Space For Dialogue Research Articles

‘Get a butt like a rock’: cultivating adolescents’ critical consciousness of physical self-concept through a physical education intervention

ABSTRACT Background Adolescents frequently struggle with body-related concerns, making Physical Self-Concept (PSC) a crucial component of their overall self-concept. Prior research in Physical Education (PE) has suggested various physical training programmes aimed at improving PSC. However, these studies often overlook the underlying sociocultural influences to PSC, such as social media or peers. Therefore, the present study examines the role of critical PE in addressing the sociocultural influences on PSC during adolescence. Purpose The purpose was to examine the effects of a critical PE unit designed to enhance students’ PSC and their critical consciousness of it. Research questions included the effects on students’ PSC, the relationship between PSC and their critical consciousness of it, and the students’ perceptions of the critical PE unit approach. Method The research design followed a mixed methods approach. A single-case intervention was conducted which involved 70 students aged 14–15 in a Spanish high school. The intervention comprised a 9-hour critical PE unit focused on fitness, emphasizing the exploration of body issues prevalent in social media and fitness culture. Data were generated before and after the unit using the Physical Self-Concept Questionnaire (PSCQ) to evaluate changes in PSC. Post-unit ad-hoc questionnaires offered insights into students’ perception of improvement in PSC and critical consciousness, reflections on the unit's content and overall evaluation. Qualitative insights came from ad-hoc questionnaires, a focus group, field notes and assessment activities. Reflexive Thematic Analysis was used for the qualitative data analysis. Findings No significant changes were observed in PSC after the unit. However, students expressed heightened awareness of sociocultural influences on PSC, particularly concerning gender-based beauty ideals, though discussions were often limited to physical attractiveness. Many students did not critically examine how biomedical knowledge shapes cultural perceptions, as seen in their proposal of body mass index as a criterion for body validation. For a few students, learning new concepts was transformative, enabling them to challenge dominant body-related narratives. Despite this, many maintained neoliberal individualistic self-empowerment narratives without adopting a more politicized perspective on PSC. Moreover, the unit received positive feedback, especially from girls, with Instagram facilitating critical discussions and amplifying students’ voices. A supportive teacher created a safe space for meaningful dialogue, though some concerns were raised about the emphasis on reflection over physical activity. Conclusions This study underscores the complexity of developing PSC in adolescence and highlights the need for critical PE to address it effectively. Future research should expand the focus of PSC beyond physical attractiveness to examine how biomedical discourses shape cultural perceptions of the body. Additionally, greater emphasis should be placed on encouraging students to challenge neoliberal narratives that influence body perceptions.

From Agency to Responsibility: Gestalt Therapy Trainees’ Experience of Engaging in Personal Therapy

Personal therapy is a common mandatory element of counseling and psychotherapy training in the United Kingdom. Previous research has established that this practice provides trainees with a unique learning space but also is associated with financial and emotional costs. Furthermore, some argue that the practice of personal therapy is ethically questionable. At the heart of many relational modalities, such as Gestalt psychotherapy, lies the relationship between client and therapist and more research is needed to explore how trainees perceive established training methods. The current study recruited 11 trainee Gestalt practitioners and conducted one-to-one semi-structured interviews to explore their experiences of engaging in personal therapy. A number of themes emerged in reflexive thematic analysis: trainees perceived personal therapy to be associated with professional and personal gains as well as financial and emotional costs; they also viewed personal therapy to be an essential component of their training but would like to be involved in discussions around how it is shaped. We recommend that training providers and professional bodies offer such a dialogic space, and that future research and practice further considers the barriers of minority clients and trainees in particular.

The Problem of Perception in Sandor Márai’s Embers: An Advaitic Study

This article attempts to study the problem of perception in Sandor Márai’s celebrated novel Embers from the standpoint of the pramana (a method of knowledge) of Advaita Vedanta. An epistemic problem, the problem of perception, concerns the overwhelming questions of life, culminating in an enigmatic amalgamation of dilemmas and paradoxes. Genuine dilemmas and paradoxes problematize human relationships, which is evident in the complex narrative of Embers. Our contention in this article is to show how, even though enacted within the periphery of the purely fictional, Embers bears testimony to the complexities of life that are quickened by the limits of human perception, which keeps one from seeing how things really are by creating a shadow or reflected consciousness. Set against the backdrop of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the novel opens up a dialogic space at the intersection of a triangular relationship enacted on the threshold of perception and its multidimensional problems.

