Participatory Action Research: A Protective Research Design

Author(s):  
Kate McPhaul ◽  
Jane Lipscomb

This commentary briefly reviews the ethical considerations for protection of workers participating in research. We argue that many IRBs may not fully understand the nature of collaborative and participatory research methods; consequently, this may delay IRB approval or worse, reduce the effectiveness of IRB oversight. A U.S. workplace participatory action research (PAR) project with which we are involved illustrates how researcher-worker-employer teams can navigate human subject oversight procedures (IRB approval). By design, successful and effective PAR projects incorporate, and often exceed the ethical principles espoused by current IRB principles.

1970 ◽  
pp. 85
Author(s):  
Dagny Stuedahl ◽  
Merethe Frøyland ◽  
Ingrid Eikeland

The research program Expand – Research in Norwegian Science Centers, (UtVite in Norwegian) was initiated as a collaboration between Inspiria Science Center, and three research partners in science education.1 The project collaboration has as its main objective to understand the role of science centers for young people’s engagement, interest and recruitment to science. Further, the aim of Expand is to explore research methods suitable for participatory action research approaches to design-based studies of learning in science centers. This is a presentation of the research design of Expand in the first funding period 2011–2016. 


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (3-2020) ◽  
pp. 267-278
Author(s):  
de Castro Pitano Sandro ◽  
Rosa Elena Noal ◽  
Cheron Zanini Moretti

The seventh conference of the Action Research Network of the Americas (ARNA) took place in Montreal, Canada, from the 26th to 28th of June, in 2019. Having as title “Repoliticising Participatory/Action Research: From Action Research to Activism”, the event gathered people from different areas of practice coming mostly from the North American countries: Canada, United States and Mexico. The discussion presented here is based on notes made by the authors in the course of the conference, in which 40 words/keywords were identified, serving as a base to debate the validity of the principles of participatory research and action research in its repoliticisation and activism. Thus, we presented a systematisation of some key themes of the conference, among them, the commitment with the rupture: in relation to the traditional practices of research, the role and the social responsibility of the universities and the transforming character of participation, with emphasis in the effort for its repoliticisation and activism.


Author(s):  
Richard Ball ◽  
Kerith Duncanson ◽  
Lee Ashton ◽  
Andrew Bailey ◽  
Tracy L. Burrows ◽  
...  

This study investigated the implementation model and research methods of a peer education program for new parents focused on infant feeding and nutrition. Two hundred and sixty-nine parents with an infant aged birth to two years old were invited to become co-researchers in a Participatory Action Research (PAR) study over three years. Data included focus group and online participant meeting transcripts, social media data, correspondence between the implementation team and peer educators, and field notes. All data were consolidated regularly and discussed by project participants and the research team. After each PAR cycle, structured content analysis was conducted, informing the next iteration of the implementation model and research methods. Participating parents were highly engaged in child feeding peer-to-peer education, but felt more effective and comfortable being considered as a child-feeding information resource sharer or ‘champion’ rather than a formal peer educator. Similarly, quantitative data collection was only effective when it was integrated seamlessly into the implementation model. PAR methodology suited the diversity and dynamic real-life study setting, facilitating substantial improvements to the peer nutrition intervention model and data collection methods. Our study demonstrated that a genuine collaboration between health professionals and participants to implement research in practice can achieve both intervention outcomes and research aims.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 52-71
Author(s):  
Chay Brown

Aboriginal people in Alice Springs mapped the safe places in their Town Camps. This participatory research led to the implementation of safety features. Safety mapping was developed in response to deficit-based research which pathologized Aboriginal people in Alice Springs. Safety mapping was conducted with Aboriginal people in Town Camps to identify safe places and improve safety. A strengths-based approach showed that problems and their solutions are known, and there are considerable safety assets within Town Camps. The safety mapping centred the voices and experiences of Aboriginal people to produce research that was of benefit to Town Campers, over which Indigenous people retained ownership. This paper highlights that an Indigenist approach to participatory action research is strengthened by Indigenous knowledge in driving social justice.


Author(s):  
Michelle Annette Meyer ◽  
Marccus Hendricks ◽  
Galen D. Newman ◽  
Jaimie Hicks Masterson ◽  
John T. Cooper ◽  
...  

Purpose Participatory action research can improve scientific knowledge and community capacity to address disaster resilience and environmental justice. Evidence from the literature suggests that resident participation enhances assessment of environmental risks, raises awareness and empowers residents to fight for equitable distribution of hazard and climate risk adaptations. Yet, risk assessment and urban planning processes still frequently operate within expertise-driven groups without significant community engagement. Such fragmentation results in part from a lack of appreciation for community expertise in built environment adaptations and educational tools to support resident involvement in the often technical built environment planning processes. Design/methodology/approach A participatory research and place-based education project was developed that enhanced co-learning between residents and researchers while collecting and analyzing local data on flood resilience in the built environment. Five research activities constitute the curriculum of resilience education on stormwater infrastructure: establishment of partnership agreement/memorandum of understanding, participatory GIS to identify flooding issues, water quality testing and health survey, stormwater infrastructure assessment and urban/landscape design. Partners included high school and college students, residents and environmental justice organizations. Findings Outcomes include a stakeholder-approved infrastructure assessment smartphone application, neighborhood maps of drainage issues, a report of water containments and neighborhood-scaled green infrastructure provisions and growth plans. Findings indicate that participatory research positively contributed to resilience knowledge of participants. Originality/value This paper outlines an interdisciplinary pedagogical strategy for resilience planning that engages residents to assess and monitor the performance of stormwater infrastructure and create resilience plans. The paper also discusses challenges and opportunities for similar participatory projects.


2012 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-40
Author(s):  
Luis Marcos ◽  
M. Rosales ◽  
Alexander Rödlach ◽  
John Stone

Applied anthropologists value participatory action research (PAR). In 2008, the Society for Applied Anthropology bestowed the 2008 Bronislaw Malinowski Award upon Orlando Fals-Borda, who is best known for developing the theory and methodology of this approach and his leadership in social and political activism on behalf of and with marginalized communities. Fals-Borda argues that PAR encourages value-driven and collaboratively-conducted research that transforms the relationship between marginalized communities and the organizations that serve them so as to improve their socio-political situation (Fals-Borda and Rahman 1991). Comparably, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality of the US Department of Health and Human Services has recognized the value of community-based participatory research for both researchers and the community being studied (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality 2004:1). The Agency has emphasized the importance of academic professionals and community members working together in community-based participatory research as equal partners in developing, implementing, and using research findings to improve local health and healthcare. Community-based participatory research and participatory action research share many features.


Author(s):  
Melvyn Zhang ◽  
Jiangbo Ying

Participatory action research was introduced in the 1960s and early 1970s, but it has only been more widely adopted in the recent years. Such methodologies have since been applied to several web & mobile-based interventions in psychiatry. To date no prior review has scoped the extent of the application of such methodologies for web & mobile-based interventions in psychiatry. In this article, a scoping literature review was performed, and seven articles have been identified. The most common methodologies are that of co-design workshops; and increasingly service users and participants are included in these workshops. There remains a lack of application of such methodologies for addiction research. Increasingly, attention and cognitive bias modification interventions are more commonplace, given that they have been found to be effective in modifying underlying biases amongst individuals with addictive disorders. Unfortunately, there remains to be inherent limitations with web and mobile versions of attention and cognitive bias modification interventions. Participatory design research methods could help address these limitations and future research involving the conceptualization of new attention or cognitive bias modification applications ought to consider the incorporation of these research methods.


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