PAPER: 1. POETIC OF JUSTICE: USING ART AS ACTION AND ANALYSIS IN PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH
PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH PAPERS
1. POETIC OF JUSTICE: USING ART AS
ACTION AND ANALYSIS IN PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH
2. HOW PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH
CHANGED OUR VIEW OF CHALLENGES OF SHARED DECISION-MAKING TRAINING
POETIC OF
JUSTICE: USING ART AS ACTION AND ANALYSIS IN PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH
Citation:
Ayala, Jennifer and Zaal, Mayida (2016) "Poetics of
Justice: Using Art as Action and Analysis in Participatory Action
Research," Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher
Research: Vol. 18: Iss. 1. https://dx.doi.org/10.4148/2470-6353.1019
ABSTRACT
This article explores the use of art as a form
of communication and meaning-making in participatory action research (PAR). The
authors, researchers, and educators, contemplate this concept through a
pedagogical lens, and consider the role that visual and performing arts can
play in social action. Based on the work of a youth-adult participatory action
research research collective, the authors reflect on the pedagogical process used
to analyse research findings, take actions, and affect local change. Created to
investigate opportunity to learn ussues, the youth members of the collective
created spoken word poetry, post-cards, film shorts, and speak-outs to engage
multiple audiences in their finding research findings. By engaging art as an
element of PAR, actions can travel visually, viscerally, and verbally with the
potential to influence individuals, communities, and policies.
MY SUMMARY
I learn how arts: drawings, graffiti wall,
poetry, video-taped role playing, and dance create a space for youth to open
dialogue and deliver their messages to policy makers.
Reflection, imagination, and dream are part of
this process in Participatory Action Research.
Art and PAR is a way to collective
meaning-making, multiple way to understand some issues, to create meaningful
and expressive action to get involved in social justice and social action.
PAR researchers believe that everyone has power
and privilege, therefore creating a space by applying multiple approaches for
the youth is necessary to “communicate and build relationships and to create
message and products for different audiences”
As members of collectives can be differently positioned
(e.g., youth and adults) in terms of power and
privilege, multiple approaches are used to
communicate and build relationships, and to create messages and products for
different audiences. In other words, some actions “can travel visually,
viscerally, and verbally through individuals, schools, communities, and
levels of policy”
SECTION
Introduction
Project Description
Analyzing that which has no words
Redesign with us, not against us
Imagining an alternate ending
Final Pasos in the Dance of PAR
SOME IMPORTANT
QUOTATION
Starting with a poem
Like hot water boiling over
We in fear look down to the ground.
Hopeless that we can’t pass this time around.
The tears from my eyes and the sweat on my back
as I wipe my face and fear
I have to pass this test.
The bloodshot in our eyes the strong clenching of my teeth.
The pounding of our hearts and the taps of my feet.
But wait. Listen. All of these exams truly absolutely got us
beat.
(Poem authored by a youth researcher, member of the New
Jersey Urban Youth Initiative)
pp 2
In this article, we reflect on how the visual and performing
arts can offer a means through which the affective components of academic
research – the spirit work – can be meaningfully processed and expressed (Fox,
2012; 2015; jones et al., 2015; Quijada Cerecer, Cahill, & Bradley, 2011;
Rivera et al., 2010). Using the physical body, the
visual world, the spiritual, to express, process and analyze research findings
can represent moves towards restorative actions (Kapitan, Litell, &
Torres, 2011; Lara, 2002; Lykes, 2013; Rivera, et al., 2010; Roberts, 2013). We
explore the role of art as an analytic tool, an
expression of resistance and social critique, and part of a collective
meaning-making (Fox, 2015) process in the context of a participatory
action research (PAR) project.
PAR has a rich and deep history across disciplines as an
approach and an epistemological stance. Not simply a method, PAR is characterized
by a set of assumptions about knowledge production, expertise, and social
change (Fals Borda, 2001; McIntyre, 2008; Torre & Fine, 2011).
Specifically, participatory action research operates from
the assertion that in research, those most affected by a social issue should be
key players in any research process that seeks to understand the issue. PAR
teams often operate as collectives. PAR recognizes that because of their social
locations, each member of a collective brings a set of knowledge and expertise
that is unique to that individual (Delgado Bernal, 2002).
As members of collectives can be differently positioned
(e.g., youth and adults) in terms of power and
privilege, multiple approaches are used to
communicate and build relationships, and to create messages and products for
different audiences (Fine, Roberts, & Torre, 2004). Any research
conducted must incorporate actions toward social change; however, the members
of a collective should define these actions (Cammarota & Fine, 2008; Fals
Borda, 2001; McIntyre, 2008; Torre & Fine, 2011).
Methods and tools used by PAR
collectives to achieve their inquiry and social action goals vary according to
the questions they are investigating and the context of the research.
