Participatory Approaches Practice Based Research Module 26 th November 2013

Participatory Action Research 1. is an approach to improving social practice by changing it is an approach to improving social practice by changing it 2. is contingent on authentic participation is contingent on authentic participation 3. is collaborative is collaborative 4. establishes self-critical communities establishes self-critical communities 5. is a systematic learning process is a systematic learning process 6. involves people in theorising about their practices involves people in theorising about their practices 7. requires that people put their practices, ideas and assumptions about institutions to the test requires that people put their practices, ideas and assumptions about institutions to the test 8. involves keeping records involves keeping records 9. requires participants to objectify their own experiences 10. is a political process 11. involves making critical analyses 12.starts smallstarts small 13.starts with small cyclesstarts with small cycles 14. starts with small groups 15. allows and requires participants to build records 16. allows and requires participants to give a reasoned justification of their social (educational) work to others (McTaggart 1989)

Increasingly Used Within Education

Levels of Participation Participants as a Data Source: characterised by data Participants as Active Respondents: characterised by discussion Participants as Co-Researchers: characterised by researcher-led dialogue Participants as Researchers - characterised by participantt-led dialogue Fielding’s (2001) Typology of Student Engagement (Cited in Raymond, 2001, p58)

FOUR KEY FACTORS FOR PARTICIPATORY RESEARCH First: willingness to expose one’s own genuine curiosity in an honest, open and empathetic way. Second: requirement, which is to suspend judgmental attitudes about young people beliefs or behaviours. Third: nurture young people’s curiosity and provide opportunities for them to present their own views. Fourth: be creative and flexible. (France Bendelow and Williams 2000: ). These characteristics are inter-related; curiosity necessitates withholding judgement, which is evidenced by flexibility, all of which are likely to increase children’s involvement

The Materiality of Participation The girls wanted to join in this activity, approaching it with almost more excitement than they had the original task of writing the stories. They had chosen to make a storybook over other options I presented. It was only while sewing that I realised what was important to them about making a storybook. It had more to do with the physical making, giving something form, than the story. While we sat sewing together I had a qualitatively different experience of what it was like to be with them, what kind of conversations we could have. It shifted the power dynamics. The activity of engaging with materials was different from an activity in which engaging with words was the central focus.

Fieldnotes on Process The very act of letting them handle the tools of research furthered the possibility of that understanding. Even if very playfully, they were getting some sense of what it was like to be in the researcher or the observer’s shoes, and this increased the daring of their questions. The boundaries within which they constructed this adult were changing, while the boundaries of what she considered children were also changing. Not only adult and child were reconstructed, but also the tools themselves and their use, underwent reconstruction. Much of this remained implicit.

References France, A., Bendelow, G. Williams, S. (2000) “A ‘risky’business’: researching the health beliefs of children and young people” in eds. Ann Lewis and Geoff Lindsay, Researching Children’s Perspectives, pp , Buckingham: Open University Press. McTaggart. R (1989) 16 Tenets of Participatory Action Research, The Third World Encounter on Participatory Research), Managua, Nicaragua, September 3 – 9, Oja, S. N. and Smulyan, L. (1989) Collaborative Action Research—A Developmental Approach, London: Falmer Press.