Participatory Action Research - Feminist Trailblazers & Good Troublemakers

In this episode, we speak with Dr. Honor Ford-Smith about her successes and her challenges in bringing feminist values and ways of being to participatory action research with black working-class women in Jamaica as well as communities affected by violence. Dr. Ford-Smith discusses reimagining participatory action research through collaborative or collective performance theater as an approach to knowledge creation and action.

Dr. Ford-Smith retired from York University in Toronto, Canada, where she was an Associate Professor in the Community Arts Practice Program, which was under the Faculty of Environmental Studies. She's currently an Artist-in-Residence at the School of Drama in Edna Manley College, Kingston, Jamaica, where she's working on her newest project - Memory, My City, My Home. She is also the co-founder of the Sistren Theatre Collective. Dr. Ford-Smith is an activist, artist, scholar, theater worker, and poet. Her work emphasizes the intersections of race, decolonization, and globalization in the Caribbean and its diaspora. She engages in community-based, socially-engaged, collaborative performance theater.

The conversation starts with exploring our guest’s journey into community-engaged participatory research (02:26). Topics discussed include the accomplishments and the knowledge production through Sistren collective (05:18); challenges and reception of plays depicting Black women's experiences in Jamaica (12:00), feminist research and action through the Caribbean Association of Feminist Research and Action (19:50); arts-based workshops and the Letters from the Dead project (30:16), Vigil for Roxie and collaborative performance through participatory research (37:59); community-engaged performance creation and Song for the Beloved (42:58); collaborative and collective theater for social change (52:44), and new forms of art for social change, including the digital mapping project (55:43). Tune in to hear more!

In this episode, we speak with Dr. Maggie O'Neill about her journey into the transformative possibilities of participatory research in working with female sex workers and migrants and re-imagining participatory action research through biographical, ethnographic methods, and performative arts. 

Dr. Maggie O'Neill is Professor in Sociology and Criminology at University College Cork, where she's also Director of the Institute for Social Science in the 21st Century and UCC Collective Social Futures. She is an interdisciplinary scholar with a long history of research in critical, cultural, and feminist theories, using creative, participatory, walking, art-based biological methodologies, and Praxis. Her work also extends to policy relevant interventions, especially related to sex work, migration, and sexual violence. Her latest book, Criminal Women: Gender Matters was co-authored with a group of feminists using biographical, narrative, and participatory methods. Maggie is also an elected member of the Royal Irish Academy, which is the highest academic honor in Ireland. She is an avowed feminist, and her unwavering commitment is to creating intellectual and practical spaces and processes to include women's voices, particularly marginalized women, in research and policymaking.

The conversation starts with exploring our guest’s journey into Participatory Action Research (02:48). Topics discussed include biographical and ethnographic methods, and performative arts used in Prostitute Outreach Workers Project (04:12), Participatory Action Research in partnership with forced migrants, women in migration and transnational communities (10:18), Situational Authority and Power dynamics (13:59), Impact on agency leaders, personnel on policy(16:10), Barriers in doing Partcipatory Action Research with sex workers and migrants and collaborating with various groups (21:18), Relationship building, collaboration and starting with Participatory Action Research (27:20), Ethics of care and caring (31:46), Open access and research (36:37), and  collaborative focus on feminist participatory action research and the power of theatre, in participatory research and participatory arts (41:54) Tune-in to hear more!

In this episode, we speak with Dr. Rauni Räsänen and Dr. Mervi Kaukko about their journey into the transformative potential of education and reforming teacher education through action research in Finland.  

Dr. Rauni Räsänen is a Professor Emerita in the Faculty of Education at the University of Oulu University, Finland. In the 1960s, she started as a primary and secondary school teacher and a provisional supervisor for language teaching. Dr. Räsänen was also a Fulbright Scholar in the U.S. in the 1970s. She completed the first action research PhD in the field of . education in Finland. At Oulu University, she coordinated two groundbreaking international programs, the Master of Education International Program (which is now Intercultural Teacher Education) and the Education and Globalization Master's Program. Her research interests are ethics of education, teachers’ professional ethics, diversity in education, inclusive education, intercultural education, and international or global education. She also worked as a member of the National UNESCO Commission.

