Participatory Action Research

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Start date: 1971End date: 1979

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 15
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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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    Participatory research: A new methodology for adult educators?
    (National Center for Research in Vocational Education, 1979) Griffith, William S; Cristarella, Mary C
    Participatory research is a term which has been appearing within the past several years in international adult education conferences and which some commentators believe has the potential of redirecting research within the field of adult education. The International Conference on Adult Education and Development held in Dar-es-Salaam in June, 1976, proposed that "all adult educators should receive training in the theory and practice of participatory research as well as in complementary quantitative research techniques" (Dar-es-Salaam Design for Action, 1976, p.32). The UNESCO program action plan for 1977-1982 includes the support of future participatory research (Hurly, 1976). Cain states "the forces producing the demand for something called 'participatory research' are numerous and compelling" (Cain, 1977, p.7).
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    Investigating reality in order to transform it: The Colombian experience
    (Dialect Anthropology, 1979) Fals-Borda, Orlando
    There exist relatively few occasions, in the course of a lifetime, which provide the opportunity to confront processes of radical, social transformation. As a generation, it is our privilege to live this process today, and to do so with the advantages and disadvantages offered by contemporary development. It is also our responsibility, as members of a scientific community, to know how to interpret this process of change and derive from it the adequate information necessary for under-standing and catalysing this transformation so that we may help to construct the future.
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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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    Participatory research handbook for community groups
    (International Council for Adult Education, 1978-06) Barndt, Deborah; Conchelos, Greg; Etherington, Alan; Galindo, June; Hall, Budd L; Harasim, Linda; Jackson, Ted; Marino, Dian; Tobias, Kathy; Vigoda, Al; Correia, Dianne; Icaza, Bernardita; Mansfield, Jennifer
    This handbook is about doing participatory research in local groups and communities, prepared in 1978 by the Participatory Research Project Group at the International Council for Adult Education. It is written for community groups without the money, professional training, or institutional support that usually make research an exclusive activity. Three ideas run through the book: participatory research is a method of social interaction built on full community involvement, an educational process that raises awareness of local problems, and a means of acting on what the research finds. Control over how information is gathered, analyzed, and used is meant to stay with the community throughout. A circular model called the research puzzle organizes the handbook's practical sections, moving groups through knowing their situation, identifying resources and issues, gathering and understanding information, acting, and reflecting. A sample profile index built around a housing cooperative and six case studies from Canadian communities, unions, and cooperatives ground these ideas in practice. The authors call it a first draft and invite readers to help shape what comes next.
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    Breaking the monopoly of knowledge: research methods, participation and development
    (1977) Hall, Budd L
    Why do we undertake research, and in whose interests does it operate? In this essay, Dr. Budd Hall critically examines the dominant top down traditions of research in adult education and questions their claims to objectivity. He argues that conventional survey based approaches often extract information from communities while offering little in return. They produce knowledge that can be inaccurate, alienating, and detached from tangible social action. Engaging with radical educators and theorists such as Paulo Freire, Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss, Hall outlines the foundations of an alternative participatory research approach. This approach views knowledge as collectively produced and rooted in lived experience rather than imposed by external experts. Research, in this framing, becomes a process of dialogue, reflection, and action directed toward liberation and social transformation. The essay invites readers to reconsider the purpose of research itself and to imagine methodologies that expand human creative potential while challenging entrenched hierarchies of knowledge and power.
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    Participation, planning and international cooperation: reflections on the tanzanian experience
    (1975-05) Hall, Budd L
    What can development look like for a newly independent Third World nation? Emphasising the core principles of socialism and self-reliance, Dr. Budd Hall reflects in this paper on the directions Tanzania chose in making development planning participatory and in shaping its approach to international cooperation. Education is presented as fundamentally tied to national development, with its centrality illustrated through several case studies, including the Adult Education Network, the Man is Health campaign, and the Kwasisi Project. Through discussions of their motivations, processes, effects, and modes of evaluation, the article highlights how education functioned as a key instrument across multiple levels of development planning. Drawing on experience, historical insight, and policy analysis, the paper shows how Tanzania sought to situate its development efforts firmly within its stated principles while placing education at the centre of social transformation.
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    Evaluation of adult education in Tanzania: A status report
    (University of Dar es Salaam, 1971-02-13) Hall, Budd L
    Tanzania has placed significant focus on adult education, a commitment evident since the beginning of the Second Five Year Plan (1969–74). This report by Dr. Budd Hall emphasizes the need to evaluate the status of adult education in the country. The objectives of adult education programmes have been to teach basic reading, writing, and problem-solving skills to facilitate meaningful participation of young people in family life, community life and in the larger development of the nation. However, dropout numbers have remained high, and attendance rates continue to be low. The evaluation of these programmes has been divided into several components, including the assessment of baseline data, interim surveys, and technical surveys. This report explores the reasons why it is necessary to examine how effective these education programmes have been, what have been the shortcomings and how future efforts can be guided.
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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.