PAR collectives can employ traditional qualitative and quantitative methods.
Other, less traditional, methods that can be used have been written about by a
range of PAR scholars (Fine et al., 2004; Irizarry, 2011; Krueger, 2010;
Linville, 2011; Ruglis, 2011; Tuck et al., 2008).
By engaging art as an element of PAR, actions toward social change can travel visually, viscerally,
and verbally through individuals, schools, communities, and levels of
policy (Quijada Cerecer et al., 2011). Various artistic modalities such as
poetry, video, and performing arts have been used in PAR projects at different
stages of the research process (Conrad, Smyth, & Kendal, 2015; Fox, 2015). For
instance, PAR collectives have used poetry at different points in the research
process to connect their analyses of data to the very real impact of the issues
being examined.
PROJECT
DESCRIPTION
Once the data were collected, youth and adult allies
compiled and presented the data at the camps and collaboratively analyzed the
multiple data sources. During the analytical process, members of the collective
reflected on their experiences of the research process and the policy in
question. In response to the process and as a reaction to the findings, youth
researchers, with support of adults, created spoken word poetry, postcards,
slogans, and skits. Reflections took various forms and occurred during or in
between research camp meetings. Youth researchers reflected on the data and
research experience in various ways: through online posts, by illustrating
their thoughts and feelings at the camps on a graffiti wall, and finally,
writing a paper essay, articulating their experiences as researchers. The youth
researchers were awarded college credit for their work, and thereby, were
affirmed for their contributions in an academic context. –pp 4-
The NJUYRI took many actions along the way (Tuck, 2009;
Zeller-Berkman, 2011). The largest action, in the form of a community
speak-out, took place in August of 2009. The event was well attended and
audience members included state officials, community organizers, parents, and
students2. At the local sites, groups from the three cities took the knowledge
and findings they generated within the research camps and shared them within
their communities. For instance, the Newark team produced videos presented locally,
the Paterson group presented their findings to school district leaders, and
Jersey City youth presented their findings to their high school faculty, as
well as to teachers in a local middle school. In the following pages, we
describe how artistic expression was represented in the research camps, with a
poetry-writing workshop, salsa dance lessons, and the engagement of other
visual and performing arts. –pp4-
ANALYZING THAT
WHICH HAS NO WORDS
This activity offered young people and adults a space to
process the painful or troubling aspects of the data being analyzed in ways
that may have been difficult to articulate verbally (Lykes, 2013). As such,
artistic expression can be a means to process and communicate the emotional
impact of the work (Rivera et al., 2010). –pp 5-
One youth researcher silently processed what she had learned
throughout the camps, since she did not feel as comfortable as others speaking
publicly. When the poetry workshop was offered, she
used the opportunity to express and share what she had been processing in a
language and manner that felt safer to her. –pp 5-
The author of the above poem, a bilingual fifteen-year-old,
conveyed her feelings with tactile images in the language she felt most
comfortable using. In this case, instead of heat and fire, imagery used by the
author in the opening poem, this writer described coldness, ice and pressures
experienced as physical weight. In addition to the poem itself, what was
meaningful in this instance, was the way poetry served as an outlet through
which she and others expressed their understanding of and feelings about the
issue under study. Prior to this, this young woman did not feel comfortable
sharing her perspectives and understandings verbally; in some school contexts,
without a closer look, this silence can be read as disengagement.
The poetry experience offered a mechanism through which the
depth of her comprehension and analysis was processed and communicated (jones
et al., 2015; Romero, Arce, & Cammarota, 2009). Similar to a study by
Ruglis’ (2011), which linked health outcomes to school policies through
participant x-ray mapping of their bodies, this example illustrates the impact
of such policy changes on student bodies and minds – the physical and
psychological toll recounted in lyrical form. Linkages, such as the one between
health and education policy, can be facilitated in part by the creative processes
involved in art making (Kapitan et al., 2011). -pp6-7’
Like art, analysis involves movement and creativity, as
straight lines of reasoning are ruptured, its pieces re-examined from different
angles, then reconfigured to forge a new whole. Once reassembled, this picture
demands something more, something to be done, rather than simply viewing the
image created. With participatory action research, “action” is at the center,
literally and figuratively. Research by itself is not sufficient; it urges
movement towards social change and against the static lines of an oppressive
status quo (Fals Borda, 2001). As Quijada Cerecer and colleagues note, the
arts: open up space for youth researchers to collectively process and question
social issues they confront in their community while embodying forms of
resistance that inspire and create collective participation and action toward
social justice. (2011, p. 587)-pp 7-
REDESIGN WITH
US, NOT AGAINST US
The event itself offered a space of
provocation, for dialogue and dissent, critique
and hope (Cahill, Quijada Cererer, & Bradley, 2010; Fine, et al.,
2004; Tuck et al., 2008). In this presentation, the arts offered multiple
vehicles of expression and understandings of the issues, attaching to the
findings a sense of humanity, agency and urgency. At the event, participants
were presented with data tables based on the survey findings. –pp8-
Through videotaped role-plays, the
audience was invited to imagine conversations between parents and students,
which portrayed teachers, students and school board members interacting in a
mock town hall meeting. The collective offered concrete examples of
potential negative outcomes expressed visually with images of rescinded
invitations to a graduation party and mock report cards highlighting the lack
of resources needed to meet the new policies. Slogans such as “Redesign with
us, not against us” were presented. As such, a critical space was opened
offering multiple entry points for conversation. Employing performance and
visual arts allowed us to set the tone and context for the dialogue that
ensued. As the presentation came to a close, and one of the youth researchers
invited the audience to discuss what next steps the community should take – a
moment of participatory policy making emerged (Fine, Ayala & Zaal, 2012;
Zaal & Ayala, 2013).