Dr. Mervi Kaukko is a Professor of Multicultural Education at Tampere University in Finland. Dr. Kaukko, in her PhD research, worked with unaccompanied asylum-seeking girls in a Finnish reception center. This participatory action research focused on the participation in PAR of unaccompanied girls, taking into consideration the intersection of their status, their gender, their age, ethnicity and so forth.  Her most recent action research projects focus on refugee and asylum-seeking children in Finland and Australia. She is also the Finnish coordinator of an International Action Research Practice Theory Network - Pedagogy, Education and Praxis. 

The conversation starts with exploring our guests’ journey into Participatory Action Research (04:11). Topics discussed include reforming teacher education through Participatory Action Research in Finland (04:43), students' participation in improving university programs (11:02), Feminist theories and perspectives in action research in Finland (14:22), challenges integrating Intersectional Feminisms (19:02), Intersectional Feminisms or Action Research as an approach to knowledge creation (22:38), Action Research and relationship building (27:33), collaboration and starting with Participatory Action Research (32:57), and Action research within teacher education (42:03). Tune-in to hear more!

In this episode, we speak with our guests Dr. Naomi Joy Godden, Trimita Chakma, and Kavita Naidu. Their EcoFeminist participatory action research (EcoFPAR) paradigm combines the worlds of climate justice, social activism, and Feminist Participatory Action Research for the interconnected planetary health and well-being of humans and more-than-humans.

Dr. Naomi Joy Godden is the Vice Chancellor's Research Fellow and senior lecturer at the Centre for People, Place, and Planet at Edith Cowan University in Bunbury, Wardandi Boodja, Western Australia. Naomi has 20 years of experience in community development and Feminist Participatory Action Research or FPAR for Social and Ecological Justice. She's the co-founder and chair of Just Home Margaret River, a grassroots organization for housing justice. She's been an elected Councillor for Margaret River. 

Trimita Chakma is a feminist researcher and human rights advocate for the Indigenous Chakma Hill tribe of Bangladesh. For over 12 years, she has advocated for women's rights and collaborated with hundreds of grassroots activists across Asia, the Pacific region, and Africa to utilize FPAR tools on issues as diverse as climate justice, labor, migration, land rights, and trade and economic justice. She's a member of the Kapaeeng Foundation, a human rights organization for the Indigenous Peoples of Bangladesh. 

Kavita Naidu is an international human rights lawyer and activist from Fiji. Kavita specializes in feminist climate justice for grassroots women in all their diversity. With over 16 years of experience working in the Pacific, Asia, and the United Kingdom, Kavita has worked at the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law, and Development, the United Nations Office of the High Commission for Human Rights, the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, government bodies, and the private sector.

The conversation starts with their journey into PAR, feminism, and climate justice (04:35). The topics discussed were: how FPAR works on the ground in the pacific (06:01) (11:18) and in Australia (16:49); ethical and safety risks when women engage in FPAR (22:49);  how the paradigm, theory, and approach of EcoFPAR address the potential shortcomings of FPAR, which might marginalize the rights, agency,  and voices of nature (33:58);  learning from Indigenous knowledge, Indigenous researchers, Indigenous cosmologies, and FPAR (44:19);  the reconceptualizing of FPAR as EcoFPAR and what this means for training Participatory Action Researchers (49:21), and words of wisdom for emerging, beginning feminist participatory action researchers (58:16)

In this episode, we speak with Global South Caribbean Feminists Peggy Antrobus, Norma Shorey, and Chris Ashton, and also discuss the contributions of their late colleague Pat Ellis. This episode showcases their commitments to feminist and participatory values and processes especially in reference to their work with the Women and Development Unit (WAND), University of the West Indies and its Rose Hall Participatory Research Project. They discuss their critique of Caribbean governments’ structural adjustment policies.

