Ripples of Change

• In Event: Three Critical Participatory Inquiry Methods: Ripples of Change, Priority Card Sorting, and Force Field Analysis

Abstract

Ripples of Change is an activity that carries with it potential as a first step toward illuminating, challenging, and transforming hierarchies of power anchored in racist, sexist, and xenophobic valuing of knowledge. In this activity, a diverse research collective made up of all those who have a stake – or interest – in a particular community, issue, or problem is called to the proverbial table. For example, this collective could include a combination of adult learners, teachers, and administrators with or without the facilitation of university-based researchers. The presenters of this demonstration have conducted this activity with high school students and teachers concerned about school gun violence and often competing safety regulations and policies; community members, leaders, and policymakers involved in a local justice system working to better serve women of color; teacher candidates considering ways to improve mental health in schools; and a group of doctoral students hoping to transform their academic program into one that is empowering and supportive. It has been those groups – in which interests and agendas were the most diverse and the most contested – that this activity has yielded the most fruitful dialogue.
Once a group is gathered for this Ripples of Change activity, a facilitator draws three or four large, concentric circles in a place where all those who have gathered can have easy access (e.g., on a whiteboard). These circles represent the levels of change that members of the collective want to see related to their concern at various levels. These are referred to as “ripples” because, just like when a stone is thrown into a body of water, change occurs in ripples, often starting small or localized and then radiating outward to reach more people or to engage in broader ways. A few members of the collective are then asked to “label” these ripples or levels of change. It can be meaningful to ask those members of the collective who are the most marginalized or silenced in other situations to do this labeling in order to flip the traditional hierarchy of power on its head. The presenters will share examples of previous uses and facilitate an abbreviated version of the activity with session participants focused on an issue of common concern to envision desired changes at the individual, community, institutional/societal levels. This demonstration will close with tips for conducting Ripples of Change in both in-person and virtual formats and a discussion of ways that participants could use it in their research or teaching and who should have a seat at the table.

Author

• Meagan Call-Cummings, Johns Hopkins University
  Presenting Author