Anonymization of Voices in Spaces for Civic Dialogue: Measuring Impact on Empathy, Trust, and Feeling Heard

Anonymity is a powerful component of many participatory media platforms that can afford people greater freedom of expression and protection from external coercion and interference. However, it can be difficult to effectively implement on platforms that leverage spoken language due to distinct biomarkers present in the human voice. In this work, we explore the use of voice anonymization methods within the context of a technology-enhanced civic dialogue network based in the United States, whose purpose is to increase feelings of agency and being heard within civic processes. Specifically, we investigate the use of two different speech transformation and synthesis methods for anonymization: voice conversion (VC) and text-to-speech (TTS). Through a series of two studies, we examine the impact that each method has on 1) the empathy and trust that listeners feel towards a person sharing a personal story, and 2) a speaker's own perception of being heard, finding that voice conversion is an especially suitable method for our purposes. Our findings open up interesting potential research directions related to anonymous spoken discourse, as well as additional ways of engaging with voice-based civic technologies.

Prácticas docentes en materia de competencia comunicativa que facilitan la inclusión de niños y niñas en situación de vulnerabilidad

Classroom diversity, as a space oriented to the full development of its learners requires various inclusive practices that bridge gaps and favor collaborative and respectful work, thus promoting a democratic and dialogic space. This article seeks to describe the communicative teaching practices that favor inclusion in elementary classrooms in Chile, by identifying their effect on the students from the perspective of teachers. To achieve this objective, a two-phase study was carried out: 123 teachers from different regions of Chile participated in the first phase responding to a quantitative instrument; 21 teachers participated in the second phase through a semi-structured interview. The main findings are related to teaching strategies, not very intentional although systematic, but which comply with the diversity, evaluation and self-evaluation components, and also favored the students’ protagonism in their learning process.

What do college students think about artificial intelligence? We ask them

Abstract Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming different aspects of the economy and society of countries. There are diverse effects when comparing the impact in developed versus developing countries. In the educational sector, efforts to incorporate AI have largely ignored the input from those directly impacted by it. This document presents results from a survey about AI to university students in Latin America. The information presented comes from a survey conducted in November 2023 to college students with ages between 18 and 25 years in four Latin American countries: Mexico, Argentina, Peru, and Ecuador. The results indicate that, in general, youth have a positive view about the potential of AI, though limited knowledge in the topic. Moreover, university students in the region do not want to be passive recipients of AI. They want to participate directly in conversations about this very current topic and have concerns about different aspects of AI implementation in the region. These findings highlight the need for universities, governments, civil society and international organizations and the private sector to work together to create spaces for inclusive dialogue where the youth could directly participate in conversations that crucially matter for their lives.

The philosophical and pedagogical underpinnings shared by philosophy for children (P4C) and Froebelian approaches

Recent interest in integrating philosophy in early childhood education has led scholars to explore the potential connections between P4C practices and different educational approaches, such as the Reggio Emilia and Montessori. Murris, for instance, reads the Reggio Emilia approach diffractively through P4C and concludes that the P4C and Reggio approach allow for emergent knowledge production and expression, drawing on all of the child's material-discursive languages and disrupting binary distinctions between child and adult. Scarpini draws attention to Montessori and P4C's mutual emphasis on children's right to think and space to express their thoughts, feelings and ideas together in a safe and dialogical space. The emergence of these theoretical and pedagogical inquiries towards the P4C approach makes Froebelian dialogue even more necessary in terms of developing a well-rounded understanding of embedding philosophy in children's early years experiences. Some ontological and pedagogical resonances between Froebelian approaches and the P4C are reflected to discuss the affordances and challenges of integrating philosophy into children's lives in early childhood education. To do this, diffraction is used as a reflexive methodology for reading Froebelian and P4C texts through and around one another that emerge diverse ontological underpinnings to unpack epistemological possibilities for non-dichotomous early childhood understandings and practices. The aim is to achieve a deeper comprehension of how the two can mutually enhance each other and be implemented in practice to promote more meaningful learning experiences for children in the early years.

