Participatory Action Research

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://knowledgedemocracydspace.com/handle/123456789/1074

Browse

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4

Background document for the University of Victoria Task Force on civic engagement
(University of Victoria, 2017-09-15) Dragne, Cornelia
The purpose of the report is to identify and review the best strategies used by other universities to coordinate their civic/community engagement practices, as they are reflected in the literature dedicated to the topic. The focus of the report is on North American universities. The report seeks to: 1)present a brief background on university-community engagement 2)identify universities that promote civic/community engagement, case studies of coordinating models in place 3)identify evaluation methodologies 4)identify principles and structures that could serve as a model for UVic, lessons learned and recommendations in the literature.
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.
Early childhood care and development programs as hook and hub for community development: Promising practices in first nations
(University of Victoria, 2004) Ball, Jessica
This report traces a year-long investigation into how Lil'wat Nation, Tl'azt'en Nation, and six First Nations of the Treaty 8 Tribal Association built their capacity to deliver early childhood care and development programs rooted in their own cultures and languages. Working with the University of Victoria's School of Child and Youth Care, these communities trained members through a two-year post-secondary program and went on to establish child-care and Aboriginal Head Start services on reserve. Four years after training ended, nearly all graduates were working in their home communities, and every program had grown, with waitlists and plans for expansion. The report follows what made these transitions succeed, from community-driven training design to long-term investment and strong governance. It also outlines the "hook and hub" model, where childcare draws families in and then connects them to wider health, cultural, and social supports, offering promising practices for other Indigenous communities pursuing similar goals.
Looking back, looking forward: Reflections on the origins of the international participatory research network and the participatory research group in Toronto, Canada
(1997) Hall, Budd L
In this article, Dr. Budd Hall looks back on the early history of the International Participatory Research Network, founded in 1976 in association with the International Council for Adult Education. He traces his own path into the work through years spent in Tanzania, where Julius Nyerere's ideas on self-reliance, Marja Liisa Swantz's participant research, and a 1971 visit from Paulo Freire shaped his understanding of research as an act of solidarity rather than a neutral exercise. He describes the 1975 special issue of Convergence that first drew together scattered efforts around the world, the 1977 Cartagena conference with Orlando Fals Borda and other Latin American scholar-activists, and the network's founding commitment to autonomous, horizontally organised nodes across Toronto, New Delhi, Dar es Salaam, the Netherlands, and Caracas. He then considers what role universities should play in a field built on breaking the academy's monopoly over knowledge production and reflects on the structural pressures that work against genuine collaboration between academics and communities. The article closes by asking whether participatory research might extend further, toward co-creating knowledge with the rest of nature.