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An area of special emphasis at WISR is learning how to use action-research
methods as part of one's everyday work and learning. WISR faculty
have special expertise in the related areas of action-oriented research,
qualitative research (including observational, interview and experiential
research methods), and participatory research. Over the past thirty
years, WISR faculty have written a number of articles on action-research
methods in conjunction with the seminars they have led at WISR.
Some of those articles are available here.
Overview
of Action-Research Methods, by John Bilorusky and Cynthia Lawrence,
2002 (doc)
Overview
of Action-Research Methods, by John Bilorusky and Cynthia Lawrence,
2002 (pdf)
Community
Knowledge-Building, by John Bilorusky and Vera Labat, 2003(doc)
Community
Knowledge-Building, by John Bilorusky and Vera Labat, 2003 (pdf)
Some
Notes on Interviewing, by Terry Lunsford and John Bilorusky, 2003
(doc)
Some
Notes on Interviewing, by Terry Lunsford and John Bilorusky, 2003
(pdf)
Asking
Questions, by John Bilorusky and Vera Labat (doc)
Asking
Questions, by John Bilorusky and Vera Labat (pdf)
Some Notes on Feminist
Perspectives in Science, by Deborah Pruitt (doc)
Some Notes on Feminist
Perspectives in Science, by Deborah Pruitt (pdf)
Action-Research:
Writing in Your Own Voice, by Cynthia Lawrence, 2003 (doc)
Action-Research:
Writing in Your Own Voice, by Cynthia Lawrence, 2003 (pdf)
Action-Research:
Writing in Your Own Voice, by Cynthia Lawrence, 2003 (html)
******
An article, Participatory
Action-Research at WISR: Sound Research Goes Hand in Hand with Inclusiveness
and Empowering Community Action (doc)by WISR Faculty Members
John Bilorusky, PhD, Terry Lunsford, PhD, and Cynthia Lawrence,
PhD will appear in the forthcoming (Spring 2008) textbook, DEMOCRACY
WORKS: JOINING THEORY AND ACTION TO FOSTER GLOBAL CHANGE, edited
by Torry Dickinson and Terrie Clark, Boulder: CO: Paradigm Publishers.
Participatory
Action-Research at WISR: Sound Research Goes Hand in Hand with Inclusiveness
and Empowering Community Action (pdf)
Abstract of the article, "Participatory Action-Research
at WISR": This article outlines the evolution of some strategies,
methods and ideas about participatory, action-oriented, community-based
inquiry that have evolved over the past 40 years. The authors discuss
some of the highlights of their involvements in educational reform
and social change endeavors during this 40 year period, and how
these involvements have shaped and contributed to their approach
to participatory action-research. During this time, the authors
have lived and worked in California, while also having had the opportunity
to work and learn with people involved in communities throughout
the United States, and in a few cases, in other countries. The authors
focus on their vision of "participatory action-research,"
and how it has been developed and put forth as a central feature
of the learning in the alternative, community-based academic degree
programs at the Western Institute for Social Research. This article
highlights the main qualities of this approach, and more specifically
the role and techniques involved in: eliciting ideas and information
from others, the analytic uses of group discussion, learning from
others and in collaboration with others, and probing to look beneath
the surface. The authors note some of the intellectual currents
which resonate with this approach, including the work of Paulo Freire
and some of the very dynamic, rigorous and imaginative approaches
to cutting-edge inquiry in the biological and physical sciences,
as represented in Complexity Theory, for example. In discussing
these approaches, the authors note how we can go beyond the mechanistic,
simplistic versions of science and become engaged in claiming science
for all of us. With the help of strategies such as these, and by
further refining and improving on strategies such as these, we can
approach the local and global challenges of the future with some
measure of hope.
******
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WISR MA student, Margery Coffey fulfilled WISR's action-research
requirement by writing the following paper:
"Action-Research"
by Margery Coffey, February 2006 (doc)
******
WISR PhD student, Shyaam Shabaka, and WISR Faculty
Member, John Bilorusky, teamed up to assist Neighborhood
House of North Richmond in Training a Dozen Community Residents
in the Skills of Interviewing and the Methods of Participatory Research.
The participating community-based researchers surveyed over
1,000 Richmond residents to gather information about the eating
and exercises habits as part of the "Healthy Eating, Active
Living" Project. Some training materials developed by
Shyaam and John for use in this project, along with an earlier training
article by Terry Lunsford and John:
Interviewing
Tips for HEAL Project Community Health Advocates
Self-Assessment
Quiz Questions
Sample
Scripts for Role-Playing
Notes
on Interviewing (by Terry Lunsford and John Bilorusky)
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