Facilitating Change through Research

1
Facilitating Change through Research

• I dont just want to research something- I want
  to make a difference

2
Facilitating Change

• Facilitating change through research can involve
  
• the production of knowledge that may lead to
  change
• applied research conducted for the express
  purpose of enabling effective change
• research that attempts to embed action and change
  into the actual research process

3
Research generates knowledge in order to
action change within a system
emancipate through action
expose and change the dominate system
pave the way for change
build broader understanding
Basic or pure research
Action research
Critical / radical ethnography
Applied / evaluative research
participatory/ emancipatory
technical/ practical
4
Politics of Change Oriented Research

• Research that facilitates change can be
  considered highly political and as such,
  credibility will involve careful consideration of
  issues of
• power
• objectivity
• subjectivity
• and bias
•  

5
Working Towards Credibility

• In addition to both positivist and
  post-positivist indicators of credibility, change
  oriented research can also look to usefulness
  as an indicator of success

6
Applied Research

• Applied research paves the way for change
• It is often linked to policy/programme
  development and can include studies that
• investigate a problem situation
• assess potential interventions
• or evaluate change initiatives
•  

7
Evaluation Research

• Since change intervention strategies often
  require formal review, evaluation research has
  become increasingly common
• This can involve both
• Formative evaluation - conducted to provide
  developmental feedback and
• Summative evaluation - conducted to assess
  effectiveness.

8
Evaluation Research

• Evaluative research is often conducted in the
  form of a case study
• In formative studies, methods tend to be eclectic
  and diverse and driven by research objectives
• Summative designs often involve comparative
  analysis of groups and/or time series analysis
•  

9
Issues in Evaluation Research

• Issues in evaluative research include both
• unrealistic client/stakeholder expectations
• and the potential pressure of vested interests
•  

10
Action Research

• Action research covers a broad array of research
  strategies that are dedicated to the integrated
  production of knowledge and the implementation of
  change
• Action research
• addresses practical problems
• generates knowledge
• enacts change
• is participatory
• relies on a cyclical self reflective process
•  

11
Cycles of Action Research
12
Issues in Action Research

• While, the participatory and collaborative nature
  of action research can be highly rewarding and
  productive, it can also result in sticky
  management issues including
• a lack of control over the projects direction
  and pace
• the potential for stakeholder conflict
• the sole burden of ethical responsibility
•  

13
Striving for Critical Emancipation

• Striving for critical emancipation relates to
  goals that require more than just change within a
  system it requires radical change to the
  system itself
• Two strategies for achieving such goals through
  research are
• Participatory Action Research
• Critical Ethnography  

14
Participatory Action Research

• Participatory action research attempts to expose
  dominant and repressive systems, and has an
  express goal of emancipation through action
• It encourages the oppressed to control their own
  knowledge production and emancipatory change
  interventions through an action research
  process 

15
Critical Ethnography

• Critical ethnography also attempts to expose
  dominant systems in the interest of the
  marginalised
• Change comes from the voice offered to the
  oppressed, as well as the starting point it
  offers for action at individual, legislative, and
  policy levels 

16
Issues in Emancipatory Research

• A common issue in emancipatory research is the
  intertwining of research and political agendas
• In addition to managing subjectivities,
  researchers need to guard against imposing their
  own political agendas on the researched