Proposes a community-based research (CBR) model that is genuinely collaborative and driven by community rather than campus interests; that democratizes the creation and dissemination of knowledge; and that seeks to achieve positive social change. Demonstrates how this model translates into principles that underlie the practice of CBR in four…

Scandinavian approaches to action research aim at democratizing work life as well as the research process. The model emerging today aims to make change and learning a self-generating and self-maintaining process. (SK)

Universities of the Third Age are developing the research facet of their mission. In this model, the senior citizen is both the object and the agent of research, being involved in action research that transforms their subjective impressions and intuitions into objective knowledge with which to transform their environment. (Author/SK)

Answers the following questions about transformative research: (1) is the concept needed? (2) does it represent a new methodology? (3) how does it relate to social movements? and (4) is it limited to postindustrial societies? (SK)

Describes aspects of participatory action research and considers advantages of using participatory action research in research by disabilities and rehabilitation researchers. Notes that participatory action research can be built into any rehabilitation research design but that it rests upon the recognition of persons with disabilities as integral…

Previous research on program implementation is integrated and extended to form a participatory approach to evaluating program implementation. This method focuses on the continuous active involvement of program developers, managers, and staff in the evaluation process. The methodology is applied to an actual program to highlight the steps involved.…

A pilot sustainable-development project in Scotland trained community participants in participatory research and involved them in investigating local quality-of-life issues and presenting them to the community. The project revealed ways to improve the program by increasing involvement of local social movement groups and resolving conflicts of…

Opposing inherent biases in traditional research, feminist research methods acknowledge the worthiness of all human experience and emphasize changed relationships between researcher and researched. A more integrative feminist theory needs to avoid cultural imperialism and an implied universality of "women's experience." (SK)

Compares three perspectives on contextual literacy and gives examples of program settings with which each is philosophically congruent: (1) literacy as social practices, focused on use in daily life; (2) functional context literacy, mastery of concrete tasks embedded in environments; and (3) critical literacy, analysis of oppression and use of…

This article provides an overview of several core theoretical and practical aspects of participatory action research (PAR). An effort is made to define PAR and the types of work that fall under that rubric. Historical underpinnings, roles of the individuals involved, contexts, methods, and the challenges and benefits of this mode of inquiry are…

Poor mothers have long-standing habits of hiding their lives in response to punitive authorities and stigma. We identify practices of hiding daily life, and we describe participatory research approaches for and ethical concerns in learning more about poor women's critical insights and survival strategies.

Building the research capacity of the vocational education and training (VET) sector is a key concern for the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER). To assist with this objective, NCVER supports an academic scholarship program, whereby VET practitioners are sponsored to undertake university study at honours', master's or…

Community participation in program decision-making and implementation is an ideal that community and academic stakeholders aspire to in participatory research. This ideal, however, can be difficult to achieve. We describe lessons learned about community participation from a quasi-experimental trial aimed at reducing the uptake of smoking among…

It has been argued that research that employs qualitative methods among vulnerable groups, such as people with learning disabilities, must reconcile the conflict between meeting recognized academic criteria, or measures of research "strength", while at the same time appropriately and effectively representing the experiences and needs of…

The search for new designs for improving parent involvement is a common issue in many schools today. The notion of local control of education in First Nations communities in Canada is directly linked to the need for parental involvement in schooling. This study utilizes a participatory research approach to examine views on community involvement…