1.9 From viewpoints to action
A community-based research project does not have to be a large project. The video features Mezid Al-Shaher, Maths teacher, School of Hope and Asma Hussein al-Wahah, language teacher at Multi-Aid Programs (MAPs). We recommend watching the videos with English subtitles as they contain both English and Arabic.
It can be quite personal, and individual, and still have the effect of making an important change for the people around you. In this video we hear from two teachers who recognised problems for their students.
Mezid wanted to help his students think more creatively, not just follow a procedure. Asma worried about her pupils who were always late coming to school. Both of them had done a short course on ‘action research’. This is very similar to ‘community-based research’ but describes how individuals can do their own research on how to improve their own local practices, rather than focusing on the wider community.
The main idea, once you have identified a concern, or a community goal, is to move through a repeating cycle of design – test – redesign to make sure your practice is improving (1):
- take stock of what is going on
- identify a concern
- think of a possible way forward
- try it out
- monitor the action by gathering data to show what is happening
- evaluate progress by establishing procedures for making judgements about what is happening
- test the validity of claims to knowledge
- modify practice in light of the evaluation
A key difference is that for an individual’s action research the goal is their own professional goal. For community-based research the goal is more focused on improving the wellbeing and prosperity of the community, so it has to involved the stakeholders in defining the goal.
But action research is a good place to start, as it is small-scale and individual. And both Mezyad and Asma show how they worked hard to find out the perspectives of others – the children and their families – to better understand the concerns they had identified. If you have an idea for such a project, make notes in the Research Notebook.
Article
For more guidance on action research, read through this article on action research (1).
Exercise
The Slum Dwellers International adopted a similar approach, but involved the whole community. Watch the video to hear what they did.
This is an additional video, hosted on YouTube.
Then see how we can map their approach to the action research stages in the Article [see Downloads below].
Bibliography
- McNiff J, Whitehead J. All you need to know about action research, 2nd edition. SAGE Publications. 2nd ed. Sage; 2011.
Over to you
In the forum, please discuss why did these projects succeed in making a difference – what can we learn from them?