Peggy Antrobus is a recipient of the 1990 CARICOM Triennial Award. From 1974-77, she was the Director of the Women’s Bureau, Office of the Prime Minister, Jamaica. She set up the Women and Development Unit (WAND) at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill (1978-1995). She is a founding member of the Caribbean Association of Feminist Action and Research (CAFRA) and Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN). 

Norma Shorey was a program officer at WAND. She later joined the Canadian International Development Agency Office to be a development officer for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean. She founded Catalyst Consultants, which focuses on change facilitation, leadership, and organizational development. 

Chris Ashton was a young adult when WAND launched the Integrated Rural Development Project in Rose Hall, St. Vincent. Chris became a member of the Rose Hall Community working group. Chris has also worked as an independent consultant in the field of social policy and programs. 

The conversation starts with Peggy sharing her vision for the WAND unit and its orientation (3:20). We trace WAND’s trajectory and evolution, including the influences of feminisms and participatory values on its first participatory action research, community project in Rose Hall St. Vincent. Along with some other key works of our featured feminists, the topics of  discussions are:  WAND’s Rose Hall Participatory Evaluation and Research project for the integration of women in rural development (8:38), Chris’ involvement in the Rose Hall project (10:47), Rose Hall’s community collaboration and cooperation ethos (13:49), the impact and consequences of the Women and Men in Development workshop (19:00), the evolution of WAND and the challenges of that evolution  (33:50), WAND’s critique of Caribbean governments structural adjustment policies on women (41:33),  Peggy, Norma, and Chris’s growth and development as feminists (42:32) and how and why feminist -informed participatory action research and participatory processes still matter (48:23).

In this episode, we host Dr. Sujata Khandekar and Mumtaz Shaikh from the Committee of Resource Organizations for Literacy, now known as CORO India. CORO facilitates change through a community-based approach​​ within India's most marginalised and oppressed communities. Dr. Sujata Khandekar is one of the co-founders of CORO. She earned a Masters of Arts in Gender, Education and International Development from the University of London, and she engaged eight co-researchers in a Feminist Cooperative Inquiry Project that was part of her PhD work. She was a fellow in the MacArthur Foundation, India Leadership Development Program. 

Mumtaz Shaikh, one of seven Indians named on the British Broadcasting Corporation's 2015 list of the 100 most influential women, first started as community volunteer at CORO  in the Integrated Development Program. She has worked on gender-based violence for 20 years and was elected secretary of the Mahila Mandal Federation, a 10,000 women strong organization. She now manages CORO's grassroots movement sector. 

The conversation and knowledge produced through the production of this podcast aims to respect the diverse lived realities and languages relevant to its subject content and context. Mumtaz contributed to this episode in Hindi. One of our production managers, Shikha Diwakar, interpreted, translated, and overdubbed Mumtaz’s responses into English for our listeners. Shikha is a PhD candidate at McGill University, Canada. Her research focuses on Dalit women's identities and lived experiences in higher education. 

In today’s episode, the conversation opens with an overview of CORO’s journey (3:30) and vision to building community-led programs (9:40). Topics of discussion include Sujata and Mumtaz’s journey in CORO (7:36), Mumtaz’s journey through the Grassroots Leadership Development Program (16:43), Sujata’s PhD research (Feminist Cooperative Inquiry Project) (24:07) and Mumtaz’s experience as a co-researcher in this research (34:31), the State Level Women’s Conference led by Mumtaz and other members (40:54), CORO’s school-based gender sensitization program (54:10), and Sujata and Mumtaz’s understanding of feminisms (1:02:00). 

