Participatory action research (PAR) methodologies attract researchers both because they open up space to apply the values and principles associated with social justice and because they have the potential to deepen our understanding of an issue by giving us the opportunity to explore contexts and processes through people's experiences. This allows for new insights to emerge and relevant solutions to be discovered and implemented through emancipatory practices. However, choosing to do this type of research for a thesis as a master's of social work student without lived or research experience complicates an already complex endeavor and raises many dilemmas, questions and challenges. Reflecting on my experience of working with a peer-led community organization in Southern Ontario that provides services for people who have experienced mental health or substance use challenges and have interacted with the mental health system, this thesis will explore my journey of joining a research team that set out to use PAR to better understand peer support. Using a narrative inquiry approach, I will explore the tensions that occurred throughout the process of attempting PAR with a community agency within the university framework of completing a thesis. In the spirit of PAR and its intention to disrupt dominant approaches to research processes, I will use an alternative, storytelling format in order to best illustrate my circumstances, perspectives and the difficulties I faced as an outsider, student, university researcher trying to follow PAR principles. The lessons I learned will also be provided in an effort to make this type of undertaking easier for future students. Overall, I learned that we need to find ways to bridge and support the two cultures of graduate students and community groups in working together in PAR. / Thesis / Master of Social Work (MSW)

Since the 2010 earthquake shook Haiti, there have been numerous calls for a national dialogue in the country to bring together all the parties involved in order to find solutions to Haiti’s woes. While several iterations of a national dialogue have been attempted in Haiti and abroad, more must be done to address the many social, economic, and political challenges that Haitians have faced for decades. As the situation worsens in the country, Haitians must unite to wrestle with the many issues they face and find common ground needed to rebuild a more democratic and resilient Haiti. Through a partnership with the Coalition for an Inclusive Dialogue in Haiti (The Coalition), this participatory-action dissertation explores how public deliberation and social capital can build a participant-generated framework for an inclusive dialogue in Haiti. Using deliberative mini publics, the Coalition aims to leverage the development of social capital to propose an inclusive dialogue framework that can build deliberative capacity among Haitians at home and abroad. Through a series of semi-structured interviews, deliberative forums, survey questionnaires, and focus groups, this dissertation offers several propositions on what factors can facilitate or hinder an inclusive dialogue in Haiti. Moreover, it offers insights into what a truly inclusive dialogue in Haiti could resemble. Finally, this participatory-action dissertation introduces an Inclusive Dialogue Framework, which includes the first dialogue, lakou conversations, intergroup dialogues, and citizen assemblies. Since the 2010 earthquake shook Haiti, there have been numerous calls for a national dialogue in the country to bring together all the parties involved in order to find solutions to Haiti's woes. While several iterations of a national dialogue have been attempted in Haiti and abroad, more must be done to address the many social, economic, and political challenges that Haitians have faced for decades. As the situation worsens in the country, Haitians must unite to wrestle with the many issues they face and find common ground needed to rebuild a more democratic and resilient Haiti. Through a partnership with the Coalition for an Inclusive Dialogue in Haiti (The Coalition), this participatory-action dissertation explores how public deliberation and social capital can build a participant-generated framework for an inclusive dialogue in Haiti. Using deliberative mini publics, the Coalition aims to leverage the development of social capital to propose an inclusive dialogue framework that can build deliberative capacity among Haitians at home and abroad. Through a series of semi-structured interviews, deliberative forums, survey questionnaires, and focus groups, this dissertation offers several propositions on what factors can facilitate or hinder an inclusive dialogue in Haiti. Moreover, it offers insights into what a truly inclusive dialogue in Haiti could resemble. Finally, this participatory-action dissertation introduces an Inclusive Dialogue Framework, which includes the first dialogue, lakou conversations, intergroup dialogues, and citizen assemblies.

No description available.

