Participatory and Action Research Within and Beyond the Academy: Contesting Racism through Decolonial Praxis and Teaching “Against the Grain”

Abstract

This article focuses on some of the epistemological and activist challenges at the center of a participatory and action research teaching‐learning process developed through a student‐initiated graduate seminar at Boston College, a university in the global North. The course includes participation of students and instructors in a 2.5‐day Undoing Racism™ workshop facilitated by the People's Institute for Survival and Beyond (PISAB), a New Orleans based non‐profit. Authors, who include a university‐based co‐instructor and student and a Collaborative Community Fellow, describe the decolonial, antiracist pedagogy performed in a coteaching‐colearning process “against the grain.” We report participants’ feedback on how this teaching‐learning experience facilitated their understanding of critical reflexivity and its multiple contributions towards designing PAR processes with communities that elicit and value local knowledge toward collaborative activism. We summarize our experiences and challenges in developing decolonial pedagogy within a predominantly White, elite university, and how the course generates a space through which those who have walked this walk together are able to initiate diverse processes that facilitate community‐collaborative knowledge generation and actions toward redressing injustice and inequity through undoing racism.

A decolonial pedagogy for teaching intersectionality

“…Participatory action research is a form of inquiry that has been used in colonizing and decolonizing forms. Regarding the colonizing form, Lykes, Lloyd, and Nicholson (2018) maintain that it "reflects a systemic inquiry that draws on inclusive, democratic participation to enhance effectiveness" (p. 209). The same authors stress that, as a decolonization practice, they view "PAR as a liberation process enacted through local knowledge systems and critical consciousness-raising" (Lykes et al, 2018, p. 209).…”

Use of Research Evidence Generated by Youth: Conceptualization and Applications in Diverse U.S. K‐12 Educational Settings

“…YPAR may be particularly impactful in influencing the use of research evidence generated by people with lived experience at the school level to create second and thirdorder change, as elements of YPAR align with facilitators in the broader URE literature. How YPAR use holds promise for going beyond input for organizational effectiveness to promote meaningful shifts in power in the liberatory spirit of YPAR and CBPR as local knowledge production and critical consciousness-raising in systems (Lykes, Lloyd, & Nicholson, 2018) is a key challenge for community psychologists to consider. Further, with growing YPAR practice, community psychologists should continue to provide a critical eye on youths' roles as partners who share power across the process and who should have a say in how their research is used, and leaders who may or may not engage adults, beyond forms of youth consultation and collaboration that involve less power for youth (Richards-Schuster & Plachta Elliott, 2019).…”

Engaging critical methodologies in qualitative research methods with undergraduate psychology students

“…The paper presents a case study, sharing methods with those which have proved successful in this body of community psychology scholarship. Such scholarship has included: explicating the theoretical framework and positions of the authors (Moane & Quilty, 2012;Sonn, 2004), mapping the development and implementation of a programme (Watkins et al, 2018), drawing upon student feedback and our own experiences to facilitate critical reflection (Lykes et al, 2018;Moane & Quilty, 2012), and to consider the implications, with special attention to power in the processes of knowledge construction given the Higher Education context. Coherent with these methods, the paper first illuminates the key elements of community critical methodologies that guide the teaching practices, before detailing the development and implementation of an innovative learning stratagem focused on exploring the topic: "what does psychology offer community?"…”