 |
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, Inclusiveness and Empowering Community Action at
the Western Institute for Social Research" (doc)by WISR
Faculty Members John Bilorusky, PhD, Terry Lunsford, PhD, and Cynthia
Lawrence, PhD appears in the recently published (Summer 2008) textbook,
DEMOCRACY WORKS: JOINING THEORY AND ACTION TO FOSTER GLOBAL CHANGE,
edited by Torry Dickinson and Terrie Clark, with Summer B.C. Lewis,
Boulder: CO: Paradigm Publishers. The book may be ordered at: http://www.paradigmpublishers.com/Books/BookDetail.aspx?productID=187019
Abstract of the article, "Participatory Action-Research,
Inclusiveness and Empowering Community Action 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.
******
[To view pdf files "Get
Adobe Reader" . . .]
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)
| |
