Co-Construction of Knowledge

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Start date: 1978End date: 1979

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Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    Description of the methods of participation research
    (1978) Le Boterf, Guy
    The article describes a research method used to identify the basic educational needs of rural populations in six villages in Central America. The research method is an approach that combines experimental research with a participatory survey of the community to identify educational needs. The communities participated by defining the problems they were facing, discussing their situation, identifying their educational needs, and developing possible solutions. This is different from a typical survey, since community members were given an active role in the research activities. Moreover, they provided feedback and were actively involved in discussions at various stages of the study and research process. This allowed the researchers to discuss and analyse the results with the community and to use their feedback in understanding and addressing specific problems. The study began with an initial exploration of the community, followed by the identification and prioritisation of needs, setting educational goals, developing strategies, discussion with the community, and implementation of the strategies. Researchers and technical specialists acted as facilitators and educators rather than being the sole producers of knowledge. The study links research, education, and community action, which is intended not only to analyse the situation in the communities but also to contribute to solving the problems that were identified.
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    Conscientizing the evaluator
    (1979) Etherington, Alan
    This document aims to discuss the political and social aspects of the assessment of non-formal education and community programs. The text claims that social research and evaluation are intrinsically linked to politics since determining goals, methods, values, and priorities is inevitably connected to power relations. This document tries to demonstrate that traditional or dominant forms of research are intrinsically linked to oppressive social relations because they simplify social change, separate individuals from their environment, impose quantification, and favor evaluators. Therefore, it is essential to take a more emancipating approach that would allow the participants to realize their values, judgment, and power through reflective dialogues, reciprocal conversations, and shared learning. Moreover, Freire’s approach requires engaging in action research, understanding connections and interactions through the lens of oppression and power, asking who benefits and who loses from the research, and taking a holistic view of the object of research. The text also mentions that evaluators should make their assumptions and power positions over the communities assessed clear, as community projects seeking social change require critical awareness of how their evaluators contribute to the change.
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    Adult learning, global civil society and politics. October 15-17, 1997
    (1979-10-17) Hall, Budd L
    What role can adult education play in strengthening global civil society and advancing social transformation in an increasingly capital driven world? In this paper, Dr. Budd Hall situates this question within a context where globalisation has intensified the dominance of capital while deepening social, ecological and economic instability. He reflects on the contemporary political economy in which global markets appear powerful yet remain fragile and extractive. In response to this expansion of global capitalism, Hall posits that the presence and influence of global civil society have also grown, creating new spaces for resistance, cooperation and collective action. Engaging with debates on development, ecological crisis and democratic participation, and drawing on examples such as the 1992 Global Forum and emerging transnational networks, he examines how global citizens’ action is being shaped across diverse contexts. Hall invites readers to consider how more people can meaningfully contribute to these movements and emphasises the crucial role of adult educators in fostering critical awareness, building solidarities and deepening engagement with global civil society. He urges educators to remain clear that the world is not okay, and that adult education is essential for collective and transformative change.
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    Knowledge as a commodity and participatory research
    ( Prospects, UNESCO, 1979) Hall, Budd L
    What is knowledge? How is it formed? Who has the authority to “make” it? and who does it ultimately serve? These are the central questions Dr. Budd Hall raises in this article. He critiques the way traditional intellectuals such as scientists and scholars, often trained in elite universities and supported by international funding agencies, are institutionally positioned as the legitimate producers of knowledge. Embedded within particular class locations, this group often produces knowledge that serves its own class interests and maintains dominant social relations. In this process, organic intellectuals engaged in critical reflection and grassroots organising are sidelined as knowledge makers. Drawing on the works of Freire, Mao and others, Hall reflects on the role of intellectuals. He advances a systematic critique of survey research and outlines the guiding principles of participatory research. The article is a critical inquiry into the nature of knowledge within the new international order. It calls for moving beyond viewing knowledge as intellectual commodities such as papers and conferences and toward recognising and valuing local and indigenous knowledge systems, while developing more decentralised ways of legitimising people as producers of knowledge.
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    From clarity to anarchy: Participatory research approach (A critique of "The methodology of the participatory research approach")
    (1979) Tandon, Rajesh
    In this paper, Rajesh Tandon responds to a critique of a paper on the methodology of the participatory research approach, presented at the African Regional Workshop on Participatory Research in Tanzania in 1979. A central fallacy runs through the original argument that the wide range of political activism within PRA produces naive idealism and methodological adhocism. Participatory research is not an invention of the seventies; only its label is new, since people organising the rural poor had long practised its elements without naming them. Two vantage points inform the approach, the activist's and the professional researchers, and reconciling them forms the real challenge. Classical research confines inquiry to thinking alone, while PRA treats feeling and acting as equally valid modes of knowing. A genuine risk of subjective, superficial analysis remains, addressed through joint analysis between researcher and people. PRA's apparent anarchism reflects unfamiliarity and variety rather than incoherence.
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    Issues and experiences in participatory research in Asia
    (1979-06-25) Tandon, Rajesh
    In this paper Dr. Rajesh Tandon examines characteristics and issues of participatory research as practised across Asia during the late 1970s, drawing on meetings held in India and Thailand alongside field reports from researchers. Practitioners engaging with participatory research bring varied motivations, ranging from disillusioned social scientists seeking relevance beyond classical research paradigms to activists redirecting failed development strategies toward decentralized alternatives and educators treating research itself as a vehicle for social transformation. Rural settings dominate the Asian experience, reflecting both the scale of rural populations and the concentration of documented efforts in land, health, and adult education. The paper situates participatory research in close and often uncomfortable relation to social action, tracing the political consequences that follow from this link across varied Asian contexts. It also addresses the largely unorganized condition of underprivileged groups and the corresponding need to build organization alongside inquiry, along with the personal values and behavioural skills researchers need to genuinely facilitate participation rather than reproduce authoritarian patterns. The paper closes by treating these issues as unresolved questions for the ongoing evolution of participatory research in the region, rather than settled conclusions.