Engaging with and moving on from participatory research: A personal reflection

In this paper, I respond to the call to articulate experiences of the messy realities of participatory research. I reflect on my engagement and struggle with the realities and ethics of a piece of case study research, which set out with a participatory approach. The project involved a group of young people from an isolated rural community who appeared to be disconnecting from their secondary school. The research set out to develop understanding of the ways in which young people make connections (or not) in and with school, in order to further understanding of how schools might become more inclusive. A series of reflections on moments during the early stages of the research led to a significant shift in the methodological approach. The approach of this project eventually moved away from participatory research to an approach informed by Foucault's ‘ethical project’. Here, the focus is on the subjection and practices of the researcher. I argue that, on reflection, the ‘ethical project’ framework was more appropriate for this kind of research, where the complexities of participatory research were reducing the transparency of complex power structures.     

Teaching writing: a multilayered participatory scaffolding practice

This article adds to the research on teachers' writing pedagogy. It reviews and challenges the research literature on scaffolding as an instructional practice and presents a more inclusive framework for analysis. As student participation and voice were absent from much of the literature, a participatory scaffolding framework was developed to observe, analyse and interpret how one teacher and her primary school aged students co‐constructed learning to write. The case study revealed that the scaffolding interactions were complex, recursive and responsive to students' learning. The teacher wove multiple layers of scaffolding, encouraging student talk and metacognitive awareness, thus creating a 'magic space’ where minds could meet allowing negotiation and handover.     

Improving the output of agricultural extension and research through participatory innovation development and extension; experiences from Zimbabwe

Abstract

This paper describes the rationale for a change from conventional extension towards participatory innovation development and extension. The “Conservation Tillage Project” and the “Food Security Project” developed such an approach and have embarked on institutionalisation of this approach into the agricultural extension service in Masvingo Province in Zimbabwe. Dialogue with farmers, farmer experimentation and the strengthening of self-organisational capacities of rural communities are the major elements to improve development and spreading of innovations, thus the efficiency of extension. The new approach requires a role change of agricultural extension workers from teacher to facilitator as well as appropriate methods and tools. Elements of “Training for Transformation” and Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) were tested and developed and were found to be effective tools. The strategy to institutionalise participatory extension is based on joining efforts and networking with other organisations, a campaign to familiarise institutional staff and a training and follow-up programme for staff in the framework of organisational development.

The experiences show that the attitudinal change required to implement participatory approaches is highly depended on personalities. To have an impact on the change of attitudes a continuous mediumterm training process with a close follow-up is required. The paper concludes that institutionalisation of participatory approaches into hierarchically structured organisations is a highly complex intervention. In order to be successful, major changes in planning, implementation and monitoring and evaluation procedures are required. Changes of that nature require a process of at least 5 to 10 years and high commitment on the side of institutional staff on all levels and donors as well.     

Intervention fidelity in participatory research: a framework

ABSTRACT

In community interventions more generally, the concept of fidelity refers to the degree to which a program is delivered as intended. The present paper discusses ways in which fundamental aspects of participatory research challenge the concept of fidelity and differ from more traditional science-dominated approaches. We begin with a discussion of the fidelity concept and some of its strengths and limitations. We then discuss both social problems and proposed solutions as representing complex problems defying simple or permanent solutions. We suggest that three prominent aspects of participatory research highlight this complexity and pose challenges in assessing fidelity. First, in participatory research, the goal is not only scientific but also social action on a local issue as well. Second, the participatory process among varied partners is itself part of the intervention itself to be understood as affecting both processes and outcomes. Third, the goals of participatory research include community-level as well as individual-level changes. These issues are illustrated in a discussion of how culture is conceptualized and acknowledged in fidelity assessment. We conclude with some recommendations for approaching fidelty in participatory research in a way that appreciates its differences from more traditional paradigms underlying community interventions.     

Promoting a participatory convergence in a Spanish context: an inter-university action research project using visual narrative

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on the deconstruction of an inter-university action research project that has allowed us to rethink our teaching and research, questioning the social, political and ethical dimensions of the university. Following the pre-assembly proposal to promote participatory convergence, organized within the framework of the 1^st Global Assembly for Knowledge Democracy (2017), an action research process was implemented in order to generate systematic inquiry around the current situation of the university and the need to act and rethink our commitment to promoting changes in this context. We have reflected on the meaning of democratization, rethinking the pedagogical relationship with our students and how we critically commit them to promote activism. We generated an environment where we look for the meaning of our practices by means of a visual narrative which has enabled us to weave and identify our own biography and become aware of where we are and why we act in one way or another. We have also focused on the search for the meaning of our actions in relation to the community we belong to and how to deal with the challenges of social justice, encouraging collaboration with other networks in a wider inter-university framework.     