In this episode, we host action researcher Dr. Davydd Greenwood. During his 40-year history of action research in Spain, Norway, and New York, he explored issues as diverse as rural exodus, ethnic conflict, industrial cooperatives, participatory community development, and the role of governmental institutions in shaping and exacerbating identity politics and conflicts. He also examined the links between action research and feminisms, specifically how feminism opened new spaces for AR in universities. Dr. Greenwood is the Goldwin Smith Distinguished Professor Emeritus and Anthropology at Cornell University, where he taught for 44 years. At Cornell, he had many positions, including Director of the Einaudi Center for International Studies and Director of the Institute for European Studies. He co-founded the Cornell Participatory Action Research Network (CPARN) which is the main focus of this episode. 

The conversation opens up discussing Dr. Greenwood’s early work with Mondragon Cooperatives and the Spanish Basque community and how this shaped him as an action researcher (2:22). Topics of discussion include his early learnings from doing action research and how those insights informed his career in AR (7:40); how feminism is linked to PAR (10:58);  masculinity and critical reflexivity (16:34); the journey of CPARN and AR in democratizing research and universities (20:35); feminism and PAR (23:44); how FEM PAR influenced CPARN (26:10); how CPARN dissolved (27:10); and the upcoming third edition of the Introduction to Action Research (29:33). The conversation wraps up discussing listening and dialoguing in research (41:48).

This is our first episode paying tribute to a feminist trailblazer who is no longer with us. Dr. Martha Farrell was Director of the International Academy of Lifelong Learning of the Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA). She is known for working to end gender violence and gender harassment in the Indian workplace. In 2015, Martha Farrell was killed alongside 13 others in a Taliban attack on a guest house in Kabul, Afghanistan, while working there providing gender equity training for the Aga Khan Trust. In this episode, we honor Martha Farrell’s legacy of bringing gender justice and feminisms to PRIA and Indian civil society organizations.

In the first half of this episode, we speak with Nandita Bhatt - the first and current director of the Martha Farrell Foundation. In the second half (32:05), we talk with Rajesh Tandon, the founder and president of PRIA. They discuss Martha’s conviction that men and boys had to change to end gender violence and gender discrimination. They examine the long term impact of her innovating organizational Gender Audits.

Nandita Bhatt is a well-known Indian civil society practitioner and feminist. For over 25 years, Nandita has worked in the space of gender inclusion and prevention of sexual harassment and sexual violence against women. She is the director of the Martha Farrell Foundation. Rajesh Tandon founded the Society for Participatory Research in Asia in 1987. Dr. Tandon is internationally acclaimed for participatory research with marginalized communities and building democratic capacity in civil society. He is the UNESCO Co-Chair on Community Based Research & Social Responsibility in Higher Education

In this episode, we talk to three special guests: Michelle Fine, Cheryl Wilkins and María Elena Torre, all extensively involved in groundbreaking work combining participatory action research with social, gender, and racial justice work.  Michelle Fine is distinguished professor at the City University of New York. She's professor of critical psychology, women's studies, American studies, and Urban Education at the Graduate Center. Cheryl Wilkins is co-founder and co-director at Columbia University's Center for Justice. Cheryl is an adjunct faculty at Columbia University School of Social Work, and the Center for Justice bringing issues of mass incarceration into Columbia University's Ivy League world. María Elena Torre is director and co-founder of the Public Science Project. She's also a faculty member in critical social psychology and urban education at the City University of New York Graduate Center.

We dig in to their collaborative and long-term work using participatory action research behind and beyond prison bars, starting with the work of the Prison Research Collective at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, the building block for other PAR projects. We revisit some of their participatory and action research projects which are deeply informed by intersectional feminisms. While talking about their projects, they discuss the challenges around developing trust (7:21), how these projects are connected (21:53), the role of quantitative data in PAR (32:18), and what makes their work feminist (36:29). As we bring our conversation to an end, they share how they have been troublemakers in the world of research (54:34).  Tune in to find out more!

