Inner City Kids: Adolescents Confront Life and Violence in an Urban Community

Chapter 1. Participatory Action Research

1 ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ Participatory Action Research PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH emerged during the 1960s and 1970s as a social, educational, and political movement aimed at transforming the daily realities of people living in developing countries (FalsBorda and Rahman 1991). Its roots can be traced back to Latin America where, in the 1960s, social scientists were engaged in collaborative processes of investigation, education, and action with poor and oppressed groups with the ultimate goal of transforming societal structures so as to improve the lives of those involved (Hall 1981). Over the next two decades, PAR projects were conducted in various parts of the world, for example, in Tanzania by Swantz (1982a), Mduma (1982), and Mbilinyi (1982); in Botswana by Kidd (see Kraai, MacKenzie, and Youngman 1982); in Colombia by Fals-Borda (1985, 1987); in Venezuela by Vio Grossi (1980); in Peru by de Wit and Gianotten (1980); and in India by Tandon (1981) and Kanhare (1980). In these and other countries, researchers collaborated with local people in the development of programs that addressed issues such as literacy, agriculture, technology, water supply and sanitation, grain storage, migration, and economic reform (Jackson, Conchelos, and Vigoda 1980). In North America, educators and researchers were also engaged in PAR, as evidenced in and through multiple projects designed to address a number of social and community issues (see, for example, Chataway 1997; Forester, Pitt, and Welsh 1993; Gaventa 1988; Gaventa and Horton 1981; Hall 1977, 1993; Horton 1981; Maguire 1987; McIntyre 1997; Park, Brydon-Miller, Hall, and Jackson 1993). Additionally, scholars and researchers in the health field developed multiply diverse research projects throughout the world, employing PAR to examine mental health in the context of state-sponsored violence (Lykes 1994, 1997), women’s health in India (Khanna 1996), AIDS intervention in South Africa (PrestonWhyte and Dalrymple 1996), and methodological issues in the study of sexuality in Bombay, India (George 1996). Practitioners of PAR draw from a variety of theoretical perspectives. Marx and Engels, both of whom engaged in participatory approaches to social class struggles, have contributed to looking at people themselves as catalysts for change—a hallmark of participatory action research (Hall 1981). Similarly, Gramsci’s participation in class struggles and his identification of workers as “organic intellectuals” resonates with an underlying tenet of PAR, which posits that people have the potential to be community organizers and create knowledge that leads to action (Selener 1997). In addition, Paulo Freire’s (1970, 1973, 1985) emphasis on thematic investigation within the teaching-learning process, his theory of conscientization, and his belief in critical reflection as essential for individual and social change have contributed significantly to the development of participatory action research. Feminist theories have also informed the field of PAR with perspectives that have evolved out of a refusal to accept theory, research, and ethical perspectives that embody firmly entrenched double standards for men and women. Accounting for the multiple positionalities of women makes a significant contribution to the field of PAR where much of the literature continues to retain a largely androcentric analytic framework in which women and gender issues are not always central. Finally, critical theory, which grapples “with the central questions facing groups of people differently placed in specific political, social, and historical contexts characterized by injustice ” (Collins 1998:xiv) has contributed significantly to the way practitioners of PAR think about people and their lived experiences. A wide range of research practices and an equally wide range of political ideologies frame PAR projects. However, there are some underlying tenets that are specific to PAR and that distinguish it from other research 14 ❙ Participatory Action Research approaches: first, a collective commitment to investigate an issue or problem ; second, a desire to engage in self- and collective reflection in order gain clarity about the issue under investigation; and third, a joint decision to engage in individual and/or collective action that leads to a useful solution which benefits the people involved. These aims are achieved through a cyclical process of exploration, knowledge construction, and action at different moments throughout the research process. When all these elements are working in tandem and when the participants believe they have a stake in the overall project, PAR becomes a living dialectical process which changes the researcher, the participants, and the situations in which they act (McTaggart 1997). The members of the research team and the young people participating in this project engaged in a dialectical consciousness-raising experience...