Principled challenges for a participatory discipline

The ideals that are central to action research are not often explicitly addressed in writing about action research and participation. This article argues for a more explicit dialogue about the ideals of participation and how those ideals relate to participatory practices. The lack of such a dialogue can obscure both the process of participation and the ends to which such processes are put. It offers a beginning to the conversation by drawing out the implications of five principles that underpin many of the justifications for participatory approaches, namely: community and community engagement, the change orientation of participatory research, issues of power and control, the ownership and construction of knowledge, and the combination of these principles as a form of critique of non-participatory approaches to research. The basis for, and critiques of, each of these principles are explored in turn. From these discussions a series of ‘participatory’ challenges are posed for the discussion of the participatory features of action research.     

Images and the ethics of inclusion and exclusion: learning through participatory photography in education

Participatory research methods directly engage with the topics that they set out to address. It is therefore no surprise that participatory research practice on the topic of educational inclusion and exclusion raises ethical issues for the participatory researcher that are themselves about inclusion and exclusion. This paper describes and analyses a pilot postgraduate course on the use of participatory photography in this area, and uses this analysis to illustrate the value of sensitive and reflexive participative research as a powerful educational practice. A multi‐ethnic and multinational group of students attended the course and explored the use of images as a qualitative research tool as a means to further developing their own sociocultural perspectives on inclusion. As a method, participatory photography was able to support students to represent their own perspectives on issues such as inclusion and diversity. Just as importantly, it facilitated inclusive teaching and learning, making it easy for students to take an active role in ongoing evaluation of the course and in devising their own assessment criteria. More significantly still, a deep exploration of practices of inclusion and exclusion was facilitated by the ethical issues that were raised and addressed during the research process.     

Ethical issues in listening to young children in visual participatory research

ABSTRACT

Ethical issues involving young children in research are complex and individual to each child, requiring the researcher to be reflexive and aware of the nature of the child’s participation. This paper draws on the experiences of 16 5- to 7-year-old children, transitioning from kindergarten to first grade in Chile as reported by them through visual participatory research. Integral to the ethical principles were the use of a visual participatory design, a listening framework and the child’s rights perspective. In order to be faithful to the research design proposed, different ethical guidelines were revised and followed to ensure protection, anonymity, the right to withdraw and privacy to the children deciding to get involved in the research process. Essential to this work was recognising the child as the most knowledgeable agent in her/his own experiences in order to minimise issues of power and increase children’s awareness during the data collection process. Findings from the study demonstrate different situations in which the researcher’s self-reflexivity can enhance positive outcomes related to ethical issues and young children’s ability to understand the research process, communicate meanings and jointly create new meanings through the tools provided and activities proposed. Ethical challenges and implications for future research with children are discussed.     

Evaluation of farmer participatory extension programmes

Purpose: Participatory extension programmes are widely used to promote change in the agricultural sector, and an important question is how best to measure the effectiveness of such programmes after implementation. This study seeks to understand the current state of practice through a review of ex post evaluations of participatory extension programmes.

Design/methodology/approach: A systematic literature review of the peer-reviewed literature was undertaken to analyse the evaluations based on: (i) year of publication; (ii) location of the study; (iii) programme delivery; (iv) evaluation methods; (v) outcome variables; and (vi) inclusion of evaluation in initial programme design.

Findings: The review finds that almost all studies use an experimental or quasi-experimental research design (i.e. using a control group or counterfactual), but some studies do not account for endogeneity or selection bias. Furthermore, only a small number of the evaluations were planned as part of the original programme design, which causes difficulties in obtaining robust counterfactuals. The review also finds that relatively few evaluations, approximately 20%, measure the programme impact on environmental outcomes and only 15% of the evaluations have been undertaken for programmes in developed countries.

Practical implication: Limitations with current evaluation practice are identified, and recommendations are provided for improving practice, including better treatment of endogeneity, and the complementary use of qualitative data.

Theoretical implication: The review provides a contribution to the debate about the use of quantitative versus qualitative evaluation methods, by addressing the use of both quantitative and qualitative evaluation methods in a complementary way.

Originality/value: Despite their widespread implementation, this is the first systematic literature review for published evaluations of participatory extension programmes in the agricultural sector.     

