A radical holistic edge-fusion learning space with a collection of really useful collaborative tools for making social-ecological just change.
A radical holistic edge-fusion learning space with a collection of really useful collaborative tools for making social-ecological just change.
Workshops
HEdge Space
A Holistic Do-it-Together Tool kit.
Radical creative & holistic workshops to support people bring about just change, together
Research Process Overview
About the Research Methodology
Participatory Action Research (PAR)
PAR is a collaborative democratic research approach which originated from radical adult education and social movements. It has a philosophy about knowledge (epistemology) which challenges the way knowledge is produced in the academy decontextualised from the lives of ordinary people effected by the issues being researched. It also challenges who benefits from this approach to knowledge making, who can and should produce knowledge, and asks what is valid knowledge and who decides. PAR is also about acting on social and environmental problems rather than answering a research question.
Therefore, in PAR, people outside of academic contexts can take a leading role in research as active collaborative decision makers informing the research direction drawing from their own lived experience of these issues, rather than simply being participants in a research study responding to set research questions posed by a researcher.
​
PAR WAS SELECTED AS THE CORE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY FOR THIS PROJECT AS IT ENABLES THE HOLISTIC LEARNING FOR ACTION TOOLS BEING DESIGNED FOR THE PUBLIC TO BE CO-CREATED WITH THE PUBLIC. THIS MAKES THE RESEARCH MORE USEFUL AND RELEVANT TO THE PUBLIC WHO WILL ULTIMATELY USE THEM.​ AS THE DISABILITY MANTRA GOES, 'NOTHING ABOUT US WITHOUT US'. ( ) Charlton, J. (1998) Nothing About Us Without Us: Disability Oppression and Empowerment
​
​
​​​
​​
PAR places emphasis on ‘collective self-reflective enquiry,
the co-construction of knowledge, and the development of skills for
speaking back to power and organizing for change with others’
(Kemmis and McTaggart 1998, p. 5).
​
'PAR is collaborative research, learning & action used to gather information to use for change on social or environmental issues. It involves people who are concerned about or affected by an issue taking a leading role in producing and using knowledge about it (Pain et al., 2011, p 2).
​
​
PAR is distinct because:
• it is driven by a group of people who have a stake in the social and environmental issues being researched
• it offers a democratic model of who can produce, own and use knowledge,
• it can be collaborative at every stage, involving discussion, pooling skills and working together.
• it is intended to result in some action, change or improvement on the issue being researched' (Kindon 2008).
​​​​​​​​​​​
​​​
PAR is complex then as it must be both open and responsive to the co-researchers research needs, which may not be known at the start of the research, whilst also building in experienced support (scaffolding) for the group to undertake their inquiry and action activities together as they become known. ​​
Praxis (Freire, 1970) is an iterative process approach used in PAR & Radical Adult Education which enables groups of learners/researchers to figure out what they want to do together & why. It is the core process used continuously throughout this research. Our praxis practice therefore holds all the other practice processes used, the people participating, the workshops undertaken, and the analysis of the research together.
Giselle Harvey: Digital Illustration of Praxis, 2022
Praxis is a form of experiential learning specifically orientated to emancipatory social justice change making. Without this explicit orientation it is not Praxis in the Freirean tradition.
In this research we did a cycle of Praxis at every workshop. This enabled people to think about their motivations for participating in the research, for example, the social-environmental concerns they had, or challenges they were encountering in making change using their current activist practice. They could also explore what they wanted to learn,
do or change together as a research informed action to address their needs in change-making contexts
In this way, each praxis workshop informed the next, with post workshop reflections including questions about what we needed to do at each subsequent workshop to move the research forward. This enabled co-researchers to claim voice and power in the research within a facilitated but open and responsive process. It also ensured that a continuous form of research analysis was built into each workshop through the reflection process. This is slow work as people come to understand each other, the process, and their purpose, and co-devise their aims and objectives within the overarching research context and reflect on its activist value. While the purpose of PAR is to give meaningful power and agency to the co-researching community, If needed, more structure and support can be offered to the group.
It is also important to note that PAR, though democratic and process led, is not a process in which anything goes. It is a negotiated process based on agreements underpinned by the values of emancipatory practice, such as equality, respect, care, commitment and authentic engagement with the process.​
​When the final workshop was concluded a very long final praxis analysis process was undertaking by me, as the lead researcher. This involved processing all the knowledge (data) that was produced during the PhD to identify and curate what 'contribution to knowledge' has been created through the research. In traditional research the priority is a contribution to scholarship, however PARs purpose is to generate knowledge for social movements, it must be useful to the co-researching community first and foremost. Co-researchers ideally would bring perspective to this final analysis but due to a variety of circumstances this did not occur (see exegesis for more). PAR is essentially a research approach based on a set of principles which people endeavor to apply to the context they are working within. Their is often a gap between the ideal process and the reality of the process actually unfolding in life with real people with real life struggles, a gap we have to navigate with flexibility and a degree of acceptance of life's chaos, especially for those who are marginalized. PAR within a PhD is particularly challenging due to the institutional lenses on research, constraints of the timeline, and the requirements of a formally assessed PhD. PAR being subject to formal assessment does of course come into conflict with the ethos of PAR and radical adult education, practices which challenge the nature and purpose of formal education and accreditation and its role in maintaining the status que of inequality. In contexts outside of the academy PAR could be evaluated by the co-researching community through the lens of collective responsibility, an NGO, state agency or funders for example.
In group work, praxis is often undertaken through verbal communication.
In this research a holistic approach to praxis was taken, using embodied and experiential tools such as making art, craft, technology,
and working in, or with, nature, as a less verbal approach to praxis.
_edited.jpg)
The call for co-researchers was made through print and online posters which invited people from the general public interested in collective
social-environmental change-making to come to art-based participatory action outreach workshops. ​​
The call was made through print and online posters which invited people from the general public interested in collective social-environmental change-making to come to art-based participatory action outreach workshops.
​
Initially, the outreach approach was based on an outdoor public intervention workshop titled [EM] Powergeneration, a type of creative Public STEAM workshop. This workshop would exemplify the holistic (transdisciplinary) tools that were to be co-researched experientially through practice. Due to a number of issues, this outreach workshop was not actioned.
​
This led to a slight reshaping of the beginning of the research to a more art focused adult & community education outreach workshop than the holistic workshop approach originally designed. The details of these issues and the changes they brought about are contained in the accompanying exegesis (a practice based research report).
However, the [EM] Powergeneration workshop did develop during a later phase of the research. This lead to other workshops and resources being generated by the lead Researcher, Giselle Harvey, who designed and initiated the research PhD.