The co-design of building deep retrofitting in distressed urban areas: lessons from e-SAFE

ABSTRACT This article addresses the realm of co-design in building deep retrofitting in distressed urban areas. Drawing from a pilot experience conducted between 2020 and 2023 in Catania, Italy, as part of the Horizon 2020 project e-SAFE, the authors discuss the scholarly relevance of the lessons learned through a process of engagement of public housing residents in the co-design of their building’s retrofitting. Drawing from both socio-technical and urban planning literature, the paper conceptualises co-design as a process that should provide spaces for shared learning and creativity, on the one side, and negotiability between residents and experts, on the other. In the Catania experience, co-design has encountered several obstacles, especially due to strings attached to the funded grant as well as the unfortunate socio-political conjuncture. While these obstacles made it hard to keep spaces of shared creativity open, it was crucial to at least provide spaces for negotiation, especially over those technological choices having a direct impact on residents’ relational economics. In general, the paper argues the importance of distinguishing between these two dimensions ensuring flexibility, so that even if shared creativity is constrained by circumstances, negotiable spaces can still be provided.

CRAFTING A FOUCAULDIAN GENEALOGY METHOD FOR ANALYZING CURRICULUM-AS-DISCOURSE IN SOUTH AFRICA

Introduction/Frame: (Contextualization/Justification) Viewing curriculum as discourse can enable educators to identify how historical markers of discrimination are repeated. Historical markers are archaeologically embedded in the various dimensions of a curriculum and find expression in preferred ways of thinking, speaking, doing, and being. Such historical hypernorms are often maintained by practical rationalities, or technologies of power that reify their taken-for-granted legitimacy as ‘truth regimes’. Research Question/Objectives: This phase of the study aimed to critically explore and disclose how the (socio/politico-historically constructed) rules of knowledge-formation in a contemporary occupational therapy curriculum-as-discourse, are reproduced and maintained as truths at a university that historically supported apartheid in South Africa. Methodology: A Foucauldian Discourse Analysis (FDA) approach was used to systematically craft a genealogy analysis method from foundational Foucauldian theory. Adjacent, a lens of the ‘dimensions of the curriculum’ was employed: i.e., the formal, the informal, the hidden, and the negated curriculum. Various data sources were categorized accordingly, e.g., overarching policy documents; social events; timetables and prescribed texts; physical teaching spaces; espoused values, and underlying assumptions modelled during assessment in teaching and learning spaces. Results: Following the four rules of knowledge-formation that ensued from an archaeology analysis, the contemporary reification of the historical markers was problematised through various technologies of power and self, as well modes of reasoning. Examples are pervasive white demographics of both students and faculty reifying cognitive monopoly and mono-cultural epistemologies; the rationalization of highly ritualized (over)assessment of students suppressing adult-to-adult transactionalism in andragogy practices; the reproduction of mono-cultural epistemologies in clinical training operating in the hidden curriculum. Final considerations: Consciously dismantling the rationalising strategies for the continuation of discriminatory patterns of inclusion and exclusion in a curriculum, can open a space for critical dialogue, disruption, and reconfiguration of a curriculum-as-discourse towards social justice, and epistemic freedom in (higher) education.

At-risk or a risk? SENCOs’ conceptualisations of vulnerability and risk in relation to school exclusion

ABSTRACT In this paper we explore how Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCOs) conceptualise vulnerability and risk, and how these conceptualisations inform their responses to students at risk of exclusion from school. The literature typically makes a distinction between within-child and systemic or structural factors. We draw on interview data from SENCOs working in 11 secondary schools in England, and an activity theory approach to unpick the contradictions and tensions in their conceptualisations and responses. Overall, we identify a mismatch between SENCOs’ conceptualisations of risk and vulnerability intersecting at multiple levels, and interventions that are primarily located at an individual level. National policy, with its shift away from a contextual understanding of difficulties and difference towards a requirement for clinical diagnosis to access additional funding plays a key role in mediating or shaping SENCO responses, including the tools that schools use to identify at-risk students. The conceptualisations indicate a source of differential impact with some students shifting from being seen as ‘at-risk’ and requiring support, to being ‘a risk’ and better educated elsewhere. In the face of these conceptualisations, we argue for the place of a social relational understanding, emphasising the dialogic spaces in which behaviour is framed, and interventions planned.

Creating spaces for dialogue and learning to build collective empowerment: A qualitative study on community leadership development in Midwest America communities

ABSTRACT The complexity of today’s community challenges calls for innovative approaches that promote leadership of diverse community members and institutions working collaboratively with communities. This study reports on an evaluation of two neighborhood leadership development programs that examined the impact of programs on participants and their communities. 41 interviews were conducted with 33 program participants and eight facilitators. All interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using thematic analysis. Participants expressed that they were motivated to participate in the leadership program(s) because they saw the need to help others in their communities and wanted to learn how to do that well. Others reported scaling up their capacity and capabilities in doing community work through engaging and empowering others toward achieving shared community development goals. Insights from the study suggest that building communities that are well resourced, equitable, and thriving places, require sustainable investment in hands-on, relational leadership training at the local level.

