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Critical Participatory Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Guide brings to life key principles of this collaborative research method for students, practitioners, and research collectives. The authors encourage readers to uncover new possibilities in research guided by the emancipatory roots of CPI to deconstruct inequitable conditions and practices. Weaving together theoretical perspectives, a variety of tools for data collection and analysis, and numerous practical examples, the authors offer a complete picture of the research process from start to finish. This thoughtful and thorough book prepares readers to co-create knowledge effectively and ethically. By addressing the underlying principles common to a variety of action and participatory research methods, readers learn to design and carry out research with, not on, communities. With examples from public health, social work, psychology, education, criminal justice, conflict resolution, and more, the text is suited to a wide variety of graduate-level courses and better reflects the interdisciplinary nature of participatory research with collectives of all sizes and compositions.

Drawing on a rich variety of participatory action research methods including ethnographic observation, artefact collection, focus groups, and interviews, this volume explores the transformational potential of development programs which actively involve marginalized groups. Foregrounding the experiences of women migrant workers in Beirut, the text reveals how direct participation in NGO-led, community programs and education empowers women to create counter-cultural communities and spaces for learning and activism. The text ultimately combines aspects of critical pedagogy, spatial analysis, and Third World feminisms to propose a critical subaltern praxis for research, development, and teaching. It will appeal to scholars and researchers with interests in research methods in education, migration, equality and human rights and the anthropology of education.

Fully revised and updated, this second edition of Participatory Action Research (PAR) provides new theoretical insights and many robust tools that will guide researchers, professionals and students from all disciplines through the process of conducting action research ‘with'people rather than ‘for'them or ‘about'them.PAR is collective reasoning and evidence-based learning focussed on social action. It has immediate relevance in fields ranging from community development to education, health, public engagement, environmental issues and problem solving in the workplace. This new edition has been extensively revised to create a user-friendly textbook on PAR theory and practice, including: updated references and a comprehensive overview of different approaches to PAR (pragmatic, psychosocial, critical); more emphasis on the art of process design, especially in complex social settings characterized by uncertainty and the unknown; developments in the use of Web2 collaborative tools and digital strategies to support real-time data gathering and processing; updated examples and stories from around the world, in a wide range of fields; critical commentaries on major issues in the social sciences, including stakeholder theory, systems thinking, causal analysis, monitoring and evaluation, research ethics, risk assessment and social innovation. This modular textbook provides novel perspectives and ideas in a longstanding tradition that strives to reconnect science and the inquiry process with life in society. It provides coherent and critical treatment of core issues in the ongoing evolution of PAR, making it suitable for a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses. It is intended for use by researchers, students and working professionals seeking to improve or rethink their approach to co-creating knowledge and supporting action for the well-being of all.

This book presents a guiding framework for designing and supporting participatory research with young children. The volume shares detailed approaches to research designs that support collaborative work with young children and teachers in a wide range of early learning environments. It presents conceptual and ethical considerations for participatory work, and explores children's agency through engagement in participatory practices. It examines challenges to accepted practices and understandings of young children, and discusses the analysis and dissemination of participatory work with children. In doing so, the book informs readers about the conceptual understandings and methodological approaches that can be used to support participatory research investigations where the young child is viewed as knowledgeable and capable of sharing unique opinions, interpretations, and understandings of her experiences as embedded within social, cultural, and political worlds. The book sets the stagefor early childhood researchers and educators to develop new understandings grounded in post-developmental, critical, and social constructivist theories while exploring supportive methodological approaches.

This book addresses a key issue in higher learning, university education and scientific research: the widespread difficulty researchers, experts and students from all disciplines face when trying to contribute to change in complex social settings characterized by uncertainty and the unknown. More than ever, researchers need flexible means and grounded theory to combine people-based and evidence-based inquiry into challenging situations that keep evolving and do not lend themselves to straightforward technical explanations and solutions. In this book, the authors propose innovative strategies for engaged inquiry building on insights from many disciplines and lessons from the history of Participatory Action Research (PAR), including French psychosociology. The ongoing evolution of PAR has had a lasting legacy in fields ranging from community development to education, public engagement, natural resource management and problem solving in the workplace. All formulations have in common the idea that research must be done ‘with'people and not ‘on'or ‘for'people. Inquiry of this kind makes sense of the world through efforts to transform it, as opposed to simply observing and studying human behaviour and people's views about reality, in the hope that meaningful change will happen somewhere down the road. The book contributes many new tools and conceptual foundations to this longstanding tradition, grounded in real-life examples of collective fact-finding, analysis and decision-making from around the world. It provides a modular textbook on participatory action research and related methods, theory and practice, suitable for a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses, as well as working professionals.