Increasing lifestyle-related ill health, escalating health care costs, expanding health inequalities within and between nations, and an aging population are challenges facing governments globally. Governments, especially in industrialized countries like Sweden, are investing in health promotion and health communication, especially in ICT-supported health communication as a way to increase health literacy and empowerment at individual and population levels. Studies show that many eHealth communication efforts are narrow in scope, medical oriented and therefore not enough to address the complexity of lifestyle-related ill health and equity issues. This thesis proposes integrating health promotion values and principles in the design process of eHealth systems for health promotion in order to develop usable, sustainable, engaging, eHealth resources that are adaptable to their context of use and user’s skills. The overall aim of this thesis was study the participatory development process of an interactive ICT-supported health communication channel for health promotion and enhancing health literacy in PHC context. Participatory Action Research (PAR) with a multi-phase and multi-method approach was used in this thesis. A model entitled Spiral Technology Action Research’ (STAR) was used to guide the development of the health channel. This design process was framed in three developmental and evaluation phases corresponding to formative, process and outcome evaluation. A total of 146 participants consisting of professionals from primary health care services, information technology and academia, and local citizens participated in the project’s different phases. A triangulation of methods was used to collect the data; survey, document analysis, participatory observations with field notes, individual interviews, focus groups, think aloud protocols and log statistics. Qualitative and quantitative content analyses were used to analyse data. The results revealed that integrating health promotion values and principles in the design process proved to be valuable not only to the content of the channel, but also in PHC practice. The different design phases yielded valuable results that built into each other and contributed to an eHealth channel that was perceived as relevant to the local people’s need for health communication; accessible and user friendly. The results also indicated that an Internet based interactive health channel, could be a valuable resource for enhancing health literacy if users are involved in the design.

It is well documented that hetero/cisnormativity is prevalent in schools. Queerness predominantly enters schools through anti-Queerphobia work, efforts to protect and include “at risk” gender and sexually creative youth from overt violence and discrimination. ‘Normative’ conceptions about gender and sexuality, however, are not just present in overt gender policing; they lurk in how Queer (LGBTQIA2S+) people are constructed as (in)visible, ‘humourous’, and brave/excessive in and around schools. Hetero/cisnormativty – a hegemonic discourse that interlocks with colonialism, patriarchy, and neoliberalism – is at the heart of why gender and sexually expansive people are not thriving in schools. Mainstream efforts to protect and include Queer people (particularly youth) do not combat hetero/cisnormativity. By focusing solely on the ways that Queer youth are suffering in schools, these strategies absolve schools of looking deeply at how they (re)produce norms and hierarchical, non-reciprocal relationships through space, curriculum, and pedagogy that negatively impact everyone. Through a five-month critical participatory action research (CPAR) project, informed by queer and feminist frameworks, nine activist educators who formed the Queering Schools Collective, explore ways that Queerness/queerness does and can exist in schools beyond protective and assimilationist mainstream efforts. Educators Bridget, Kat, Gabby, Lauren, Max, Gayle, Reagan, Ronnie and Sarah co-researched ways to queer schools through examining the following concepts: inclusion, queerness/queering, and queering schools (space, pedagogy, and curriculum). Analyzing individual interviews, focus group meetings, and select journal entries, this thesis proposes that queering is an orientation towards desire, hope, and thriving; it rejects Queer deficiency narratives and positions queerness as non-dominant ways of being, acting, knowing, and valuing. This thesis likewise conceptualizes queering schools praxis as a flexible, situational process that engages multiple strategies concerned with disruption, reciprocity, and care. Finally, through interpreting collective members’ observations about the process, this thesis positions radical community spaces, where people can dream and strategize, as crucial for enabling queering school praxis. / Graduate

