Participatory Action Research

Catalog description

Participatory action research (PAR) offers environmental professionals an approach to collaborate with communities to analyze social-ecological issues and take collective action to foster positive change. PAR brings together research, community organizing, and project design and management. This course will focus on the theory and principles that inform PAR as well as specific methods and skills needed to carry out PAR in practice. Particular attention will be paid to topics including cultural humility, incorporating multiple ways of knowing, and issues of equity and power. Students will explore approaches to relationship building, participatory data collection and analysis, and community-level action. Students will consider how PAR principles and approaches can enhance their ongoing masters study and their future careers.