Dialogue, Action Learning and Evaluation: A hands-on learning event 

Learn and apply new approaches to dialogue, action learning and evaluation.

This two-day workshop in Ottawa (Canada) engages people in hands-on learning and practice using process design concepts and flexible participatory tools developed and tested by the instructors in settings around the world. The lead Instructor is Daniel J. Buckles, co-author of Participatory Action Research: Theory and Methods for Engaged Inquiry (Routledge, 2013). The fee for individuals with not-for-profit organizations is $345.00 plus HST ($396, inclusive). The fee for consultants and government is $425.00 plus HST ($488.00 inclusive).
Contact the organizer for information on a group fee for 3 - 5 people from the same organization.

The workshop is designed for people in the voluntary, academic, private and government sectors who need to engage groups in collaborative problem-solving and evaluation. By the end of the workshop all participants will have:

• Examined the fundamentals of process design;
• Practiced the use of basic and advanced tools to assess problems, actors, and options;
• Applied design concepts and tools to their own projects (including evaluations);
• Discussed challenges and ways to manage them.

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.

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

Click here for a detailed agenda. Click here to download a brief presentation on evaluation fit-for-purpose.

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

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 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. 

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.