Dr Margo Greenwood (March 2017) Community- Based Participatory Research: A Story Of Empowerment

Community-Based

ParticipatoryResearch:

A Story OfEmpowerment

Dr MargoGreenwood

SightsaversUK

CBPR Synergy with 2030 Agenda

(paragraphs 36, 39, 74 and goal 17)

• “foster shared responsibility” • “mobilize all available resources” • “commit to multi-stakeholder

partnerships that mobilize and share knowledge and expertise”

• “be open, inclusive, participatory and transparent”

• “support reporting by all relevant stakeholders”

• “be people-centered, gender sensitive, respectful”

Approaches to implementation

Sources: Lewin (1948/1997), Freire (1970)

What is Community-Based Participatory Research?

Lewin’s action research in the

1940s …challenged the gap

between theory and practice and used a research cycle involving planning, action,

and investigating the results of the action to solve practical problems

Emancipatory participatory research that emerged

in the 1970s in Latin America, Asia, and Africa

…shift from being objects of studyto being part of enquiry.

Research not neutral but committed to with critical consciousness,

emancipation and social justice. Research role challenged

CBPR (1990s onwards)

Features of CBPR

(Greenwood et al, 2016; Levine-Rasky 2015; Kemmis & McTaggart 2005)

Peer researchers interviewing teachers in Kenya

Level hierarchy where possible

Mutual dialogue & understanding

Shared decision-making & ownership

Features of CBPR


Community research team in Cameroon

Members of the community are

actively involved in:

• planning• data collection

• analysis• dissemination

Aim of CBPR (education)


A child learns in Rajasthan, India

To increase knowledge and

understanding of a given phenomenon

To integrate the knowledge gained with interventions, policy and social

changeTo improve the

quality of life of the (school) community

Ethical Principles of CBPR

(CSJCA & NCCPE 2012)

School friends in India

• mutual respect• personal integrity• equality and inclusion• democratic participation• active learning• making a difference• collective action

Authentic Relating Principles

Be committed

through connection

…choose to stay in the situation exactly how it is (rather than avoid discomfort)


Trust your experience

…express authentically and this will build connection


Be withthe other person in

their world

… be curious without assumptions of knowing what itis actually like


Own your experience

…take responsibility for your emotions and hold others responsible for theirs


Stay at the level of

sensation

… check in with your body and use it as a cue to know how a situation is going and how you feel about it

Authentic Relating Principles• Be committed through connection – choose to stay in

the situation exactly how it is (rather than avoid discomfort)

• Trust your experience – express authentically and it will build connection

• Be with the other person in their world – be curious without assumptions of knowing what it is actually like

• Own your experience – take responsibility for your emotions and hold others responsible for theirs

• Stay at the level of sensation – check in with your body and use it as a cue to know how a situation is going and how you feel about it

(Wilkinson, S., & Thompson, J., 2016)

Examples of CBPR in Education

Kenya: how boys and girls with disabilities,their parents and their teachers are experiencing

school inclusion over three years of training in schools.


Malawi: how EY caregivers and parents of infants with disabilities are experiencing inclusive early childhood

development education and following those experiences as caregivers go through inclusion training.


Senegal, Cameroon, Sierra Leone & Mali: how children with disabilities, teachers, carers and community members experience or

perceive disability in primary - implications of these perceptions on the participation and quality of learning of boys and girls with disabilities.


Bangladesh: bid in progress.

Level of coding Explanation

Open coding The process of breaking down, examining, comparing and conceptualising data

Axial coding Making connections between categories

Selective coding

Selecting the core theme by systematically comparing it to other categories. A core category is

the central issue or category into which all other categories are integrated

Data Analysis

A case study: Kenya

Stage 1 (year 1): Find out from parents, teachers and children with disabilities: • how they think links between them can be strengthened• what they see as obstacles, opportunities and ideal directions for

classroom practice and promoting community participation

A case study: Kenya

Stage 2 (year 2):Find out how they are experiencing the programme project developments that are designed.

The findings strengthen the programmatic project at each stage.

A case study: Kenya

Stage 3 (year 3 and 4):Find out from the SEN coordinators in the pilot schools: • how they are experiencing their (new) role;• what they see as the key elements of good practice in terms of the

inclusion of children with disabilities in their school.

Kenya Project Stage 1 Findings

Overarching themes for specific focus:

• Community and school sensitization• Safety and dignity of pupils• Empowering teachers through strategies and resources• Advocating government • Increased/improved diagnosis or assessment in

EARCS and beyond• Collaboration through co-ordinated action • Celebrating the children’s successes (being and doing)

Successes

There have been community memberswaiting for an opportunity to contribute.

