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CHEC Research T&L course
Using Participatory Learning Action
Techniques in Higher Education
Vivienne Bozalek University of the Western Cape
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CHEC Research T&L course 2
What is PLA?
• A growing family of approaches, methods, attitudes and behaviours to enable people to share, enhance and analyse their knowledge of life and conditions and to plan, act and monitor, evaluate and reflect. (Chambers 2006:3)
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CHEC Research T&L course
Origins of PLA • Democratisation of research • Developed in the South in 1970s and also in
North as cooperative inquiry and then by Robert Chambers in UK
• Examines issues from political, social and economic perspectives
• Interiorisation of disadvantage (human capabilities approach concurs with this view)
• Interactive process using visual methods for action and reflection
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PLA techniques
• PLA techniques are open ended, flexible visual methods which are used in the learning process
• Examples of such techniques are mapping, visioning, matrix ranking, problem and objective trees etc
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CHEC Research T&L course
Key elements of the PLA approach • A concentration on people as experts of their own lives
and the facilitator as a learner and enabler; • A focus on equity and giving voice to marginalised and
socially excluded groups of people such as women, children, those who are rural and poor;
• The use of visual learning methods which are adaptable and used flexibly to learn from and to evaluate people’s concerns;
• A commitment to the quality of the interaction and a recognition and concern with diversity;
• An emphasis on self-critical awareness of both facilitators and participants;
• A conscious move away from knowledge for the sake of knowledge to knowledge for action and empowerment.
(Cornwall, 1999:1) 5
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Different Views of Higher Education
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Taylor & Fransman (2004:6) CHEC Research T&L course
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The usefulness of PLA for higher education
• Participatory parity- inclusive • Good reflective tool – alternate ways of
expressing • Often leads to new insights • Provides stimulus for discussion • Non-threatening “playful” techniques • Promotes social learning • Includes emotional aspects • Opportunities to challenge and deepen
knowledge CHEC Research T&L course 7
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Ways in which we have found PLA useful in higher education
• Dealing with difference • Promoting collaboration between students
and the institution/faculty/department • Learning techniques to use in own
disciplines • Modelling democratic and respectful forms
of practice • Active form of learning >participation
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Limitations of PLA techniques • Drawings are only a springboard for
discussion and analysis • Drawings and discussions reflect
subjective experiences • Can be unsettling/discomforting – needs
management • How useful it is depends on skills of
facilitator • Time consuming to plan and implement • Resistance from some participants
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Examples of how PLA techniques have been used in HE • Research techniques for social work students at
UWC • Factors affecting student learning at UWC • Community, Self and Identity module for students
across the universities • Women’s Health and Well-Being collaborative
course • Masters in Child and Family Studies course • Professional development course on teaching and
learning at UWC CHEC Research T&L course 10
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CHEC Research T&L course
What students said about PLA techniques
The drawing exercises let us ‘play’, and took the ‘seriousness’
and nervousness out of the situation we were placed in…Helped us in working together as a team in the way that we were no longer worried about expressing our feelings even though they sometimes were
conflicting.
as soon as you start drawing one thing you immediately think of all
the other things that link up with your initial
idea. After the drawings had been
made, I was suprised to see the things that were in front of me on
my paper.
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CHEC Research T&L course
Learnings: Knowledge of Self
Through mapping my own community and the available (and blatant scarcity of) resources, I got
the opportunity to reflect on my community not only in terms of resources, but also communal ethos (including prevailing prejudices, attitudes towards gender, and even racism), ‘Coloured’ culture (as I’ve always had immense difficulty
defining to others what it means to be a ‘Coloured’ person, or defining myself as for
example a ‘Coloured male’
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CHEC Research T&L course
Learnings: Change Agents
The most thing that i also learnt about myself is that, i
can have the potential to change my own community
after that drawing experience
I was reminded of just how fortunate I am to have resources so readily
available to me. I also learned the conditions that many of my colleagues have faced. Many of them do not have the most basic of resources available to them in the places where they live. The impact that this exercise had on me cannot be emphasised enough. It
strengthened my desire to get involved in the community and to make a change, as small as it may be
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CHEC Research T&L course
Student debriefing video
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Visioning
• People come up with their vision for how things might be and it can widen their thinking as well as indicating the things that are important to them. This could be drawn, modelled, acted or sung. It serves as a starting point for discussion of what actions could be taken.
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Vision of ideal preschool
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Visioning Exercise
What are the sort of things that would make a satisfactory learning experience at university? Draw or represent the things that you would find conducive to learning at university.
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Mapping
• Includes mapping of social, demographic, health and service issues, opportunities or resources
• Can be drawn on the ground or on paper, models can be made, natural resources used
• Provides a starting point for discussion or for prioritising issues for change
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Things found helpful for learning
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Body maps
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Community Maps
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Concept maps
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Concept map - Science
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Matrix ranking
• Used to prioritise. The group brainstorms what it thinks is important in relation to a particular issue and then votes on which is most important.
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Things preventing students being able to learn to the best of their ability
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Venn diagrams
• Shows influence of different service providers, resources and information sources
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Adolescents’ sources of information on sex reproduction (Analysed by a group of boys, Old Kanyama Compound)
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Mood or Life Lines
• Can be done individually or as a group • People can track how they felt about
particular events in their lives or even ae programme over time.
• Need to be used sensitively.
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Research journey
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Positives and negatives wall/tree
• This provides a quick indication of the key perceptions of the topic under discussion. Can be done as an introduction to draw out common themes for further exploration
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Positives & Negatives wall
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What helped and hindered learning at UWC
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Conclusion • PLA effective tool in terms of students’ and higher educators’
knowledge of positioning and resources • Students have found it useful as methodology themselves • Enabled safer kind of sharing • Richer understanding of power relations – privilege and deprivation • Participatory parity • Respect for abilities as learners and co-creators of knowledge • Question world and place in it • Critical and compassionate worldview • Skills and willingness for transformation in contemporary SA • Enhances inquiry based learning approaches
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USEFUL RESOURCE • http://www.ids.ac.uk/ids/particip/
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References Bozalek, V. & Biersteker, L. (2010) ‘Exploring Power and Privilege using Participatory
Learning and Action Techniques’ Social Work Education, 29(5):551-572. Bozalek, V. (2011) Acknowledging privilege through encounters with difference:
Participatory Learning and Action techniques for decolonizing methodologies in Southern contexts International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 4(6):465-480.
Bozalek, V. (2013) Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) Techniques for Community Work. In A.K. Larsen, V. Sewpaul, G.O. Hole (eds.) Participation in Community Work: International Perspectives. London: Routledge. Pp. 57-71.
Chambers, Robert (2006) ‘Notes for Participants in PRA-PLA Familiarisation Workshops in 2006’.Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex http://www.ids.ac.uk/ids/particip/
Cornwall, A. (1999) Introduction to PRA Visualisation Methods. In The Participation Group (1999) Introduction to PRA and Health: A reader. Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, Brighton.
Hodge, D.R. (2005) ‘Spiritual life maps: A client-centered pictorial instrument for spiritual assessment, planning and intervention’, Social Work, vol 50(1) pp 77-87.
Taylor, Peter & Fransman, Jude (2004) ‘Learning and Teaching Participation: The Role of Higher Learning Institutions as AgInstitute ents of Development and Social Change’ IDS Working Paper 219. Brighton: for Social Development, University of Sussex.