Make new friends, leave my friends: A dialogical investigation into transition experiences and agency in children from UK Armed Forces families

AbstractThis article provides new perspectives on the transitions of children from military families. It examines the experiences and agency of a group of UK primary‐school Service children who were undergoing far‐reaching transitions while participating in an arts‐based research project. Transitions are conceived here not as events, such as school moves, but as processes of changing, the dialogical interplay between ever‐changing socio‐cultural and physical environments and the psychological work individuals undertake in response to change. This reconceptualisation of transitions shifts attention away from children's resilience, or lack thereof, and towards unique, nuanced understandings of their subjective experiences and priorities. Presenting multimodal pieces created by three children as they explored the question, ‘What's it like to be a Service child in this school?’, I describe their diverse and agentic responses to their changing circumstances, as they sought to mitigate anticipated and past losses and perceived disadvantage and to use their transitions as positive opportunities for self‐development. Although punctuated by observable moments of change, this transition work happened over an indefinite timescale, highlighting a need for long‐term support informed by understandings of children's agency and priorities. Such support and insight may be achieved through developing spaces for multimodal dialogue with Service children.

The PAR3TY Project: Revealing Unique Cancer Experiences and Insights of Teenagers and Young Adults through Patient Engagement, Participation, and Performance.

Cancer in teenagers and young adults (TYAs) coincides with major life transitions and presents unique psychosocial challenges. Understanding the experiences and needs of TYAs is critical. TYAs want to play an active role in improving cancer for TYAs; however, few opportunities exist for TYAs to do so. Using a tri-partite methodology, an international team collaborated with four TYA co-researchers in this pilot study to explore how performative staging strategies help convey TYA experiences with cancer. Using creative video, TYA co-researchers shared cancer experiences and insights in novel, impactful ways. The process provided intrinsic benefits for co-researchers to connect with other TYAs and creatively share their experiences and perspectives. Furthermore, it provided space for dialogue between TYAs and cancer care allies where TYAs could convey the nuances of their cancer experiences and how cancer care could be improved. This tri-partite methodology can support TYAs to actively engage in a process of connection, reflection, creation, and dissemination to improve cancer experiences for TYAs.

SMEs as Agents of Peace and Security: Insights from the 2023 YouthConnekt Africa Summit

This study examines the potential of youth-led Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to contribute significantly to Africa’s peace and security agenda. Drawing on insights from the 2023 YouthConnekt Africa Summit, thepaper highlights the critical role that these enterprises can play in fostering peaceful engagement and addressing the root causes of conflict. By investing in youth leadership capacity, supporting youth-led initiatives, and creating safe spaces for dialogue, governments and stakeholders can leverage on the power of youth-led SMEs to promote positive peacebuilding outcomes. The study further identifies key areas for engagement, including contextual specificity, understanding the root causes of threats and opportunities, going beyond tokenism, andimplementing comprehensive national action plans on youth, peace, and security. While youth-led SMEs offer a promising avenue for peacebuilding. Further research is needed to understand their impact and developeffective strategies for supporting their growth and success.

Accessibility and expansion of the narratives’ space: convergent technologies and semiotics of exposition in an art museum

The development of convergent technologies opens up new horizons for expanding the sensory experience of museum visitors, especially the people with disabilities and alternative perception. We argue that augmented reality (AR) technologies, mainly used to develop applications that visually expand physical spaces, may serve not only as a tool of inclusion and immersion, but also an instrument of reviewing the narrative of art history delivered by a classical museum. Although AR technologies are focused mainly on visuality, detecting and localizing objects and images, as well as mapping and augmenting the visual space, they could be employed to expand the museum environment by other sensory modalities, such as sound and tactile sensations. Increasing the level of information accessibility of museum expositions and the independence of the development of exhibition space by people with disabilities is possible, among other things, by providing them access to context-aware information (MoMA, Tate, Garage and other institutions provide examples of such type of curatorship and exposition design).Furthermore, we argue that the issue of contextualization of knowledge received by the museum visitor is considered should be considered in a broader sense: we take the museum as a space of narration, where the main concepts of art history (with its conventional semantic accents and limitations) are shaped, consolidated and delivered. Having analyzed the logic of a classical art museum exposition, we review the alternative models for presenting art history narratives (in curatorial projects of A. Malraux, J.-H. Martin and F. Lyotard) and argue that new media may become a tool not only for inclusiveness and immersion, but also for a special type of subjectivation of the viewer involved in the process of creative rethinking of the history of art. Inclusiveness, immersion and semantic flexibility provided by new media makes museums a space for an open dialogue. Instead of outlined birders and «ready-to-use» senses an exhibition can show how «other things are possible». We argue that curatorial experiments and media applications dedicated to art can turn a museum into a zone of seeking that awakens the viewer to an independent search for subtle meanings and stories that exist on the periphery of the classical history of art. And the new media extensions of museum space, considered in the context of inclusion, may also be viewed as a tool for building new narratives and developing models for a more flexible and complex interpretation of art history in a multipolar world.

