Resources

ActionAid-Pakistan: Annual Progress Report, January to December 1992

Authors: 
ActionAid-Pakistan
1993

Abstract

This report gives an overview of the work of ActionAid-Pakistan in 1992. The general section on programme work notes that a process is envisaged where PRA is used to facilitate the initial introduction to a community, leading to preliminary ideas from which to begin immediate entry point activities, to provide a basis for developing the programme further. An example is given of a PRA study whose aims were to elicit information about an area unfamiliar to staff and to develop understanding between ActionAid and the communities. The benefits of undertaking the introductory PRA are elaborated, which included community participation in project choice and facilitation of communication of ActionAid's ideas about proposed projects to villagers. The report includes a description of the programme area, local problems defined in the PRA and the initial programme objectives. The need to develop community management structures and monitoring and evaluation systems to ensure continuing community involvement is elaborated.

Publisher

Addressing the gaps or dispelling the myths?: participatory approaches in low-income urban communities

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Authors: 
Mitlin, D.
Thompson, J.
1994

Abstract

This overview article for a special issue of RRA Notes focusing on participatory tools and methods in urban areas introduces the papers included in the collection and highlights some of the key issues. It discusses the 'problem' of applying participatory approaches in urban communities, and compares participatory approaches in urban and rural areas. It finds that, despite clear economic, social and environmental differences between low-income rural and urban communities, they have many aspects in common. Rural and urban are inextricably linked, as the livelihoods of many low-income people depend on resources in both spheres. This reality is often obscured by the compartmentalisation of the development profession into 'rural' and 'urban' disciplines.

Africa AHEAD Training Tools

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Authors: 
Africa AHEAD
2020

Abstract

These tools include manuals and practical guides for project managers and trainers working mainly in eastern and southern Africa.

Topics include:

  • community-based environmental health promotion
  • promoting health in rural communities
  • school and community health clubs.

Aguacatán in Guatemala : how seven communities joined hands

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Authors: 
Ortiz
Fabián Gonón
et al
1999

Abstract

Account of how communities came together to harness water for themselves after failing to get water from state institutions and machinery. The article details how, with the help of an NGO, Agua del Pueblo, the communities devised a working mechanism which was participatory and democratic to manage their water resources and distribution.

Publisher

Alliances against poverty: DFIDs experience in Peru 2000-2005

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Authors: 
DFID
2005

Abstract

This resource pack is designed for anyone interested in poverty reduction in a context characterised by inequality and exclusion. DFID has focused on the political dynamics of poverty in Peru in order to address the underlying causes of inequality and exclusion. This has meant engaging with political processes, supporting new spaces for dialogue and participation, and working with and building alliances between state, society and the international community. This resource pack includes a book of reflections from DFID, its partners and other local and international voices highlighting lessons and key issues; a DVD looking at DFIDÆs work to strengthen accountability, build citizenship and institutionalise rights in Peru; and a CD-ROM containing a selection of material on DFIDÆs experience such as the book, a series of papers prepared for DFID on state-society relations, and key corporate documents e.g. DFIDÆs target strategy papers. Some of the main recommendations raised include issues for donors, such as addressing poor people as citizens with rights and responsibilities as a key means of tackling inequality and exclusion; working systematically with both the state and wider society to achieve more inclusive development; investing in alliances between those individuals and institutions that are committed to pro-poor reform; and acting openly, transparently and accountably in tackling this more political agenda.

Publisher

ALNAP's Global Study on Participation and Consultation of Affected Populations in Humanitarian Action: review of French literature

Authors: 
Dufour, Charlotte
2003

Abstract

This literature review is intended to complement the English and Spanish literature reviews carried out as part of the Global Study. Many of the issues and points of discussion raised in the English review were also noted or confirmed in the French literature. There are inevitable influences and overlaps between the various literatures, such that to make a clear distinction between the French, Spanish and English literature is, to a certain extent, artificial. However, it cannot be denied that there are some differences in approaches and emphasis, due to the predominance of certain schools of thought or institutional cultures. This paper emphasizes the differences by focusing on elements that were not yet necessarily covered by the other views, or that are addressed from a different angle. The objectives of the review are to clarify the concepts and definitions of terms related to participation and consultation in the French literature on development and humanitarian aid; present and analyse key debates around the concept and practice of participation; review lessons learned, recommendations, and manuals that can be useful for the elaboration of the Global Study Practitioner's Handbook and overview book; and illustrate the issues raised through case studies that are relevant to humanitarian action.

