“Change doesn’t just happen, we collaboratively make it happen”——AWID
Participatory Research
I was inspired by the participatory/advocacy worldview, which I first learnt from the research class. A participatory/advocacy worldview emphasizes holism and sees the universe as a community of interconnected subjects rather than a collection of objects. Aligned with critical pedagogy, a participatory/advocacy worldview holds that formal knowledge creates a sense of intellectual inferiority among the ordinary people, ‘making them surrender to or look up to the formally educated for guidance to promote their lives’ (Reason & Bradbury, 2008).
Learning about participatory research gave me hope in doing community development. I think participatory research is a unique approach to scholarly inquiry, because it is based directly on the expertise of participants, rather than filtered through an outsider's perspective. There are conscious and meaningful integrations, including integration of theory and practice, of scholarship and activism, and of numerous perspectives and life experiences into the particular context, place, time, and life history of each person (Morris, 2006). But most importantly, participatory research needs to be ‘intertwined with politics and a political agenda’ (Creswell, 2009).
I became very keen on participatory action research. Participatory action research should be ‘participant-driven’, that is, guided by those issues highlighted as important by participants. Further, the research process aims at empowering people through the process of constructing and using their own knowledge (Reason & Bradbury, 2008) to take action on issues that concern them. This is a cyclical and iterative process of thinking-action-reflection (Reason & Bradbury, 2008). I summarized this process as the following chart:
Learning about participatory research gave me hope in doing community development. I think participatory research is a unique approach to scholarly inquiry, because it is based directly on the expertise of participants, rather than filtered through an outsider's perspective. There are conscious and meaningful integrations, including integration of theory and practice, of scholarship and activism, and of numerous perspectives and life experiences into the particular context, place, time, and life history of each person (Morris, 2006). But most importantly, participatory research needs to be ‘intertwined with politics and a political agenda’ (Creswell, 2009).
I became very keen on participatory action research. Participatory action research should be ‘participant-driven’, that is, guided by those issues highlighted as important by participants. Further, the research process aims at empowering people through the process of constructing and using their own knowledge (Reason & Bradbury, 2008) to take action on issues that concern them. This is a cyclical and iterative process of thinking-action-reflection (Reason & Bradbury, 2008). I summarized this process as the following chart:
For my research class, I did literature review on Chinese Canadian seniors issues. Noting the gap between the unique needs and the utilization of home delivered meal services among older Chinese immigrants in Canada, I developed a proposal for a participatory action research project, which is called “Enhancing home delivered meal service for older Chinese Canadians in Calgary”. The purpose of this proposed qualitative research is to develop an open dialogue between Chinese seniors and service providers. It aims at ensuring health and cultural needs particular to Chinese seniors are considered when operating home delivered meal services. Using purposeful and snowball sampling methods, this participatory action research would recruit Chinese senior participants to form an advocacy group through which they become co-researchers of the study. In my research design, these co-researchers would do semi-strutured interviews with other Chinese seniors and collaboratively develop an action plan with service providers to improve cultural capability of home delivered meal service in Calgary.
At the Faculty of Social Work 3rd Annual Symposium, I had the opportunity present a poster outlining my proposed project. Seeing my poster, the research course instructor, Dr. Jennifer Ann Hewson and a service provider from the Chinese community gave me some positive support. Their encouragment led me to consider doing participatory research in the Chinese Canadian senior community. However, I did not think I could access the required the resources and organziational support.
At the Faculty of Social Work 3rd Annual Symposium, I had the opportunity present a poster outlining my proposed project. Seeing my poster, the research course instructor, Dr. Jennifer Ann Hewson and a service provider from the Chinese community gave me some positive support. Their encouragment led me to consider doing participatory research in the Chinese Canadian senior community. However, I did not think I could access the required the resources and organziational support.
Reference:
Creswell, J. (2009). Research Design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (3rd Edition ). Los Angeles: SGE Publications, Inc.
Morris, T. (2006). Social Work Research Methods: Four alternative paradigms. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publication.
Reason, P., & Bradbury, H. (2008). The SAGE handbook of action research: Participative inquiry and practice. London: SAGE Publications.
Creswell, J. (2009). Research Design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (3rd Edition ). Los Angeles: SGE Publications, Inc.
Morris, T. (2006). Social Work Research Methods: Four alternative paradigms. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publication.
Reason, P., & Bradbury, H. (2008). The SAGE handbook of action research: Participative inquiry and practice. London: SAGE Publications.
Artifacts:
| lu-posteredited.pdf |
| sowk_655_assignment_1_literature_review.pdf |
| sowk_655_assignment_2_edited.pdf |
