Participatory Action Research, Planning and Evaluation: A hands-on learning event

Learn and apply new skills and tools for participatory action research, planning and evaluation. Build on what people know but also their capacity to learn, discover, and act on reality.

Originating with the pioneering work of Kurt Lewin and the Tavistock Institute, participatory action research (PAR) is a well-documented tradition of collective reasoning and evidence-based learning for social change. Taken together, the various formulations of PAR (pragmatic, critical, psycho-analytic) constitute a robust alternative to positivism’s denial of human agency and justice in the global era.

This three-day workshop in London (UK) engages people in hands-on learning and practice using flexible and rigorous PAR tools developed and tested by an international community of practice in settings around the world. Participants will learn and apply practical tools for exploring problems, knowing the actors and assessing options. These tools and associated skills provide people with opportunities to mobilize knowledge from various sources and support collaborative thinking and planning for social change. Coaching support as follow-up to the workshop will help participants adapt and sequence tools for specific organizational contexts including monitoring and evaluation and grassroots capacity building initiatives (campaigns, advocacy, etc.).

The workshop is designed for people in the non-governmental, voluntary, academic, private and government sectors who are involved in community-based initiatives, workplace and organizational learning, action-research and facilitation of multistakeholder consultations. By the end of the workshop all participants will have:

Examined the fundamentals of participation in planning, inquiry, monitoring and evaluation;
Applied basic and advanced tools to real-life situations or proposed actions directly meaningful to workshop participants;
Discussed challenges and ways to manage them, including engagement with funders and non-literate communities of interests.

The fee for individuals is �550, or �500 per person for groups of 3-4 from the same organization or community of stakeholders (contact Daniel Buckles for further details on group registration, or for in-house workshops). The fee includes registration, a 110 page handbook of tools and post-workshop coaching support (2 hours via skype and email). Space is limited to 18 places, so please register early.

The agenda is organized into four modules: Planning systems that learn, Exploring problems, Knowing the actors, and Assessing options. Some tools are practiced in depth while others are introduced as a ‘window’ for self-study.

Click here or a detailed agenda.

You can download the course handbook at: http://www.participatoryactionresearch.net/skillful-means.

For testimonials, background and details on the approach, see www.participatoryactionresearch.net.

Your instructor: Daniel Buckles is the Co-Director of SAS2 Dialogue and an Adjunct Research Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. He is co-author, with Jacques M. Chevalier, of Participatory Action Research: Theory and Methods for Engaged Inquiry (Routledge, UK. 2013). Other recent publications focus on the experience of inequality among India’s adivasi communities (Fighting Eviction: Tribal Land Rights and Research-in-Action, Cambridge University Press, 2013) and research with farmers in Bangladesh trying to break their dependency on tobacco production. As senior staff at the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) for 10 years Dr. Buckles scouted research talent and helped design more than 60 research projects on rural poverty, biodiversity conservation and urban environment. Previously, he was a Senior Scientist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) in Mexico and a Rockefeller Foundation Fellow.

At least one advanced practitioner will assist Dr. Buckles during the workshop.

Become part of a worldwide community of researchers, facilitators, activists and evaluators that bring a shared vision of dialogue and action learning to life in communities, workplaces, educational institutions and the public sector.

Participants are encouraged to bring real-life proposals and projects to the workshop so they can learn and create useful results along the way. Include other stakeholders in your workshop group (communities of interests) to make the experience even more meaningful, useful and evidence-based.