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…

This paper narrates the development of a project developed by four researchers with differing approaches to qualitative research. The aim of the study was to examine the value of a school-based approach to pedagogy and curriculum subjects for pre-service teachers. What emerged from our collaboration was the accommodation of significant differences…

This article identifies problems, issues and insights through critical reflection on the rules, written and unwritten, which encroach on the research process in the "Both Ways" project. The project investigates the development and sustainability of remote Aboriginal children's services in the Northern Territory (NT) of Australia.…

Worldwide there seems to be an interest in enhancing the student learning experience through particularly interactive learning, which is an educational philosophy that places the student at the centre of the learning process. Such an approach acknowledges the educational contexts from which students come. What is even more important is the fact…

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…

A year-and-a-half of ethnographic fieldwork in a primarily African-American neighborhood suggests that praxis and ethnographic methods can be stirred together to produce empowering literacy artifacts and discourse in the community. Originally a Marxist notion, praxis requires researchers to understand how people characterize their own situations…