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ERNWACA-NIGERIA First Annual Café LAGOS: 17 February 2005 THE PAF APPROACH TO RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT IN EDUCATION By Pai OBANYA 1 FOCUS OF THE DISCUSSION Rationale for Choice of Subject R & D in the Field of Education PAF: A Triplet Concept Possible Applications of the PAF Methodology in the Nigerian Context Reflexive Conclusions 7/18/2015 2 RATIONALE FOR CHOICE OF SUBJECT DEMYSTIFYING RESEARCH ENHANCING RESEARCH COMMUNICATION ENHANCING RESEARCH MARKETING BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN KNOWLEDGE GENERATION AND KNOWLEDGE UTILISATION MAKING NIGERIAN EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH MORE DEVELOPMENTORIENTED 7/18/2015 3 R & D: PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE The heart and soul of today’s knowledge based industrial and commercial production Knowledge and researchsupported innovation for global competitiveness Increasing collaboration with basic research to turn results into marketable products Research planning beginning from the ‘end’ Going beyond present scenario to ‘next generation’ products and services Greater move towards demystification…more participatory approaches Focus also on PROCESSES and HUMAN CAPITAL EDUCATION needs R & D 7/18/2015 4 PAF – A TRIPLET CONCEPT RESEARCH THAT IS PARTICIPATORY ACTION FORMATIVE 7/18/2015 5 ACTION RESEARCH Origins traced to the work of Kurt Lewin (1958) rehabilitating persons affected by World War II…In use in education research since the 1970s its definitions are adequately captured in the following formulations from a variety of sources § Inquiry in the context of focussed efforts to improve the quality of an organisation and its performance § Typically designed and conducted by practioners who analyse data to improve their own practice § A process designed to empower all participants in the educational process with the means to improve the practices conducted within the educational experience § All participants are knowing and active members of the research process The systematic study of attempts to improve educational practice by groups of participants by means of their own practical actions and by means of their own reflections upon the effect of those actions 7/18/2015 6 MAIN FEATURES OF ACTION RESEARCH Undertaken by the real actors. These could be teachers, inspectors, curriculum developers, material designers interested in improving the effectiveness and quality of their work.. Focus on ‘self-reflective inquiry’. This is seen in the typical design (called a PROTOCOL), which tends to approximate the following pattern Reconnaissance and General Plan: an understanding of a problem is developed and an intervention plan is adopted Action: the intervention is carried out Observation: data are collected in various forms : Reflection and Revision the cyclic process goes on until a sufficient understanding of the problems and issues is achieved. 7/18/2015 7 PARTICIPATORY RESEARCH ORIGINS attributed to Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed – 1968 MAIN FEATURES Narrowing the distance between the researcher and the researched Action learning on the part of all those involved in research, usually through iterative experiments A wide array of techniques to enable the ordinary person to participate fully in research – focus group sessions, record keeping, timelines, participatory mapping and modelling, etc. These techniques are becoming increasingly standardised 7/18/2015 8 PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH Participatory Research has a lot in common with Action Research. It is also a process of ‘stimulating people to collect information, reflect on and analyse it, use the results as a knowledge base for improvement, and wherever possible document the results for wider dissemination or the creation of people’s literature’ However, Participatory Research in its true form seems to focus more on larger scale socio-economic development projects, with external support and the use of outside professionals. The role of the outside professional should ideally be limited to helping the beneficiaries to articulate their problems, assisting with the choice of research methods, exposing them to outside experiences, and improving their access to external information . The term PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH is a reaction against ‘topdown’ research that conducts research at the top and implements its findings below. It is an experiment on ‘side-side’ research 7/18/2015 9 MORE ON ACTION RESEARCH 1. People are the subjects of research: the dichotomy between object and subject is broken 2. People themselves collect data and then process and analyse the information using methods easily understood by them 3.The knowledge generated is used to promote actions for change 4. The knowledge belongs to the people and they are the primary beneficiaries of knowledge creation 5. Research and action are inseparable – they represent a unity 6.SUCH PARTICIPATORY RESEARCH MAY NOT GET WRITTEN UP. ORAL AND VISUAL METHODS CHARACTERISE THIS METHOD OF KNOWLEDGE CREATION. SOME OF THE MATERIAL COULD BE TRANSLATED INTO PICTURES, CARTOONS, GRAPHICS AND SLOGANS, WHICH MAY BE A MORE EFFECTIVE METHOD OF COMMUNICATION. FORMATIVE RESEARCH Formative Research, also known as field or usability testing) is a methodology for improving educational practices, and it entails seeking answers to such questions as What is working? What needs to be improved? How can it be improved? Formative research can occur before a programme is designed and implemented, or while a programme is being implemented. The tendency these days is for Formative Research to come closer to the Participatory Action Research mode. Thus, while complex research designs are still in use, there is a strong shift towards rapid assessment procedures (or RAP). Also, in most cases, researchers are teaming up with practitioners to conduct formative research. 