APLICAÇÃO DO MÉTODO DAS DISTÂNCIAS MÉDIAS DOS CANAIS RGB NA CLASSIFICAÇÃO DE AMOSTRAS COM MAIS DE UM TIPO DE GRÃO

O Brasil é o maior produtor e exportador de café do mundo, sendo a espécie arábica a mais produzida. A classificação desses grãos permite comercializar um produto de qualidade, identificando possíveis defeitos como a presença de grãos pretos, verdes ou ardidos, responsáveis por trazer prejuízos sensoriais à bebida e reduzir seu valor comercial. O uso de sistemas de visão computacional são alternativas para melhoria de processos dentro da indústria de alimentos, sendo o processo de classificação de alimentos uma das diversas possibilidades. O objetivo do trabalho foi desenvolver um programa de processamento digital de imagens aplicável ao processo de inspeção visual automática da qualidade de grãos de café arábica, quanto aos defeitos por cor. Para tal, foi realizada a aquisição de imagens adquiridos da Indústria & Comércio Café Ouro Verde LTDA, Garanhuns-PE, utilizando máquina fotográfica Nikon 5200 e aparelho celular iphone 7 e iluminador LED circular de 8 polegadas Ring Light, a fim de manter a constância de luz. O processamento de imagens foi realizado a partir da elaboração de um código a partir da plataforma Matlab®. Os grãos foram classificados de acordo com o valor da menor distância média entre os pixels dos canais RGB das imagens teste com as imagens padrão. O código utilizou o método das distâncias médias dos canais RGB (Red, Green, Blue), onde foram utilizadas quatro imagens padrão, referentes aos grãos sadios, pretos, verdes e ardidos e 60 imagens teste. O código conseguiu classificar os grãos com alto valor de acurácia. No entanto, entre os grãos ardidos a acurácia foi de 73,3%, devido à classificação de quatro imagens que foram identificadas como sendo grão verde. O método das distâncias médias dos canais RGB mostrou-se eficaz na classificação dos grãos de café arábica e pode ser utilizado para determinar se o café analisado se encontra dentro dos padrões preconizados pela legislação, ao fazer a análise grão a grão, necessitando apenas de uma boa iluminação e posição da câmera no momento de aquisição das imagens, de modo a evitar interferência por sombras.

De-escalating conflict and creating safe spaces for dialogue

En este artículo se abordan los retos y los procesos para desescalar los conflictos y proporcionar espacios seguros para el diálogo. Se presenta la importancia del análisis tanto del contexto como del conflicto, así como los marcos pertinentes. Se discuten varios supuestos de la praxis de construcción de la paz, destacando principalmente la distinción entre los procesos de conflicto adversariales y la resolución de problemas cooperativa, colaborativa y despolitizada. A continuación, el artículo ilustra el concepto de «investigación-acción como espacio seguro para el diálogo», como opción para desescalar el conflicto al tiempo que se convocan y sostienen actividades de diálogo. El artículo presenta un breve estudio de caso sobre un diálogo de investigación-acción llevado a cabo en Georgia, utilizando el marco de la teoría de las necesidades humanas. El artículo concluye sugiriendo que la idea de la investigación-acción como espacio seguro para el diálogo debería ser pertinente para abordar el conflicto y la violencia en América Latina con fines de transformación de conflictos y construcción de la paz.

Baltic and Polish Politicians in Exile and Their Vision of Post-War Peace Agreements in Eastern Europe, 1940–1945

The article examines two key topics: what vision the leading Baltic politicians in exile had of the post-war world order, and what vision Polish politicians in exile had of the post-war world order, specifically in terms of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and East Prussia. The main focus is on the Memel/Klaipėda question. The Vilnius question is also addressed to the extent that it is related to the Memel/Klaipėda question. This question is important for understanding the relations between Baltic and Polish émigré politicians during World War II. The article’s limited scope did not leave space for negotiations between the Soviet government and the Polish government-in-exile or between the Soviet government and the Lithuanian and Polish communists on the issue of East Prussia and Klaipėda. The article tries to avoid fundamental generalizations, and does not attempt to provide conclusive answers to many of the questions and problems that have arisen.

