Lights, Camera...Action Research

It is dress rehearsal. Along with 20 Filipino domestic workers, a handful of Filipino American cast members, director, lights person, media and prop staff, I walk into the theater at Hunter College. Our light technician turns on the lights on the stage to see if they work and we take in a few seconds to look at one another to see if Diwang Pinay, the play about the transnational lives of domestic workers in NYC, is actually happening.

We all walk around the stage to inspect our new home for the weekend. Our light technician turns the lights off again. The stage and the theater is blacked out. She turns it on again. And as I look around at the cast members around me, I am tickled to laughter as all of the women and cast members are giving their best on-stage face, complete with drama, off-to-the-distance stares, pouts and magic in their eyes. We all realize we're doing the same face and burst out in laughter.

This play, a product of years of participatory research, was the action component of the project. For 2 years, the lives of Filipino women migrants working as domestic workers in New York City who are active in families in the Philippines was the topic of a participatory action research (PAR) project in New York City. Along with the Filipino migrants, 1.5 and second generation Filipino Americans who were youth, students and professionals in NYC also took part in learning how to do research, conducting kuwentohan or talk-story sessions, and then producing a play as a form of disseminating findings. 

The article, "Ang Ating Iisang Kuwento" Our Collective Story: Migrant Filipino Workers and Participatory Action Research, explores the dynamics in creating new methods through participatory action research. The article considers Filipino cultural values of kuwentohan and theater as epistemologically significant to Filipino women as they conduct research on the institutions and social forces that produce their transnational families.

With 5,000 Filipinos leaving the Philippines daily, a little than over half of them being women, this story of separation and migration will continue. The women who experience the pain of migration and who come together to hold one another, must be at the forefront of telling their stories. This article explores how scholars can partner migrants and community members to take on the task. Dr. Tere Castillo Burguete writes, “Migrants are commonly a vulnerable population, and women are part of that as an even more exposed group. It is necessary to hear their stories. It is important to know about the political potential of PAR. That is the challenge that the author of this article undertook, i.e., to pave a portion of the long road that still needs to be traveled."

This article is a one of a number of ways the findings of this PAR project is being disseminated. As you read through the article, view pictures and clips of the play, I want to continue thinking about these questions: How do PAR researchers use play, creativity and artistry as a research method? What role does art play in our research projects, for our research collaborators, for us as scholars? What can social science learn from performance? And vice versa?

I look forward to continuing this discussion with you. Please feel free to offer comments or questions below. 
Valerie Francisco

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Our Photovoice journey: An act of exhausting bravery

Our paper brings you more than just “lessons learned,” instead, we show you how fears are deeply embedded in the political statements that our photographs attempt to visualize.  These fears, however, are interlaced by hope, conviction, strength and the belief that our voices, as U.S. Latinas, are needed to frame those political statements.

Initially, the North Portland HEAL Photovoice project hoped to use photographs to understand the everyday lives of Latino immigrant families in North Portland, however, we ran with the project and used photographs to bring forth our voices (which are either submerged or obscured by institutional practices that claim to speak for us). In short, we wanted to make a political statement about U.S. Latinas as creators of knowledge.

Political statements, however, bring out doubts and forces mujeres have to be brave.  The work that you see in these pages, while brave, is also extremely exhausting.  We write about the need to speak up in order to enact change but also write about the fear that often mutes the voices of women of color.   We fear that our experiential knowledge as Latinas could be swept aside. During the project we also came to realize how the many forms of oppression that operate at every level of society, especially in those the institutions that we participate in, could affect how we participated in this project. Finally, we feared that there would be limits to how much change our photographs could make in our communities.

This article is not a manual. It is just one way that one can use participatory action approaches to truly and sincerely give voice to those in our communities.  Our modification of the Photovoice methodology, which we dubbed as Mujerista Photovoice, is an invitation to challenge the way we do methods so we can make more visible the remaining work that needs to be done.

We look forward to continuing this discussion with you! Please offer comments or questions!

