scholarly journals Action research with young people: possibilities and ‘messy realities’

Author(s):  
Barry Percy-Smith ◽  
Morena Cuconato ◽  
Christian Reutlinger ◽  
Nigel Patrick Thomas

This paper reflects on our experiences of using participatory action research (PAR) with young people as part of an EU H2020 project exploring the spaces and styles of youth participation in formal, nonformal and informal settings. The paper outlines key tenets of action research and provides a brief review of the literature concerning the use of PAR in youth research. Drawing on three case studies, we provide an honest account of some of the messy realities involved in realising the promise of participatory action research in practice. The central focus is on how the action research played out in practice, the challenges of undertaking PAR within the context of a funded project with predefined deliverables, the power relationships between researchers and young people and how agendas are negotiated in action research. We conclude with some critical reflections on lessons learnt, highlighting the importance of acknowledging the exploratory nature of PAR and the critical role of the researcher as facilitator.

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 76-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Van Wijnendaele

Based on research with poor young people about the empowering impact of participatory action research (PAR), this article points to the role of emotions in confirming or subverting processes of oppression. Although participatory action research increasingly recognises emotion as part of social research, I argue that PAR is still very much associated with reflection and structured representation as key to empowerment and change. There is still relatively little attention to how our ordinary, everyday emotions mediate processes of oppression or resistance, and to the importance of changing how we feel as an act of resistance.


KWALON ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Famke van Lieshout ◽  
Gaby Jacobs ◽  
Shaun Cardiff

Action research in lifestyle research is no sinecure. Response to Kromme et al.: ‘Changing together is learning together’, a participatory action research project This is a reply to the contribution entitled: ‘Learning together is changing together: A participatory action research project on the role of the internist in promoting a healthy lifestyle’. Here the authors highlight the complexity of facilitating participatory action research (PAR) in a clinical practice setting and reflect on the first three stages of their research through eight principles that could guide PAR, as described by Van Lieshout et al. (2017). As we developed these principles, we explain the principles of participation, reflexivity, contextuality and transformation in greater detail in relation to the context of this study. The authors made suggestions to change the five-phased model of PAR to get a better grip on the process. The authors rightly highlighted some limitations in the labeling of some phases. However, it is the reflexivity on the multiple perspectives that facilitators encounter and the relationships they engage with during the process, as well as acknowledging the iterative process of PAR, which needs to be embraced and experienced during the entire process of study.


Author(s):  
Marjorie Mayo

Governments have supported popular education initiatives in the past. And so have community organisations and social movements. But the spaces for popular education have been shrinking in recent times, as part of the impact of neo-liberal globalisation. Public services have been increasingly subjected to pressures from market forces, pressures that have impacted on community-based education and lifelong learning. Despite these wider pressures, educators have continued to find spaces and places for popular education and participatory action research, however, working across sectors in a variety of contexts. The chapter includes examples of innovatory approaches in both formal settings and informal settings (such as libraries and community centres) including examples from both Northern and Southern American contexts.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Liegghio

While globally advances have been made to recognize children as social actors in their own right, for psychiatrized young people their experiences of distress are often seen as a limitation and thus used as a justification for denying their meaningful participation in matters of concern to their lives. However, what would it mean if ‘mental illness’ was not seen as a ‘limitation’, but rather as an ‘epistemological position’ from which the social world is experienced, understood and acted upon? What would it mean if our theories about ‘distress’ and ‘helping’ were premised on the subjugated knowledges of psychiatrized children and youth? The consumer/survivor-led research movement has made significant gains in answering these questions for the adult, but not necessarily for the child and youth mental health field. The purpose of this article is to critically examine the significance of psychiatrized young people setting and executing their own research and, ultimately, practice agendas. Presented are the outcomes of an evaluation of a participatory action research project examining the stigma of mental illness conducted with seven psychiatrized youth, 14 to 17 years old. The outcomes suggest our roles as practitioners and researchers need to shift from being ‘agents’ working on behalf of to ‘allies’ working in solidarity with young people to change the social conditions of their marginalization. The article concludes with the limits of consumer/survivor-led research for addressing adultism and, instead, ends with a call for decolonizing children’s mental health.


2018 ◽  
Vol Volume 9 ◽  
pp. 121-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Lea ◽  
Ana Martins ◽  
Sue Morgan ◽  
Jamie Cargill ◽  
Rachel Taylor ◽  
...  

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 282-301 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alejandra Boni ◽  
Aurora López-Fogués ◽  
Gynna Millán ◽  
Sergio Belda-Miquel

The aim of this paper is to analyse participatory video as a participatory action research method through the lenses of the capability approach. In order to do this, we used a participatory video experience that took place in the municipality of Quart de Poblet (Valencia, Spain) from February to March 2014. The participants were 11 young people between 16 and 24 years of age, severely affected by the economic crisis that has hit Spain in recent years. To develop our analysis, we introduced the participatory video as a technique and a process within the participatory action research methods. Then, we analysed the participatory process to verify the extent to which it had contributed to expanding the capabilities and agency of the participants. The evidence revealed a significant expansion of the awareness capability and, in some cases, of the capability for voice. In contrast, the capability to aspire and the agency of the participants were not expanded, due to contextual factors and the limitations of the process itself.


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