Connect, collaborate and tailor: a model of community engagement through infographic design during the COVID-19 pandemic

BackgroundAcross the globe, racial and ethnic minorities have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19 with increased risk of infection and burden from disease. Vaccine hesitancy has contributed to variation in vaccine uptake and compromised population-based vaccination programs in many countries. Connect, Collaborate and Tailor (CCT) is a Public Health Agency of Canada funded project to make new connections between public health, healthcare professionals and underserved communities in order to create culturally adapted communication about COVID-19 vaccines. This paper describes the CCT process and outcomes as a community engagement model that identified information gaps and created tailored tools to address misinformation and improve vaccine acceptance.MethodsSemi-structured interviews with CCT participants were undertaken to evaluate the effectiveness of CCT in identifying and addressing topics of concern to underserved and ethnic minority communities. Interviews also explored CCT participants’ experiences of collaboration through the development of new partnerships between ethnic minority communities, public health and academic researchers, and the evolution of co-operation sharing ideas and creating infographics. Thematic analysis was used to produce representative themes. The activities described were aligned with the levels of public engagement described in the IAP2 spectrum (International Association for Public Participation).ResultsAnalysis of interviews (n = 14) revealed that shared purpose and urgency in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic motivated co-operation among CCT participants. Acknowledgement of past harm, present health, and impact of social inequities on public service access was an essential first step in establishing trust. Creating safe spaces for open dialogue led to successful, iterative cycles of consultation and feedback between participants; a process that not only helped create tailored infographics but also deepened engagement and collaboration. Over time, the infographic material development was increasingly directed by community representatives’ commentary on their groups’ real-time needs and communication preferences. This feedback noticeably guided the choice, style, and presentation of infographic content while also directing dissemination strategies and vaccine confidence building activities.ConclusionsThe CCT process to create COVID-19 vaccine communication materials led to evolving co-operation between groups who had not routinely worked together before; strong community engagement was a key driver of change. Ensuring a respectful environment for open dialogue and visibly using feedback to create information products provided a foundation for building relationships. Finally, our data indicate participants sought reinforcement of close cooperative ties and continued investment in shared responsibility for community partnership-based public health.

Research protocol for bridging research, accurate information and dialogue (BRAID)-clinical trials: a mixed-methods study of a community-based intervention to improve trust and diversify participation in clinical trials.

Cultural beliefs, personal experiences, and historic abuses within the healthcare system-rooted in structural racism-all contribute to community distrust in science and medicine. This lack of trust, particularly within underserved communities, contributes to decreased participation in clinical trials and a lack of representation in the data. Open dialogue about community concerns and experiences related to research participation and medical care processes can help build trust and change attitudes and behaviors that affect community health. This protocol outlines an approach to increase trust in science and clinical trials among communities in the Bronx, New York that are typically underrepresented in research data. Bridging Research, Accurate Information and Dialogue (BRAID) is a two-phased, evidence-based community engagement model that creates safe spaces for bilateral dialogues between trusted community messengers, and clinicians and scientists. The team will conduct a series of BRAID Conversation Circles on the topic of clinical trials with local trusted community messengers. Participants will be members of the community who are perceived as "trusted messengers" and can represent the community's voice because they have insight into "what matters" locally. Conversation Circles will be audiotaped, transcribed, and analyzed to identify emergent challenges and opportunities surrounding clinical trial participation. These key themes will subsequently inform the codesign and co-creation of tailored messages and outreach efforts that community participants can disseminate downstream to their social networks. Surveys will be administered to all participants before and after each Conversation Circle to understand participants experience and evaluate changes in knowledge and attitudes about clinical trials, including protections for research participants the advantages of having diverse representation. Changes in motivation and readiness to share accurate clinical trial information downstream will also be assessed. Lastly, we will measure participants dissemination of codesigned science messages through their social networks by tracking participant specific resource URLs of materials and videos posted on a BRAID website. This protocol will assess the effectiveness and adoptability of an innovative CBPR model that can be applied to a wide range of public health issues and has the potential to navigate the ever-changing needs of the communities that surround health systems.