Angie Pamela Mejia, Olivia Quiroz, Yolanda Morales, Ruth Ponce, Graciela Limon Chavez, and Elizabeth Olivera y Torre

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When organizational politic work within and against action research in a school community

For years, action research has been a tool teachers (and others) have used to address a wide variety of issues.  Whether addressing a school-wide curriculum concern,

addressing a problem of practice in their classroom, or struggling to connect with an individual student, teachers around the globe are using action research as a means to empower themselves and those around them to effect change.

Our article in the Action Research Journal looks at one principal’s attempt to mandate action research for all those in her school community.  Knowing the power of action research, the principal believed that this type of research would provide the teachers with a tool to enact change.  By empowering her teachers, she believed that she could ensure that ALL children receive the educations they deserve.

Interestingly (but not surprisingly according to the literature), this mandate—born out of her desire to empower teachers—caused a wide variety of tensions in the schools.  In our article, “Politics and Action Research: An Examination of One School’s Mandated Action Research Program,” we examine the ways that organizational politics worked within and against the action research program. 

While excellent work was produced by many of the teachers, the action research program uncovered historical tensions in the school and pitted factions of teachers against one another.  As researchers connected with the school and its teachers, we found these events fascinating.  Throughout our time with the school, we asked ourselves questions such as:

            • Why do some educators bristle at the thought of mandated professional development even when they are given the autonomy to enact their own agency?

            • What would it take to authentically engage an entire school in the action research process?

            • How do we encourage thoughtful administrators—who simply want to engage teachers in providing quality educational experiences for all children—to pursue action research as a viable option for professional development?

While our intent is not to support or reject mandated action research programs in schools, we believe the tale we tell in our article will give others pause as they design professional development opportunities for their schools.  

We truly believe in the power of action research, and we look forward to thinking through the questions above with you!

Ryan Flessner and Shanna Stuckey

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Recognizing and Developing Young Mothers’ Leadership Capacity Through Participatory Research

During graduate school, I taught in an interdisciplinary leadership program full of inspiring and interesting students, all of whom were used to being identified as ‘leaders’. As an undergraduate student, I was the Executive Vice-President of my university students’ union. Before that, I was on my high school student council, I ran leadership camps for other students, and I was often the ‘go-to’ student when a teacher needed someone to take on a project. I was, by all standard accounts, a young leader.

Adults and young people alike treated me like a leader, told me that I was a leader, and believed that I had leadership skills. I was often involved in decisions that affected me. As a result, I too believed that my voice mattered, so when my voice wasn’t invited, I had no problem offering it.

“Is this for real”? Participatory Research, Intersectionality, and the Development of Leader and Collective Efficacy with Young Mothers, is about a different leadership story. It’s the story of the recognition and development of leadership capacity with young people – young mothers to be precise – who are rarely, if ever, thought of as leaders (or citizens).

Over 10 months, I worked with a group of 11 young mothers who were simultaneously raising children, completing high school, and managing complex personal living situations. They were also becoming, through the youth participatory action research (Y-PAR) project I present in this article, community researchers. In turn, they made recommendations about provincial level child protection policy, from the perspective of young parents living in one province in Eastern Canada.

In “Is this for real”?, I describe our Y-PAR process, and highlight the benefit of intersectionality as a theoretical orientation to research with young mothers. I also struggle with the challenge of inviting historically marginalized youth (in this case, young mothers) to invest their time and energy into Y-PAR, and into creating recommendations that all too often fall on deaf ears. I offer some modest suggestions for making Y-PAR’s societal impact more “real” for participants, and for policy. It is not the ‘typical’ story of youth leadership, or of young mothers, but it is a story worth telling. Young mothers, not in spite of, but because of, their identities and experiences, should be thought of as leaders and citizens with expertise to share.      

What do you think about young mothers’ involvement in participatory research? In policy-making? How can we further expand the way we think and talk about youth leadership?

I welcome your thoughts on comments below.