An Introduction to Paulo Freire and his Influence on Participatory Action Research

Authors: 
Fabio C. Campos
Gary L. Anderso
2022

Abstract

This is part of a series of chapter summaries of the Handbook of Participatory Research and Inquiry. 

Paulo Freire is celebrated worldwide for having developed literacy methods based on learners’ thematic universe and cultivating ways to promote social justice. Along his life, Freire contributed to shifting the paradigm of what counts as literacy – from basic reading and writing words to the development of sociocritical understandings of one’s lived experiences. There are numerous parallels between adult literacy and Participatory Action Research (PAR) initiatives, to which Freirean roots are central.

Together, both PAR and Freirean Literacy movements aim to create local autonomy and capacity for collective democratic participation, by providing to working-class participants knowledge and organizing skills. While participatory and action research traditions existed before Pedagogy of the Oppressed, first published in 1968, Freire’s work articulated the epistemological grounding for PAR as a liberatory praxis.

In Freirean inspired PAR, the academic research model is challenged at almost every point. The dualisms of macro/micro, theory/practice, subject/object, research/ teaching, are collapsed. Freire’s views on the transformative power of this form of inquiry are powerfully stated when he writes that “the silenced are not just incidental to the curiosity of the researcher but are the masters of inquiry into the underlying causes of the events in their world” (Freire, 1982. P. 30). A Freirean approach, which is grounded in popular education and adult literacy, insists on the ability to read the word and the world. 

Many of Freire’s ideas were developed during his literacy work with poor Brazilian workers, but they are relevant to his approach to PAR. A summary of how Freire's principles translate into participatory action research practices can be found in Table 1: 

Table 1: Freire’s key concepts and their influence on PAR methodologies.

Source: Author's elaboration

 
Freire's original principleHow it translates into PAR

Conscientização: 

Developing critical consciousness. A reflective and critical process that leads individuals to a state of “full humanity” and emancipation (Freire, 1970).

An expected result of PAR is the systematic consciousness-raising in its participants (Gajardo, 1982) through reflecting and engaging in creating alternative political, social and economic models (Lykes & Mallona, 2001).

Culture of Silence: 

The “state of being” of marginalized individuals who accept detrimental images of themselves and lack the ability or confidence to critically analyze their realities. May develop a fear of freedom (Freire, 1970). 

Acquiring a voice means gaining power. PAR is equated with acquiring the tools to activate one's “right to speak” (Lykes & Mallona, 2001). 

Thematic Research: 

Situated de-codification and creative re-codification of existential situations. Communities’ needs are used as primary materials for the educational practice (Shor, 2002).

Through a highly inductive process (Torres, 1992), PAR researchers gain access to the socio-historical and cultural universe of participants by understanding vernacular representations and local “ways of knowing” (Lykes & Mallona, 2001). 

Praxis:

Reflection and action – or thought and practice – are fused and directed at the structures to be transformed. The learning process is not neutral but geared towards acquiring knowledge and tools for interventions into reality (Freire, 1970).

PAR carries social and political intentionality and inquiry and action are integrated (Gajardo, 1982). The purpose of research is to make positive change by developing local knowledge through participation (Ospina et al., 2018; Dodge, Foldy & Hofmann, 2008). Mere awareness of reality is not enough (Schugurensky, 2014).  

Banking education:    

The anti-dialogical model of education that views learning as the depositing of knowledge onto students as blank slates. Implies a mechanistic transfer of information and a disregard for non-canonical forms of knowledge (Freire, 1970). 

PAR advocates for socially constructed knowledge and rejects a “heroic” understanding of the researcher (i.e., the researcher-subject who discovers the reality of participants-objects). Although concerned with validity, PAR moves away from positivist research orientations where objectivity and generalizability reign (Ospina et al, 2008). In PAR, the “other” is construed as a co-producer of knowledge (Brandão, 1999). 

Dialogical epistemology: 

Education is an inquiry process in which learning occurs through culturally situated and participatory dialogue. Teachers as learners and learners as teachers in a reciprocal process. Teachers as inquiry guides, dedicated to students’ humanization (Freire, 1970, 1996). 

Researcher and participants’ positionalities are interchangeable and may be organized horizontally (Herr & Anderson, 2015). Reciprocal collaboration and mutual inquiry happen between members of an “insider/outsider team” (Ospina et al, 2008). 

 

 

 

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