COADY Women Leaders Research Fellowship

Action research for citizen-led change includes what has been called “participatory action research” or “participatory learning and action”, both of which have a long established body of theory and practice. These types of research emerged as a reaction against research traditionally carried out by university researchers and other external organizations where the research findings were used for academic purposes or by external planners rather than by local citizens themselves. Such “extractive” research had limited direct use for people to make their own decisions for action. Participatory approaches to research are designed to reverse this so that citizens have more control over the research and its findings.

In practice, collaboration between external researchers and local citizens can result in a powerful mix of the best of both approaches, as Table 1 illustrates. Collaborative approaches recognize that more traditional kinds of research may be useful and relevant to communities, especially when communities need evidence to influence changes in government policy and programmes.