Video and film also served as mechanisms through which youth researchers communicated findings, or provoked
awareness and dialogue about the issues (jones, et al, 2015; Quijada
Cerecer et al., 2011)-pp 9-
Creating actions using varied media allowed the collective to inform decisions at the policy level, to engage the
community in advocacy, and to educate others
about the issues. Both in the large community meeting and in local
actions, art served as “a transformational act of critical consciousness. Not
only is art the making of things; it also awakens new ways of thinking and
learning that things can change” (Kapitan et al., 2011, p. 64).-pp 9-
They engaged in an exercise of imagining and wrote alternate
endings to this policy story as which they recorded as text and podcasts. This
reflection and re-imagining created a space of possibility where the policy
outcomes were not the only place where transformation could happen. Instead the
filmmakers validated as critical sites of resistance the relationships,
experiences, and production of knowledge formed within and across city-based
teams of youth, families, community organizers, and educators (Fox, 2012;
Lykes, 2013; Torre & Fine, 2011; Tuck, 2009). –pp 10-
Using the arts, the critical imaginary can be a way of “engaging a collective dream life” (Kapitan et al.,
2011, p. 64) where reflections and analyses in the
context of everyday oppressions are shared in multiple ways. It is at
this intersection of art and research that a community identity of resistance
(Lykes, 2013) can be forged, and where what Cahill (2010) and colleagues call “a praxis of critical hope” can live.-pp 10-
FINAL PASOS IN
THE DANCE OF PAR
At one of the research camps, we concluded the day’s
activities with a salsa lesson conducted by a university colleague. As we
choreographed and danced we counted…1,2,3 step back, adjust, step together,
pause 5,6,7. At the time, we did not include our dance lesson as an embodied
method, although others have used dance in this fashion (Fine, et al., 2004;
Kapitan et al., 2011; Roberts, 2013). Rather, our intention was to offer a
space where the researchers could connect with one another, and to vary the
nature of the day’s activities so that we were not only making space for
thinking work, but also for body work and play (Fox, 2012; Garcia, 2012; Rivera
et al., 2010). This dance – its steps, turns, and connections – could
illustrate some of the ways in which research, the arts, and youth
participation, can be choreographed to produce meaningful work (Roberts, 2013).
Whether the arts are performing, visual or lyrical, they offer participatory
researchers an analytic lens, a way of processing the emotive and embodied
knowledge of the group, and a mechanism of transmission – making research
findings accessible to wider audiences. The process itself involves pasos,
steps that do not necessarily follow a linear progression, where members step
together harmoniously, but also encounter unexpected turns, often needing to
pause reflectively before continuing, and moving to a rhythm of change.
ADDITIONAL
REFERENCE
Conrad,
D. (2004). Exploring risky youth experiences: Popular theater as a
participatory, performative research method. International Journal of
Qualitative Methods, 3(1), 12-25.
Conrad,
D., Smyth, P. & Kendal, W. (2015). Uncensored: Participatory arts-based
research with youth. In D. Conrad, & A. Sinner (Eds.), Creating together:
Participatory, community-based, and collaborative arts practices and
scholarship across Canada (pp. 21-38). Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier
University Press.
Fals
Borda, O. (2001). Participatory (action) research in social theory: Origins and
challenges. In P. Reason & H. Bradbury (Eds.), Handbook of Action Research
(pp. 27-37). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Lykes,
M. B. (2013). Participatory and action research as a transformative praxis:
Responding to humanitarian crises from the margins. American Psychologist,
68(8), 774-783. doi:10.1037/a0034360 McIntyre, A. (2008). Participatory action
research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Quijada
Cerecer, D., Cahill, C., & Bradley, M. (2011). Resist this! Embodying the
contradictory positions and collective possibilities of transformative
resistance. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 24(5),
587-593. doi: 10.1080/09518398.2011.600269
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