Multiple methodologies: using community-based participatory research and decolonizing methodologies in Kenya

In this project, we examined the development of a sustainable inclusive education system in western Kenya by combining community-based participatory research (CBPR) and decolonizing methodologies. Through three cycles of qualitative interviews with stakeholders in inclusive education, participants explained what they saw as foundational components of how to create more inclusive primary school classrooms utilizing existing school and community resources. The combination of CBPR and decolonizing methodologies, along with other project factors ultimately led to more inclusive placements for primary students with disabilities. We highlight this increase enrollment of students with disabilities in primary schools with excerpts from qualitative interviews with participants. In addition to the increase of the number of students with disabilities accessing schools for the first time, we found many methodological tensions inherent in this research. Such challenges included: researcher positionality, researcher outsider status, decolonizing approaches to language, and disseminating results in meaningful, ethical, and culturally appropriate ways.     

Breaking through boundaries with PAR – or not? A research project on the facilitation of participatory governance through participatory action research (PAR)

ABSTRACT

In this paper, two researchers reflect on the institutional space for participatory governance in a participatory action research (PAR) process that was initiated by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (ECS) in the Netherlands. It was implemented in two schools by researchers contracted by the ministry. The project’s aim was to explore possibilities for involving schools in policy processes using PAR. We conclude that PAR sheds light on the communication strategies, power and authority balances, and meaning of participation among the participants. The attempt to break through traditional hierarchies generated new insights into the institutional space at both the participating schools and the government institutions that can be used to create participatory approaches to governance. The researchers were the bridging actors between the schools and the government institutions. While previous research showed that a bridging actor can play a positive role as an objective party who is able to deliberate between the participants, we found that it impeded the creation of a participatory governance space.     

Primary schoolchildren's experiences of participatory theatre in a heritage site

There is a growing need for articulation of the theoretical framework underpinning performance as a learning medium in heritage sites and for an in-depth insight into the children's experiences therein. The aim of this paper is to explore some of the themes that emerged from researching participatory theatre in a historic house as experienced by two primary school groups. The methodology drawing upon the principles of participatory research with children and a constructivist theoretical framework employed interviews, observations and drawings as data generation methods to explore the children's individual and collective experiences. The research findings underline the interplay between the events' theatrical and interpretive format and advocate the significance of children's co-authorship of such events.     

How does community matter? Misrecognition and the participation agenda for children in socially disadvantaged communities

Participatory research with young people has enjoyed a decade of sustained development including the development of a range of embodied and visual methodologies. Much of this has been in the service of a participatory citizenship agenda, as articulated in the Every Child Matters agenda in England, in the work of the UK's Children's Commissioners and through service provider commitment to consultation with young people more generally. However throughout this period there has also been a sustained critique of the UK Government's citizenship agenda for young people, and consequently of the role of participatory research and consultation processes within this. Much of this critique questions what kind of citizenship young people are being asked to participate in, juxtaposing the construction of ‘inclusive’ participatory spaces with an increasingly stratified and exclusionary context for participation in the social and economic arenas of society. This article reflects on this debate using material from a two-year ethnographic project with a small group of year six and seven primary school girls from a Scottish urban area long designated as having a high concentration of people struggling with socio-economic disadvantage and exclusion. The project blended the more traditional ethnographic approach of observation and reflection with a series of participatory activities with the group. These activities took place within an after school club which they named ‘Community Matters’. This article examines the various activities of the club and the differing meanings of and associations with ‘community’ that the girls depicted and discussed. These situated meanings are then contrasted to the assumptions that underpin children's role within the evaluation systems that govern services to children.     

The emancipatory potential of transformative mixed methods designs: informing youth participatory action research and restorative practices within a district-wide school transformation project

ABSTRACT

This paper considers the emancipatory potential of incorporating youth participatory action research (YPAR) and restorative practices (RP) implementation into a transformative mixed methods study design as a means to create equitable and caring school systems for marginalized youth. The utilization of transformative mixed methods research offers a methodological orientation to legitimize, illuminate, and prioritize perspectives from marginalized youth that may be undervalued, decontextualized, and oversimplified in traditional quantitative and qualitative research methodologies. Furthermore, the authors suggest that YPAR and RP align with Critical Theory and Quantitative Criticalism, which are theoretical and methodological frameworks consistent with the transformative paradigm. The integration of these various theoretical, methodological and applied frameworks provides researchers opportunities to flatten hierarchies and actively engage marginalized youth to address the structural and programmatic inequities they experience in schools. Informed by the authors’ multi-year university-school district action research partnership, this paper explores how the alignment of YPAR, RP, and transformative mixed methods may promote critical consciousness amongst students, families, staff, and administration in schools. Finally, we also demonstrate how social science researchers can blend YPAR, RP, and transformative mixed methods design to partner with school districts to address structural societal problems, such as racism and inequity.     

