Provides advice on conducting focus-group research in institutions of higher learning based on experiences with groups of university business-school students. Lists and discusses steps in focus group research, including determining research questions, determining sampling frames, selecting moderators, developing a discussion guide, recruiting…

Clarifies the characteristics of participatory research that distinguish it from other forms of research aimed at generating action. Discusses the role of ordinary people in motivating and sustaining research efforts, the nature of the knowledge generated, and the social-change mechanism embedded in participatory research. (Author/CCM)

Reflects on a researcher's journey while embarking on a study that was political in its intentions and participatory in its orientation. Discusses a doctoral-research study that was a critical ethnography of a school and community engaged in a socially critical approach to environmental education. (Author/CCM)

Explores the processes, impacts, and implications of initiating elementary preservice teachers into the realm of teacher-as-researcher. (Author/CCM)

Reports part of a qualitative research study that used participatory action research and grounded action research to show how facilitators of virtual teams build and maintain online relationships. Focuses on how virtual team facilitators use Internet-based and conventional electronic communication channels to build personal relationships with team…

In Zimbabwe, agricultural extension agents took a participatory approach involving farmers in experimentation and research. The attitude changes required for participatory approaches were highly dependent upon personalities and required major changes in planning, training, monitoring, and evaluating. (SK)

This case study of a commission charged with studying consolidation of two Minnesota towns illustrates the processes of identifying research needs, citizen participation in research, education of the public, and decision making on a highly controversial public issue. (SK)

A participatory research project sought to define community education needs, locate resources, and ensure the sustainability of educational development. Results were used to expand Hall's participatory research model by describing the project through four perspectives: concrete (what was done), communicative (what was said), cognitive (what was…

Concept mapping is a participant-based methodology that involves three processes: participant generation of ideas or experiences about a specific question, grouping together responses through an unstructured card sort by participants, and statistical analysis of card-sort results using multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis. A research…

Projects involving mental health clients receiving occupational therapy and senior citizens engaged in capacity building illustrate steps in the participatory action research (PAR) process: issue identification and planning; investigation and action; action, reflection, and modification cycles; and knowledge creation and change. Challenges and…

The author comments on Meredith Minkler's article, "Ethical Challenges for the "Outside" Researcher in Community-Based Participatory Research," Health Education & Behavior 31(6):684-697, 2004 [see EJ824234]. Specifically, this commentary notes along with Minkler that, in relation to the relatively uncharted territory of Community-Based…

Peer led focus groups, a qualitative social science research method, and their use with young people are examined. The paper outlines three developments that have contributed to their emergence, namely: traditional focus groups, peer education and participatory research. Drawing on a study in progress, the advantages and challenges associated with…

A community-campus health partnership was formed in 1999. To determine health partnership priorities, it was collaboratively decided that an assessment of the community's health needs and interests was necessary. This article describes a community-based participatory research project: namely, a door-to-door survey to assess community health needs…

This paper presents the final analysis of a mixed methodological study of participatory action research (PAR) as professional development. The participants were administrators and teachers studying extreme educational disadvantage caused by homeless and transient living conditions. Two questions are answered: 1. What was the experience of…

Based on ethnographic, participatory research in two Salvadoran villages, this article analyzes how features of the sociocultural setting bred discord and mistrust among the participants in an adult literacy program and other community residents, thereby undermining the program's goal of equipping "campesinos" to work together to improve…