7/18/2015 11 TOOLS FOR FORMATIVE RESEARCH Case Studies: on situations designed by the researcher or naturalistic situations (already occurring in the educational environment). Naturalistic formative case studies can also be either in vivo (arising during the conduct of the research) or post facto (arising from what had already happened) § Observations: of situations as they occur, as much as possible in carefully structured situations § Documents from a variety of sources, and in a variety of forms, with content analysis based on the key questions being raised by the formative evaluation/research project § Interviews of key informants § Focused discussions: with key stakeholders, with emphasis on seeking consensus and congruence MOST FORMATIVE RESEARCH STUDIES THESE DAYS WOULD USE A MULTIPLE METHODOLOGY PROCEDURE. § 7/18/2015 12 APPLICABILITY IN THE NIGERIAN SETTING THE CHALLENGE to develop a framework for applying PAF as an R & D tool in the Nigerian education setting. This should in fact be a new direction for educational research in Nigeria and for most of Africa, where it is often alleged that the knowledge base for education sector development work is weak, where the relevance of most of existing research is being seriously questioned, and where research capacity requires both strengthening and broadening. CHOICE CRITERIA 1. Of the myriad of problems facing Education in our immediate environment, which exactly should be our entry points to PAF-type research? 2.Which of the problems, if correctly addressed, would have a positive multiplier effect on most of the others? 7/18/2015 13 FIRST KEY AREA FOR PAF-TYPE RESEARCH AT THE MACRO POLICY LEVEL, THE UBE (UNIVERSAL BASIC EDUCATION) PROGRAMME PAF-type research on UBE can be justified on the ground that it has been the real major education policy move by the present administration. It is also the nation’s answer to the global challenge of EFA (Education for All) by the year 2015. A PAF-type R & D would § Mobilize stakeholders to seek to understand what the programme is all about § Empower them to articulate their hopes and fears on the programme goals § Generate a wealth of knowledge on what is working, what is not, what can be meaningfully done to put things back on track, where necessary Develop community feedback mechanisms for sharing knowledge on the project, in order to make it work, and to adapt implementation strategies to changing conditions 7/18/2015 14 SECOND KEY AREA OF APPLICATION § AT THE SYSTEMS LEVEL, PAF RESEARCH STRATEGIES AS AN INTEGRAL PART OF TEACHER EDUCATION (PRE-SERVICE AND IN-SERVICE) 1.Teachers have always been the researched, and very rarely the researchers. It is also well known that educational research has always been ‘top-down’ and never ‘side-side’. 2. In addition, research language has always been different from teacher language. 3.For teachers to become better able to effect positive change in schools, the prevailing situation will have to change, and a PAF approach to educational research would be one way of effecting the much desired change. 4. For this to happen, prospective and practising teachers would have to learn PAF (internalise its basics) through full involvement in PAF. 7/18/2015 15 THIRD AREA OF APPLICATION AT THE INSTITUTIONAL LEVEL, THE PRACTICE OF CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT This is a pedagogical principle that was intended to improve learning outcomes, through greater teacher attention to the needs of the individual learner. Its development was however another ‘top-down' affair. No account was taken of teachers’ intuitive knowledge and practice of continuous assessment. The guidelines for its implementation were also in the form of unilateral monologues. The result is that continuous assessment became first mere continuous testing, later continuous cheating, and now continuous harassment. A PAF research and development strategy is very likely to contribute to reversing that trend, since the process would narrow the distance between researcher and practioners 7/18/2015 16 FINALLY, FINALLY and FINALLY In the spirit of the PAF philosophy that motivated it, this discussion has not said it all. It has simply made some attempts to challenge us all to find ways of turning research in Education into an activity to be shared by all, with fruits that can be used for the benefits of all. The challenge is also one of turning researchers into real learners, who should learn from the real world of Education. It is also a challenge of improving the practical utility of research projects in Education, and of communicating research findings in a more digestible form. PAF does not exclude more ‘robust’ approaches to educational research. It is only saying that the robustness of research can be enhanced by its utility to the practioners, and to the stakeholders. PAF can in fact enhance the international acceptability of educational research efforts. Researchers who are able to endure the rigours of PAF would in fact be writing research papers that do not simply follow the well-trodden path They will in addition be making discoveries that have been waiting for creative educational researchers for a long time. 7/18/2015 17 7/18/2015 18