A participação de usuários de serviços de saúde mental em pesquisas acadêmicas é uma tendência recente que vem, de forma incipiente, sendo adotada no Brasil. São iniciativas interessantes na medida em que promovem a democratização da produção de conhecimento, conferindo a grupos populares a oportunidade de ter se colocarem frente às suas necessidades específicas. Rose (2003) coloca que existem vários níveis de participação e essas iniciativas não representam necessariamente a emancipação dos usuários, sendo necessário que se observe e qualifique o protagonismo dos participantes. A presente tese visa avaliar quais os efeitos do envolvimento de uma associação de usuários (a AFLORE) junto a uma aliança internacional de pesquisa (a ARUCI-SMC). Nos utilizamos da metodologia da pesquisa ação participante afim de que os membros da associação pudessem se envolver diretamente em diferentes etapas desta pesquisa, como a formulação de perguntas de pesquisa e a sistematização da experiência. As análises aqui propostas baseiam-se no conceito de paridade participativa em Nancy Fraser, que é composto por três dimensões interligadas: o reconhecimento, a redistribuição e a representação. Partiremos destas dimensões para avaliar em que medida a parceria de pesquisa promove a paridade participativa dos envolvidos. A participação de usuários em pesquisas na aliança em questão parte do reconhecimento dos mesmos enquanto sujeitos portadores de um saber único, que advém da experiência. No entanto o contrato entre universidade e comunidade e reforça estruturas sociais que bloqueiam a paridade participativa, promovendo a desigualdade. É necessário que a academia se disponha a rever aspectos como a vinculação formal com a universidade e a possibilidade de remuneração para pesquisadores comunitários. Além disso a linguagem é apresentada como aspecto que dificulta a participação de membros da comunidade. Uma estratégia de linguagem adotada nesta pesquisa é a produção audiovisual realizada de forma dialógica entre técnico do audiovisual e pesquisadores, potencializando a sistematização do conhecimento a partir das demandas do grupo de pesquisadores comunitários / The participation of mental health service consumers in academic research is a recent trend that has being adopted in Brazil. Such initiatives promote the democratization of knowledge production. This way popular groups have the opportunity to put forward their specific needs. Rose (2003) states that there are several levels of participation and these initiatives do not necessarily represent the empowerment of consumers, being necessary to observe and qualify the role of the participants. This thesis aims to assess what effects the involvement of an association of consumers (AFLORE) next to an international research alliance (the ARUCISMC). The use of participatory action research methodology enables consumers to be directly involved at different stages of this research. Consumers were involved in the formulation of research questions and the systematization of experience. The analysis proposed here is based on the concept of participatory parity in Nancy Fraser, which consists of three interrelated dimensions: recognition, redistribution and representation. We leave these dimensions to assess to what extent the research partnership promotes participatory parity of those involved. Consumers participation in the alliance research is based on the recognition that they are subjects with a unique knowledge that comes from experience. However, the contract between the university and community reinforces social structures that block the participatory parity, promoting inequality. Academy has to review aspects such as the formal link between the university and community researchers. Also the language is presented as an aspect that hinders the participation of community members. A language strategy adopted in this research is the audiovisual production

Through a research partnership with the First Nations Health Authority (FNHA) and using mixed methods participatory action research this Dissertation critically engages with dominant Western-based knowledge systems of well-being from a decolonizing standpoint to better understand the determinants of Indigenous health and well-being. This study specifically asks: what are the main factors effecting different dimensions of well-being for Indigenous peoples living in urban centres, how does engaging in traditional land-based activities and cultural ways of life affect well-being, and to what extent does intergenerational trauma impact well-being? Thirteen key informant interviews were conducted with FNHA members involved in the development of the First Nations Perspective on Health and Wellness (FNPOW) to garner knowledge about the thoughts, feelings, belief systems, values, and knowledge frameworks that are embedded in this perspective. A multi-level statistical model was developed informed by the First Nations Perspective on Health and Wellness, the 2012 Aboriginal Peoples Survey and 2011 National Household Survey, to produce health and wellness outcomes. Using a strength-based approach to well-being this study shows that the FNPOW advocates self-determination, and implementing the perspective in research work offers a pathway to generating measures of health and wellness rooted in Traditional knowledge systems, and a pathway to decolonizing bodies. These outcomes are a form of social capital reflective of Indigenous values that can be utilized as a resource to strengthen community capacity to support Indigenous self-determination. / Graduate

