Acting and Observing

Undertaking participatory action research is a daunting task. You have a triple task, to be effective as a participant in a social situation, to engage in action for change, and to generate useful knowledge. This is not for the faint hearted.

Participant observation

Participant observation is a research method developed by social anthropologists, and now use by other social scientists. Participant observers go into social situations, and take part in the ordinary life of the community. By being a part of a social setting they can learn firsthand how people act, react and interact. The participant observer learns about daily life, customs and patters of activity by being part of them. This gives a privileged position form which to observe repeated patterns of social action, and to experience expected, and unexpected events. By participating and interacting, the participant observer can build trust with others. Over time the participant observer becomes less of an outsider, and more of a trusted insider. Over time, others in the situation let the participant observer into the local social system, so they hear and see things that strangers do not. Through participation, as well as looking and listening, the participant observer feels, acts and responds to events and interactions. He or she comes to know experientially what it is like to be part of this system. The internal logic becomes known cognitively, and also at the level of emotion and perception. The researchers own internal states become a source of data.

The observation-participation-action continuum

The aim of participant observation is to generate and record knowledge about the social system under study. Ethnographers do not set out the change the systems under study. Many participant observers would see deliberately changing the system under study as undermining research values, and ethically dubious. Ethnographers recognise that the fact that a stranger is present, becomes integrated into a social system and records information is itself a change in a dynamic system. No contemporary ethnographer would pretend that participating in a social system and recording information about it does not produce some kind of change, but participant observers take steps to minimise the impact of their research, so that they can study a social system as it normally operates.

Action researchers do not aim to understand society as it is. We aim to improve an aspect of society by intervening to produce change. The focus of research is to understand the process and effects of deliberate intervention to produce social change. Glesne and Peshkin (Glesne, 1999) point out that participant observation ranges across a continuum from mostly observation to mostly participation. In Table 1 I have adapted and extended this continuum to include the active intervention of action research. Your role as an action researcher will probably shift to different points at different times during a research project.

Degree of intervention	Research role	Example
Low	Observer	A psychology researcher observes children with a therapist by operating a video camera from outside the room.
	Observer as participant	A researcher sits in a clinic room, observing and taking notes.
Moderate	Participant observer	A researcher gets a job in a child psychology clinic in order to observe
	Participant as observer	A psychologist employed in a clinic spends time observing and recording
High	Participant actor observer	A child psychologist tries a new clinical intervention and observes outcomes

Table 1: The observation-participation-action continuum

The observation-participation-action continuum is summarised in Table 1. Where on this continuum should you place yourself? Your answer depends on the stage in the project, the action you are aiming aim and research question you are investigating, the context of your study, and other issues such as your theoretical perspective, political position and organisational constraints.

Observation Goals

The specific goals of observation are set in the action research plan, and relate directly to the action aim and the research question. Apart from the specific data collected to answer a particular research question, some general remarks can me made about observation in action research projects.

Action researchers. Like ethnographers, are interested in the native's point of view. It is always important in action research to understand and describe the research setting, the participants, and their action. For this you need plenty of time, and an attitude that you are prepared to learn from other participants and actors in situation. Other people in the setting already know much of what we wish to know as action researchers. Learning from them requires humility. Action research projects can go further than this. Rather than studying people, or even learning from them, in some projects we learn with them as co-researchers.

As Glesne and Peshkin write, ‘you are not in the research setting to preach or evaluate, nor to compete for prestige or status. Your focus is on your others, and you work to stay out of the limelight. To maintain this stance, be flexible and open to changing your point of view’ (Glesne, 1999: 42). Although you start of with a research question, you must be ready to shift your focus in response to information collected during the project. Moving from one cycle to another can involve re-formulation of the action aim or the research question. We follow our search for understanding how to improve society wherever the trail leads.

In the end, your new understandings-achieved through your learner's stance, your flexibility, and your emphasis on seeking to improve an aspect of society provides new perspectives, new ways of thinking about social interaction, and new ways of acting for improvement.

Doing Action Research

Action research projects are varied. As an action researcher you will engage with a practical problem, often a problem of how to achieve a desired effect, and you will participate in a social situation with heightened awareness and curiosity. Whether the setting is your usual place of work, or a situation in which you start as a stranger, you will become immersed in the setting, its people, the action aim and the research question. One indicator that you are being a researcher is that you start to see things you have never noticed before.

If you are working on a participatory action research project you will collaborate with an action group (that may be called by some other title) to work towards a practical outcome as well as new knowledge. It is most important to spend time establishing good work practices in the action group, and maintaining good group dynamics. Ensure that all members of the group are active, and do a fair share of the work. Have ground rules to work by. These should ensure that discussion is open; that all participate in decision-making; and that minutes of all decisions are kept. Don’t insist on your preferred style of meeting procedure. Help the action group to find a style and way of working that suits all the members. Spend some time outside formal meetings getting to know the members of the action group, and introducing them to each other.

After a period of time in the field, you should find within yourself a growing determination to understand the issues other participant's perspectives. This indicates that you have been able to suspend your personal judgment and preconceptions. As you become more open to new viewpoints, you can find that everything you read and hear can be connected, or at least considered for connection, to your project.

Ideas are generated and notes pile up. It is a time of transformation, when an action research project develops a life of its own, you find yourself fitting into the requirements of the project. You develop an identity as an action researcher. This role is the one that fits your research field. It is not that you become some unrecognisable other person, but, as you respond to the needs of being present somewhere in the role of action-researcher, you learn that you cannot just be the person you are in other settings, playing more familiar roles. You can discover parts of yourself, and bring them to the fore, in order to capitalize on action research opportunities (Glesne, 1999: 55).

Learning to effective takes some doing. A reflective journal is a powerful aid in getting to know yourself, your strengths and weaknesses, and how to improve your most sophisticated research tool – yourself.

As the project continues maintain awareness of the different groups in the setting. Consider the relationships between the action group and other groups, and aware that the action group may be co-opted to serve the interests of some players in the scene.

Avoid the natural temptation to gossip or share what you learn with others. Learn to be silent, and to reset confidentiality, so that everyone who talks to you feels that he or she can safely tell you anything.

Publishing action research

Disseminating findings is an essential part of the research process, and a feature that distinguishes action research from action learning. Action research is published in peer-reviewed research journals (such as Action Research International, edited collections (such as Action Research e-Reports) and academic conferences (such as Action Research World Congress) and monographs. Other valid forms of dissemination include electronic publication (such as PARchives), professional journals, theses and the like. Some community action research is disseminated in local publications, or through local seminars and the like. The important principle is that, like other forms of research, action research should produce knowledge that is placed on the public record, and is open to criticism by peers.

Ending the project

How many cycles are enough? There is no universal answer to this question, but when you are no longer collecting any new information, and cannot think of an improvement to action for your next cycle, consider with your action group whether it is now time to wind down. Try to finish with a final reflective session, and with some ritual ending (perhaps a shared meal for the action group).

References

Glesne, C. (1999). Becoming Qualitative Researchers. New York: Longman.