Action resarch

2004 -- Mahabalipuram, kids who live at the beach. If I was to engage in Action Research I would probably want to figure out who these kids are and get involved in their day to day activites.

Action Research--Collaborative Research
- Participatory Action Research (PAR)
prioritizes context-specific dialogue-- a collective commitment to investigate an issue or problem. Desire to engage in self and collective reflection to gain clarity about the issues under investigation. 


If I were to conduct PAR with the group of kids from Mahapalipuram I would investigate why they are not in school and if they are a portion of a larger number of kids who live at the beach. I would interview members of this community to ascertain what is happening and I would try to gain the trust of these children in order to investigate their living, working, housing situation further. 

- Social Justice oriented
Engage individual and/or collective action that leads to a useful solution that benefits the people involved

To engage in a social justice oriented approach with the aforementioned children from the beach. They are known colloquially as "gypsy" kids. I would try to improve the lives of these children to see if I can help them without being intrusive or distinctly "American" in my outlook. 

- Collaboration
Building of alliances between researchers and participants in the planning, implementation, dissemination of research process

I think collaboration is probably my favorite approach because it blurs the line between the researcher and the researched and information is co-created. I think this would be the approach I would most like to try with these kids to figure out what they do and how they get by. Maybe they make art, that would be super interesting to figure out and discuss. 

Important influences--Stringer, Torre

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