Participatory Research Methods with Vulnerable Communities: Weighing the Potential for Empowerment, Harm, and Other Possibilities.

• In Event: Roundtable Session (Wednesday II)
  In Refereed Round-Table Session: Unpacking paradigmatic contours of international service learning: equity and marginalization

Proposal

The long-term sustainability of higher education service-learning programs is often considered to be contingent upon strong, ongoing relationships between individuals in institutions and those in host communities. Impacts to host communities, however, are under-examined in the community engagement literature and have resulted in calls from myriad critical scholars to engage host community members in the construction of knowledge and the development of publications (Grain & Lund, 2016; Kearney, Athota & Bee, 2018; Reynolds, 2014; Stoecker & Schmidt, 2017).

Following such a gap in the research, this roundtable presentation will share findings from a participatory photovoice study that engaged seven youth from a host community in rural Uganda in an inquiry about the impacts of a Canadian service-learning program on their community. Photovoice was chosen as a methodology because it integrates participants as co-researchers (Latz, 2017) and “validates and privileges the experiences of participants, making them experts and therefore co-researchers and collaborators in the process of gathering and interpreting data” (Given, 2008, p. 599). Through this study, Ugandan youth leaders identify relationships with sojourning Canadian students as the primary positive impact. Additionally, they highlight service-learning students as the central change-makers in their community, while underplaying or altogether ignoring their own accomplishments as local leaders.

Although the findings are intrinsically valuable in the field of community engagement and service-learning, they also raise difficult philosophical questions about the tension between participatory research – which values and upholds participants’ perspectives as expert knowledge – and critical approaches to development and service-learning – which aim to de-centre privileged, Western stakeholders while instead centering the strength and leadership of local communities.

This roundtable contribution will include a presentation of photovoice findings, followed by a facilitated dialogue about the methodological and philosophical tensions embedded in the study. The conversation will engage with questions such as: How do vestiges of colonialism play out in participatory research with vulnerable communities? When is the inclusion of host community members in research an act of empowerment? Alternately, when might participatory research lead to unintended and potentially harmful consequences such as: disempowerment; the reification of harmful (salvationist) narratives about Western helpers; or the detraction of time resources from community leaders who are doing important local work? Dialogue around these methodological and philosophical questions will be placed in the context of a quest for sustainability of long-term and mutually beneficial service-learning and community engagement programs.

Author

• Kari Grain, UBC