Psych 409a: November 27, 2006
Participatory Action Research
By: Kirk Ishida
Instructions for this activity are found at:
http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy25/g25-oral1.htm
Instructor: Dr. Leon James
Peter
Rothe, editor (2002). Driving Lessons: Exploring
Systems That Make Traffic Safer. (
I. Participatory Action Research (PAR)
a. Social and practical form of inquiry
b. Way of thinking and acting that support evidence base conversations design to bring many social changes
c. Characteristics
i. Individual are no longer marginalized
ii. Teacher and student must negotiate what counts as knowledge
iii. Individuals are empowered
1. they get to choose issues that are important
iv. involves working collaboratively and cooperate with others
v. promotes individual growth
vi. inquiry invite use of multiple perspectives
vii. focuses on informing local practices
viii. educative
d. is a form of inquiry that integrates ideas and practices from a variety of diff disciplines
i. inquiry the aid of asking: a search for knowledge and truth
ii. we make an existing action or practice problematic
iii. involve those who could or should be involved
e. Participatory Action Research applied to traffic safety
i. 7 key questions as a practical moral and meaningful guide for doing collaborative and reflective inquiry
1. What are we researching?
a. Problematize the situation
b. Pose good questions
2. Why are you doing the research
a. Understand why you are doing the research
b. Part of understanding why you are doing something is to understand who it is for
3. What difference will your research make
a. Important to consider what difference your research will make
b. Challenges people to be to be producers of knowledge
4. Should you do the research
a. Understanding of the problem
b. Think of the right of others and trust is required to do the research
5. How can you make your research scientific and comprehensive
a. Create a plan in advance
b. Ensure you have good support
c. Consider using complementary data sources or research methods
d. Keep questions in mind when analyzing data
e. Consider using innovative strategies for different audience
6. What are the equity issues related to your research
a. Make your research fair and bias free for all
7. How can your research improve the situation
a. The goal of research is action
Links:
http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/gcm/ar/ari/p-ywadsworth98.html This website talks about what is Participatory Action Research and it goes into detail about it. It also has some cartoons to help us understand it and provides humor.
http://www2.fhs.usyd.edu.au/arow/arer/004.htm is another site that defines Participatory Action Research as well as sharing the methods.
http://www.caledonia.org.uk/par.htm is a simpler website that separates each of his points so you can obtain the basic information. For people that want basic information should look at this site.
My Homepage: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/409af2006/ishida/ishida-home.htm
Class Homepage: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy25/classhome-g25.htm