BOOK : Participatory Action Research (series 53) Alice Mclntyre, 2008

BOOK

Mclntyre, Alice, 2008, Participatory Action Research, Qualitative research method series 52, Sage California

4 February 2018

My summary

From this book, I learn to understand the principle of PAR with easy-language. Alice Mclntyre introduced PAR by explaining through two her projects. I learn about some important successful PAR and valuable skills within PAR : 1) Listening to learn and learning to listen, 2) building a trust through intensive dialogue and interaction, 3) practitioner is as a part of participant in PAR, 4) the participants were the “real knowers” of their lives and the primary actors to improve their conditions, 5) create a space for them to do what makes sense to and for them, not necessarily to and for us as the practitioner, 6) engaging participants consciousness-raising activities to construct “new ways of viewing their lives and new strategies for communicating their experience to others”

Important Direct Quotations

Three characteristics of PAR: the active participation of researchers and participants in the co-construction of knowledge; the promotion of self-and critical awareness that leads to individual, collective, and/or social change; and the building of alliances between researchers and participants in the planning, implementation, and dissemination of the research process. Pp ix

I describe how the participants of both projects became the primary actors in the research process, enhancing their understanding and knowledge of issues through individual and collective reflection and investigation. I then explore how the participants to action to improve their conditions, clarify information to outside communities, and gain a better understanding of the external circumstances that structure their lives. Pp ix

By engaging in that dialogue and participating in a wide range of consciousness-raising activities, the women constructed new ways of viewing their lives and new strategies for communicating their experiences to others.  Pp xi

Since PAR creates spaces where all those involved have a part to play in reaching consensus about project-related issues, I include myself as a participant in both project, pp xiii

The majority of PAR projects: 1) a collective commitment to investigate an issue or problem, 2) a desire to engage in self-and collective reflection to gain clarity about the issue under investigation; 3) a joint decision to engage in individual and/or collective action that leads to a useful solution that benefits the people involved, and 4) the building of alliances between researchers and participants in the planning, implementation, and dissemination of the research process p. 1

The aims are achieved through a cyclical process of exploration, knowledge construction, and action at different moments throughout the research process. Pp 1

It is by actively engaging in critical dialogue and collective reflection that the participants of PAR recognize that they have a stake in the overall project. Pp 1

Learning to listen and listening to learn

An integral factor in how I negotiate my role as an academic practitioner of PAR in the communities in which I work in engaging in reflexivity, which I define as a dialectical process that occurs within the context of the social relationships that exist between research practitioner and participants. Pp 8

Reflexivity provides me with the opportunity to attend to how my personal biography informs my ability to listen question, synthesize, analyze, and interpret knowledge throughout the PAR process pp8

The team members and I did not eliminate all the stereotypes and false beliefs that we brought to the PAR project. Yet by continually reflecting on our personal histories and by working to eliminate stereotypical beliefs about ourselves and others, the team members learned how to listen to the participants so as to learn from them-a valuable and important skill in participatory action research (see Mclntyre, 2003) pp 9

Dialogue that contributed to the building of trusting and respectful relationships between the participants, me, and the rest of the university-based team. Pp10

I repeatedly informed the women that they were the “real knowers” of their lives and that  I had complete confidence in them and in their abilities to make decisions that reflected the goals they had for themselves and for the project.  Pp.111

Negotiating the role of practitioner and participant

I experienced in both projects, reveals the importance of practitioners “getting out of the way” and allowing people to proceed in ways that make sense to and for them, not necessarily to and for the practitioner. That does not mean that participants do not need an occasional push or a gentle prodding now and then. It is my experience with the women and the young people that they did, and they oftentimes looked to me to do that. I was a co-participant in the projects and like them brought a particular set of skills, knowledge, and resources to the groups that needed to be used in practical ways so as to contribute to the overall research process.  Pp.27