Abstract
This chapter presents five examples of critical participatory action research from different kinds of settings. The first, from ‘Braxton’ High School in Canada, describes a project in which senior students initiated waste recycling. This example has been referred to extensively in preceding chapters. The second example is from a Canadian elementary school (‘Grace’ Elementary) and describes a project in which teachers and students introduced periods of self-directed learning in the school week. The third example, from ‘Joseph’ Junior High in Canada, describes a project introducing highly visual texts—including graphic novels—in the school. The fourth example, ‘Teacher Talk,’ is from an Australian University, and discusses how a group of university academics explore the conditions under which they work. The fifth is from an Indigenous community in Australia: it describes how the Yirrkala community followed the principles of critical participatory action research to change a local school.
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Notes
- 1.
A former member of the group now at the University of Queensland.
- 2.
The findings of the research Stephen is referring to—the analyses of transcripts of interviews and classroom lessons—can be found in Kemmis, Wilkinson, Edwards-Groves, Hardy, Grootenboer and Bristol (2014).
- 3.
Name used by the Indigenous people of North Eastern Arnhem Land to describe themselves as a people.
- 4.
This man has been our colleague and friend for many years, but since his recent death, out of respect and at the specific request of his relatives, we do not use his first name. This is an established practice regarding the names and images of deceased Indigenous persons in Australia. We use the formal title ‘Doctor’ also out of respect: in 1998, our friend was awarded an honorary doctorate by Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane “in recognition of his significant contribution to the education of Aboriginal children, and to greater understanding between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians.” He was named 1992 Australian of the Year for his role in “building bridges of understanding between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people.”
- 5.
The community movement that led to the formation of the Ganma education project produced other significant developments for the Yolngu people of North East Arnhem Land. The related word ‘Garma’ became internationally prominent as the name of the Garma Festival, the festival of Traditional Culture held each year at Gulkula in North East Arnhem Land. Dr Yunupingu’s Yothu Yindi Foundation initiated the Garma Festival.
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Kemmis, S., McTaggart, R., Nixon, R. (2014). Examples of Critical Participatory Action Research. In: The Action Research Planner. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-4560-67-2_6
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