abstract: Students may be situated within complex systems that are nested within each other. This complexity may also envelope institutional structures that lead to the socio-economic reification of student post-secondary opportunities by obscuring positive goals. This may be confounded by community misunderstandings about the changed world that students are entering. These changes include social and economic factors that impact personal and economic freedoms, our ability to live at peace, and the continuing trend of students graduating high school underprepared. Building on previous cycles of action research, this multi-strand mixed-methods study examined the effects of the innovation of the I am College and Career Ready Student Support Program (iCCR). The innovation was collaboratively developed and implemented over a 16-week period using a participatory action research approach. The situated context of this study was a new high school in the urban center of San Diego, California. The innovation included a student program administered during an advisory period and a parent education program. Qualitative research used a critical ethnographic design that analyzed data from artifacts, journals, notes, and the interviews of students (*n* = 8), parents (*n* = 6), and teachers (*n* = 5). Quantitative research included the analysis of data from surveys administered to inform the development of the innovation (*n* = 112), to measure learning of parent workshop participants (*n =* 10), and to measure learning, hope, and attitudinal disposition of student participants (*n* = 49). Triangulation was used to answer the studies’ four research questions. Triangulated findings were subjected to the method of crystallization to search for hidden meanings and multiple truths. Findings included the importance of parent involvement, the influence of positive goals, relational implications of goal setting and pathway knowledge on agentic thinking, and that teacher implementation of the innovation may have influenced student hope levels. This study argued for a grounded theory situated within a theoretical framework based upon Snyder’s Hope Theory and Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological System Theory. This argument asserted that influence on pathway and agency occurred at levels of high proximal process with the influence of goal setting occurring at levels of lower proximal process. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 2018

Children are among those most directly affected by food insecurity, a condition in which households lack access to adequate food because of money or other resources (Gundersen & Ziliak, 2015). According to the latest United States Department of Agriculture (2016) reporting, 1 in 5 children experiences hunger on a daily basis. That ratio increases for African American and Latino children whom experience 1 in 3 ratios. While many programs exist to address this growing problem among youth and impoverished families, the efficacy of those programs is yet to be determined and the problem of hunger in America persists. This qualitative research study utilized an innovative methodological approach to explore youth food justice narratives from two cross-town middle schools in Kentucky. Through the use of photos, students identified several factors that influence their ability to meet their food needs and areas of inequity within their community. Strategies were provided for policymakers and educators to address these issues.

Public school educators strive to address a variety of student needs. Factors such as poverty, trauma, Limited English Proficiency, and the presence or risk of disabilities contribute to students' learning profiles and require educators to rely on the best practices of an interwoven network of specialists so that they can meet these needs. Utilizing a Participatory Action Research (PAR) approach, aimed at fostering school improvement and collaborative research, this study paints an in-depth, holistic cultural portrait of a diverse PreK-5 elementary school in the mountains of northern New England. The lead researcher collaborated with the leadership of the school with the goal of creating a more inclusive learning environment. The school studied is unique in that the arts are used as a vehicle for instruction and inclusion of students from diverse backgrounds, including students with disabilities. The study weaves together feminism, ethnography, arts integration, and disability studies to explore the potential multiple benefits of arts-based instruction and a social skills curriculum for meeting the needs of diverse learners. Through interviews, observations, document review, and reflective journaling, the study collaboratively explores the beliefs and practices of three interrelated micro-cultures within the school: school leaders, classroom teachers, and parents. This study -- conducted over the course of one school year -- provides a snapshot of how one unique school community worked to create an inclusive learning environment through arts integration and a social skills curriculum. Additionally, it documents the benefits and challenges of a PAR approach to supporting and sustaining school-wide change.