In this episode, our guest is activist teacher educator Alice McIntyre, known for her use of Photovoice in PAR.  She discusses the challenges of her first PAR project with white classroom teachers to make meaning of their white racial identity in a racist educational system. She talks about the power of photovoice in two long-term PAR projects, one with urban adolescents of colour to identify and act on problems they identified in their community; another with working class women in Belfast in the North of Ireland to make sense of their experience of three decades of sectarian violence. Alice explores the impact of her working-class identity on her social justice stance in higher education, and critiques how she fought battles, saying she “did go to every fight [she] was invited to.” She wraps up with advice for what potential participatory researchers should look for in a graduate program and briefly discusses how her feminism played out in projects.

Alice McIntyre teaches in the Boston College Lynch School of Education, as well as teaches and chairs dissertations at Northeastern University's College of Professional Studies doctoral program. She began her career as a classroom substitute teacher in 1980 and by 2020 was Professor Emeritus at Hellenic College in Massachusetts. She authored major PAR books, including, Making meaning of whiteness: Exploring racial identity with white teachers; Inner-City Kids: Adolescents confront life and violence in an urban community; and Women in Belfast: How violence shapes identity. With host Patricia Maguire and Mary Brydon-Miller, Alice edited the anthology Traveling Companions: Feminism, Teaching, and Action Research, in which feminist scholar-practitioners examine their work to bridge the gap between feminist and participatory action research.

In this episode Deborah Barndt and Margarita Antonio discuss their collaboration on a participatory arts-based research project called VIVA! in Nicaragua the early days of URACCAN - the University of the Autonomous Region of Nicaragua Caribbean Coast. They talk about how through that project and their collaborative relationship they brought together feminisms, participatory art-based research and indigenous cosmologies.

Margarita is a Miskitu woman from the Nicaragua Caribbean Coast. An Indigenous and feminist activist, she works with international Indigenous women promoting both their collective and individual rights, and their voice in decision-making forums. Margarita has a long career in media and journalism including community TV and in cultural revitalization.

Marjorie Mbilinyi talks with co-hosts Patricia Maguire and Jessica Oddy. Marjorie is one of the earliest feminist participatory action researchers. Since the early 1970’s Marjorie has fought for gender and class justice with transformative feminists in Tanzania and across the African continent. In this episode Marjorie discusses the gender discrimination she faced at University of Dar es Salem, the early PAR projects with rural women farmers, and the genesis of a transformative feminist coalition that created alternative feminist spaces in the university, the emerging participatory research approach arena, and the development sphere. She has been a tireless advocate for gender and class justice.

This episode is brought to you by co-hosts Patricia Maguire and Jessica Oddy and is produced by Vanessa Gold. Music is by ZakharValaha from Pixabay

Renu Khanna talks with co-hosts Patricia Maguire and Jessica Oddy. Renu is a trailblazer in participatory action researcher, particularly in women’s health and human rights.  In the early 80s, she began using PAR as part of her broader work with the Social Action for Rural and Tribal Inhabitants of India or SARTHI. Its overall purpose was to give women a meaningful voice in their own health care.                                                                                                                                                                                                

Renu is one of the co-founders of the Society for Health Alternatives in Badadora India. SAHAJ created feminist-inspired maternal health programs.  She's worked mobilizing traditionally marginalized groups in the tribal areas of Gujarat, the urban poor, and subsequently on health issues of sexual minorities, people living with disabilities, and adolescents. She has over 40 years of experience as a trainer, an action researcher, and evaluator, and a policy analyst in India.  In this podcast, Pat, Jess, and Renu talk about Renu’s journey thru participatory training, participatory research and evaluation, and work with a feminist coalition developing innovative gender transformative research and evaluation.

This episode is brought to you by co-hosts Patricia Maguire and Jessica Oddy and is produced by Vanessa Gold. Music is by ZakharValaha from Pixabay