Leah

LLevac atsign uofguelph dot ca

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Living well with dementia

       Diagnosed with dementia (probable Alzheimer’s) in her early 80s, I first met Ana when she was 84 years of age. Unique in her way of life, Ana had lived on the same section of land nearly all her life. What is more, she had lived alone for over 35 years in the house she had built for herself and her mother over 40 years previously. She had no immediate family, but friends who knew her well and supported her, were of the opinion that, despite her age and failing memory, it would be best if she could stay in her own home. I used to call on Ana, to make sure she was safe and well and to help her shop for groceries. In those days, a meal was delivered Monday to Friday by ‘Meals on Wheels’ and Ana would stretch that one meal over lunch and dinner. She also had a caregiver who came in two mornings a week to help her shower. On other days she would get up and dress by herself before preparing her breakfast which consisted of cornflakes, a banana, and a pot of tea. Another caregiver came in on Saturdays to check on her, otherwise she fended for herself.

 So began a relationship from which I would learn a great deal about the intricacies of dementia. For instance, people with dementia are often said to be confused, but exactly how does one define confusion? The Collins Concise Dictionary (2001) defines it as “lacking a clear understanding of something, mistaking a person or thing for another, bewilderment, lack of clarity, and disorder” (p. 184).

Image of Portrait of Una Platts used with
permission from Auckland Gallery

This definition and others like it lead us to think that people with dementia live in a state of bewilderment, and their actions or responses are always muddled somehow. In my dealings with Ana, I found misunderstandings or ‘confusion’ could easily be rectified if information was put into context. This served to refresh knowledge that was previously known but had been forgotten. Alternatively, it may be that presenting the facts in a simple and straightforward manner enabled Ana, who was very astute, to use her innate sense of judgment to make rational decisions.

     In trying to work out her likes and dislikes, I asked Ana one day if she had previously done her own cooking and housework. She replied “certainly not if I could help it.” When asked what she used to eat she said with a smile, “An egg thing.” “What’s an egg thing?” “An egg and anything in the cupboard.” With her declining capacity to care for herself, these skills, or lack of them, took on a new significance which is why her friends sought help from a community support service. However, all too often other people (caregivers) assigned to help Ana wanted to clean the house, but that was not at all what she wanted. Ana’s home reflected her passion for painting, portraits and reading. She liked it as it was and she would not tolerate anyone trying to change her way of life.

Instead, Ana wanted to engage in conversation, she derived great pleasure from talking to people and was always interested in hearing about other people’s life. She was an articulate and accomplished raconteur who could talk to anyone. In particular, she liked to reminisce and, given the opportunity, to talk about art. Her knowledge and skill were obvious and she could usually remember significant detail when it came to art. Alas, the fact that she often told the same story over and over again, or asked the same questions repeatedly, was a trial to many caregivers and they would leave because they lost patience with her ‘confusion’. Consequently, Ana’s support system was unreliable, and what was worse, often those who came upset her because they wanted to enforce their values in her home. They didn’t understand Ana’s needs and underestimated her capacity to make decisions.  Insights such as these made me realize how wrong it is to judge people with dementia and more, how social perceptions of dementia impact on people’s ability to live well with dementia. Ultimately, my experiences with Ana took me on a journey that I would never have anticipated.

I look forward to continuing this discussion with you! Please feel free to offer comment or question.

Grace O’Sullivan

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The Importance of the Second Loop in Educational Technology: An Action Science study of introducing blogging in a course curriculum

Integrating new Internet based technologies into the classroom will be a major, ongoing task for educators over the coming years.  The readable/writable web changes our relationships with information along with the traditional student/teacher relationships.  In the  The Importance of the Second Loop in Educational Technology:  An Action Science study of introducing blogging in a course curriculum we describe an Action Science approach based on the work of Chris Argyris and Donald Schon for reorienting the organizational structure of the class in a 21^st century information ecology. 

We attempted to develop a blogcentric curriculum that does not just use educational blogging as an addendum to the curriculum (as many early attempts to use blogging have done), but as a central component that mirrors the way the Internet is used outside of the classroom. The major point of this paper is found in its title – we found that we really only made progress in when opening ourselves up to a second loop of learning.

Integration of the Internet into educational process does and we believe will continue to change the governing variables of the classroom.  Action science offers a framework for exploring and understanding the deep organizational changes to teaching and learning engendered by the introduction of the Internet as a true partner in education.

I look forward to continuing this discussion with you! Please feel free to offer comment or question. FREE access to this article for the next 30 days is available through this link.

Michael Glassman