goals of participatory action research as we explored new modes of engagement through progressive rounds of loop-learning. While the pandemic exacerbated unilateral patterns of engagement that plague partnerships, it created an opportunity to prioritize relationship-rebuilding and frame-creation. We found that co-authorship was methodologically important for facilitating co-inquiry and that pausing and holding space for this shared reflection was a key driver of learning.