Participatory Research

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://knowledgedemocracydspace.com/handle/123456789/1075

Browse

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 10 of 12
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    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.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Creating Knowledge: A Monopoly? Participatory Research in Development
    (Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), 1982-06) Hall, Budd L; Gillete, Arthur; Tandon, Rajesh
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The democratization of the production of knowledge
    (1988-05-03) Hall, Budd L
    Dr. Budd L. Hall delivered the opening address at a participatory research workshop held at the University of Calgary in May 1988. In this address, he reflects on his journey in participatory research, beginning with his work in Tanzania in the early 1970s, where he met Paulo Freire, to his role in founding the International Participatory Research Network in 1977. By the time of the address, he headed the International Council for Adult Education. . Participatory research is framed through three connected dimensions: a theoretical grounding aimed at building popular hegemony rather than serving ruling classes, an epistemological understanding of knowledge formed through the interaction of research, education and action, and a political practice built on working directly with communities. Feminist, Indigenous, and worker perspectives run through the address, including a Montreal poultry workers' union that studied its own workplace health conditions instead of relying on outside experts, illustrating that there are many ways of knowing beyond formal Western science. John Gaventa's observation appears too that social movements often falter either by rejecting research altogether or by depending too heavily on outside experts. A six-step method developed by Joao Francisco de Souza runs from context and justification through to the collectivization of the knowledge produced. Participatory research is presented, in the end, as a difficult but necessary strategy within the larger struggle over who controls knowledge and power
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Global foundations of community based research
    (0000) Tandon, Rajesh; Hall, Budd L
    This paper by Dr. Budd Hall and Dr. Rajesh Tandon looks back at the origin of participatory research, tracing its evolution from the late 1970s when a small network of like-minded researchers and activists across Toronto, New Delhi, Dar es Salaam, the Netherlands, and Caracas began to challenge the foundations of conventional social science research. It highlights how this early movement grew into a globally recognized approach to knowledge creation and social change. The paper examines the emergence of international and regional networks, the establishment of Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), and the development of participatory methodologies aimed at social transformation. It also reflects on the challenges participatory research faced in gaining acceptance within academia, where researchers and practitioners often struggled to bridge differences in perspective and practice. Significant developments, including the 1997 Cartagena Congress, the launch of GACER, and the 2012 UNESCO Co-Chairs appointment, marked important steps toward broader recognition. The paper argues that years of participatory research work have slowly changed how knowledge is understood, who gets to produce it, in what settings, and in whose interest. For Hall and Tandon, this shift connects directly to current conversations about knowledge democracy and what higher education institutions owe to the communities around them.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Participatory research: Canadian adult educators build a global movement
    (0000) Hall, Budd L; Jackson, Edward T
    What role did Canadian adult educators play in shaping one of the most significant global research movements of the twentieth century? In this chapter, Dr. Budd Hall and Edward T. Jackson trace the history and evolution of participatory research as a major approach in adult education and community-engaged scholarship. The Participatory Research Group was founded in 1976 at OISE and was the Canadian node of the International Participatory Research Network. The group worked with labor, Indigenous organizations, immigrant associations, women’s groups, and other community-based organizations. It also describes important transformations in institutions, including the creation of international research networks, the expansion of community-university partnerships, and the emergence of programs like the Community-University Research Alliances (CURA) and UNESCO-supported initiatives that promote knowledge democracy. The chapter concludes with an analysis on lessons learned from five decades of practice and a reaffirmation of the ongoing relevance of participatory research for the advancement of equity, democratic participation, and socially responsive forms of education.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    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.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    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.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Participatory research: An approach for change
    (International Council for Adult Education, 1975) Hall, Budd L
    How can research be imagined as an educational and transformative process rather than an extractive one? In this reflective essay, Dr. Budd Hall examines the shortcomings embedded within dominant principles of social science research. Drawing from his experiences as a researcher and his interactions with local education officers in the 1970s, he reflects on how research practices often alienate communities from the very processes meant to understand them. The essay explores key concerns around the ideological foundations of research, the ways in which social problems are oversimplified, and the distance from adult education principles. In doing so, it invites researchers to reimagine research as a dialectic, dialogic and ongoing educational experience which is oriented towards the liberation of human creative potential rather than the production of “neutral” knowledge.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    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.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Creating knowledge: Breaking the monopoly
    (1982) Hall, Budd L