Doing student voice work in higher education: An exploration of the value of participatory methods

This paper will review the existing student voice work in higher education and critique its current weaknesses, particularly in relation to conceptualisations of and commitments to participation, transformation and empowerment. It will be argued that the employment of participatory methods in higher education student voice work offers a way to address these weaknesses. The potential of participatory methods is illustrated and discussed using two case examples drawn from one higher education institution in the UK. The first case provides an illustration of what is called ‘transformation of the familiar’, while the second case provides an illustration of empowerment, through recognising the importance of what is not voiced by students, as much as what is voiced. It is concluded that whilst a participatory approach to student voice work in higher education has potential, further work is required in order to evaluate the long‐term impact of projects that use such methods.     

The impact of a class visit to a participatory science museum exhibit and a classroom science lesson

Cognitive and affective outcomes of a class visit to a participatory science museum were examined by comparing responses of 416 fifth and sixth graders randomly assigned to four conditions (control, exhibit only, lesson only, and exhibit followed by lesson) and two tests (verbal and visual). Students visiting a simple machines exhibit scored higher on a test of science content than the control group, but lower than the group attending a classroom lesson in the museum. The study did not demonstrate conclusively a cognitive advantage of having the exhibit experience prior to the lesson. Scores on the visual test were consistently higher than scores on the verbal test. Study findings indicate that the particular strength of the science museum exhibit lies in the affective domain. Students found the exhibit much more enjoyable, interesting, and motivational than a classroom lesson. Implications of the findings for science education are discussed.     

Using participatory action research to address absenteeism

Many urban high schools serving low-income families have below-average attendance rates, which can indicate that fewer students are prepared to matriculate into college and career opportunities. Through the use of participatory action research (PAR), we – a group of four educators at Wilson High School – have changed school policies and procedures in order to address our school's most problematic behavior: students cutting class. Through the processes and outcomes that our group, the Class Cutting Task Force, has experienced, we have called upon action learning (AL) in our focus on practical and experienced problems, and we have learned an important lesson: without clear and consistent school-wide expectations, our students cannot meet their potentials. Additionally, we have become empowered to drive a school-wide improvement initiative from the ground up by using the four-stage PAR process. It is our experience with the PAR process as a method of engagement in AL for school practitioners that we aim to share in this account of practice.     

FOCUS ON PRACTICE: Inclusion and museums: developing inclusive practice

Recent policy on inclusion has had an impact on the development of museum galleries and related educational provision. Museums are used as learning organisations and, as such, need to consider how to create an inclusive environment. However, inclusive provision for people with learning difficulties in museums tends to be isolated and small scale, lacking the formal structure found within schools. While much can be learnt from the development and evaluation of practice in schools, there is little research or published literature that explores the inclusion of people with learning difficulties in museums. This article, by Hannah Shepherd, Exhibition Co‐ordinator at Freeman College in Sheffield, analyses an example of a specific exhibit within a gallery development. This example reflects an approach that uses guidance from the literature to create a more inclusive experience for visitors, particularly those with learning difficulties. A case is made for the use of consultation and partnership to develop inclusive museum provision.     

Communities of practice and participatory action research: the formation of a synergy for the development of museum programmes for early childhood

This study explores the integration of two key ideas and working frameworks: a community of educational practice formed by the synergy between a natural history museum and a university department of pre-school education, which undertook participatory action research aimed at the creation of innovative museum programmes for young children. Data analysis and the evaluation of the research process show that the community was able to bring its situated knowledge into question and interrogate propositional knowledge by means of re-evaluating the learning targets, the nature of children’s activity, the nature of interaction between adults and learners, and the nature of resources used in existing and newly designed programmes offered to young children. Participatory action research enabled the community to monitor the implementation of theory with scientific rigour and formulate a new ‘knowledge strategy’, which in theoretical terms will guide future developments.     

Conceptualizing effectiveness in disability research

Policies promoting evidence-based practice in education typically endorse evaluations of the effectiveness of teaching strategies through specific experimental research designs and methods. A number of researchers have critiqued this approach to evaluation as narrow and called for greater methodological sophistication. This paper discusses the value and complexity of working within and against the experimental research model in disability research by simultaneously engaging in inclusive research practices. A study is presented to support the discussion using case examples of researching on/for/with young people diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. The study incorporated a single-case research design to investigate the impact of an educational practice. The investigation was co-constructed and co-evaluated by students, parents and teachers to consider multiple pathways and perspectives on the intervention's impact on students' progress towards their goals. Deleuzian thinking was employed as a framework for producing different forms of knowledge and to help negotiate the tension existing between the processes of experimental and inclusive research. The study is both complicit with and a critique of traditional research approaches, by working partially within the experimental and inclusive models and reflecting on the benefits and limitations of each.