Such voices are part of sustainable change locally.

Successes

Training design seems to help peer researchersremember the learning points whilst undertaking

the interviews and observations.

Successes

Cost of undertaking CBPR is relatively low.

Successes

Connection between participants and interviewershas enabled the interviewee(s) to feel safe

to express their experiences.

Successes

A peer researcher disseminating his/her researchat events has been powerful. This can continue

beyond the life of the project.

Successes

It has been fairly straightforward tomeaningfully include peer researchers with

physical impairments into the research process.

Successes

At a micro-level, CBPR has begun to inform how policy and programmes can be altered to best meet the needs of people with disabilities, build the picture of disparities in education, and

show how children experience disability day to day.

Tensions and Dilemmas

• Reporting back findings in time to influence the decision-making processes relating to interventions can be difficult when there are delays

• Ensuring CBPR ethical principles are fundamental to the study can be in tension with cultural norms

• Power differences can remain substantial and it has not always been clear to all what working towards sharing power more equally looks like in practice

Tensions and Dilemmas

• Peer researchers cannot be as included in research planning as CBPR methodology requires

• It has been difficult to know how to best include peer researchers in data analysis

• No one with speech difficulties or intellectual difficulties has yet become part of a community research team

To conclude• Clear alignment between the aims of the 2030

Agenda and the nature of CBPR• CBPR research can identify key barriers to and

facilitators of achieving the SDGs in relation to education

• Tensions and dilemmas need to be acknowledged and need time to navigate

• “Leaving no one behind” - better achieved if children, youth and adults (including with disabilities) are participating in local, national and global research/policy

• Generates local and national ownership of findings

• Facilitates the translation of knowledge into a catalyst for policy change

Whatwe are finding

so far…

For more information:

Greenwood, M. 2017. The capacity of community-based participatory researchin relation to disability and the SDGs. Disability and the Global South (in press).

Greenwood, M., Fakih, B., Steff, M., Bechange, S., & Mwifadhi, M. 2016.Hear my voice: a community-based participatory study gathering the lived experiences of people with disabilities and older people in Tanzania.Knowledge Management for Development, Vol 12, no. 2. 63-78. http://journal.km4dev.org/index.php/km4dj/article/viewFile/308/395

Blogshttps://blog.sightsavers.org/participatory-research-sdgs-sightsavers/

http://blog.sightsavers.org/pamoja-project-research-working-towards-access-to-education-for-all/

ReferencesCSJCA & NCCPE (2012). Centre for Social Justice and Community Action (CSJCA) and National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE). Community-based participatory research - a guide to ethical principles and practice. Bristol: NCCPE.

Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Seabury Press.

Greenwood, M., Fakih, B., Steff, M., Bechange, S., & Mwifadhi, M. (2016). Hear my voice: a community-based participatory study gathering the lived experiences of people with disabilities and older people in Tanzania. Knowledge Management for Development, Vol 12, no. 2 (IN PRESS).

Kemmis, S. & McTaggart, R. (2005). Participatory action research: Communicative action and the public sphere. In N.K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of qualitative research (3rd ed., pp. 559-604). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

Levine-Rasky, C. (2015). Research For/About/With the Community: A Montage. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 15(6), 455–467. SAGE Publications.

Lewin, K. (1997). Resolving social confl icts and fi eld theory in social science. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. (Original work published 1948).

Mcdonald, K. E. & Raymaker, D. M. (2013). Paradigm shifts in disability and health: Towards more ethical public health research. American Journal of Public Health, 103, 2165-2173.

Mcdonald, K. E. & Stack, E. (2016). You Say You Want a Revolution: An Empirical Study of Community-Based Participatory Research with People with Developmental Disabilities. Disability and Health Journal, doi:10.1016/j.dhjo.2015.12.006.

Pain, R., Kindon, S. & Kesby, M. (2007). Participatory action research: Making a difference to theory, practice and action. In S. Kindon, R. Pain, & M. Kesby (Eds.), Participatory action research approaches and methods (pp. 26-32). London: Routledge.

Wilkinson, S., & Thompson, J. (2016). We-space Practice, The Future, Circling and All There Is. In: Cohering the integral we space. Gunnlaugson O., & Brabant, M. (Eds). Pp 313-330.

Thank you

Contact email:[email protected]

@MargoGreenwood

Community-Based Participatory Research:A Story of Empowerment

Dr Margo Greenwood (March 2017) Community- Based Participatory Research: A Story Of Empowerment

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