0:00 That would be fine. Greetings and welcome to Global Peace Studies for Sustainable Development in Africa where we discuss pertinent issues of peace and sustainability around the world and across Africa. I'm George Mutmoa in Moza, Tanzania, moderating this session on behalf of the Africa Peace and Development Network, MAMA. Our theme today is why most research should be action research. The speaker is professor Jeffrey Thomas Harris. Jeff Harris is professor in the international center of nonviolence at Durban University of Technology in South Africa.
0:48 Jeff has spoken at this forum and at the Ujama Ubuntu conference that we organized last year in Arushia, Tanzania. He's also a contributor also to our book series and has published quite widely and as Jan has just put it, he has supervised so many PhD students including Jean Chris who is here with us today. So, please join me in welcoming Professor Jeff Thomas Harris. Jeff Harris, you are most welcome. And I'm going to assist also with sharing the screen now. And I welcome everybody on board.
1:47 Jeff, can you hear me? Uh, yes. Please welcome and go ahead. Right. Well, it's a pleasure to be with you and uh to talk about one of the topics that's that I'm quite passionate about and that is um action research and I'm going to um start by giving an overview of what action research is because I think I think think uh there's some some uncertainty in the minds of many people and um then gradually talk about move on to talk about obstacles and challenges, that sort of thing. Um, but I hope at the end of it that I'll have convinced you that
2:32 action research is the way to go if you have any um any control over the sort of research you do or the sort of research other people do. Um, so I think yes, the next slide. Thanks. [Music] So the slide isn't moving as it should.
3:26 Apologies for this. This is a PDF which is Oh, do you think the PDF version might um might be more awkward? I could possibly send you very quickly a um although I can't guarantee it a um a word version. Um yeah, please do. Maybe that could be helpful so the rest of us can talk amongst ourselves. All right. Uh, now that's I do have a problem for some reason just sending ordinary word links. Very very aggravating. That's why I put
4:12 the PowerPoint into um into PDF. [Music] So, I've just sent that without without a message in it. And I hope that's the version that might be
5:29 Just one moment please. Hello, George. Nice to see you again. Oh, nice to see you, Thomas. Yeah, I've been busy, but I thought I had to come and hear Jeff. So, I hope we can see we can see his presentation. Excellent. And I have a friend here from
6:15 Indonesia who's going to be joining She's visiting. That's lovely. That's lovely. Thank you. Nice to see you, George. Maybe can you hear him? Yeah. Yes, I hear you. Now, I'm about to share the screen. How are you, Donna? I'm okay. I was thinking if we had a couple of minutes, I can just mention what I sent you the email about yesterday, but now all those minutes have gone by. So, no, you can do it as I'm trying to share now in just a Um, I just sent George an email I think on Sunday. Uh, I get brilliant ideas and then I jump up and down for a day or so and then I forget about them. Um, so I what I came up with last weekend is the concept of treating
7:02 other humans like vegans treat animals. That's the core of it all. And so I was calling it human veganism and George was calling it vegan humanism or something like that. But I wanted to toss out the idea and I I promised George that I would write something but I haven't done that. Um let's contemplate uh as individuals and a group how peace would be if we all treated each other like vegans treat animals or expect people to treat animals. That's all I have to say right now. Thank you. Thank you so much indeed, Donna. And we're going to uh think that through. And so I'd like now to welcome again um Jeff Harris uh to continue with the
7:49 presentation and and sorry for keeping you waiting. Now we are all set. Please Jeff. Right. Thanks George and thanks for your technical expertise. So why most peace research should be action research. Um and so we'll go straight to the next slide. So I've just given you a brief history background to me. Um and I'm doing this for a purpose which um will come clear I hope later. So in the 60s and 70s I do I do go back a long time. Um I was trained as an economist and but I was always acquainted with anthropological methods. I was I was sort of bit of a field worker. Um then came the Vietnam War and and many people of my vintage um uh will have been
8:36 influenced by that war um whether directly as involvement or directly as opposing it and it certainly had a massive influence on me. Um then came the 1980s still an economist but I became interested in military spending. Um and because that's it's a fair fair enough area for an economist to look at. Not that many people do I think. Um sort of like it's a what's the word? A sacred cow. Um something you just think well we've got to have it and so on. So I began to look at how military spending affected developing countries. Um and then from around about 1990 um I became increasingly involved in teaching peace
9:22 studies on the side because there weren't so many jobs in peace studies uh and there were plenty in economics. Um, and then since 2012, I've been when I retired from um, ordinary academic work, you might say, I've been a full-time u researcher and teacher in peace studies on its own, occasionally veer into economics, mostly uh, peace studies. And uh in 2010 I supervised a student uh Beatatric from Rwanda whose research was a classic action but I didn't really know that at the time and her her topic concerned
10:09 um helping refugee women in Durban uh help them to find what different ways of disciplining their children because it's an was an extremely ly stressful thing. It's probably stressful to be a mother anyway and to be a refugee mother um with all sorts of pressures on them. They found they were hitting their kids a great deal and a great deal more than they wanted to. But they didn't know of an alternative. And so Beatatric worked with them and she didn't go with a bag of tricks and say, "Well, I can I can give you an alternative." She got them to talk. Um, and that was my introduction to peace study. I turned not to peace studies, um, but to to
10:54 action research. And I was an immediate convert, you might say. Um, and I better have a little disclaimer here. Of course, I'm not saying at all these research should be action research. There is space for others. And I think particularly some one that's been absolutely inspirational to me is the work of Erica Chennowith and Maria Stefan um on the effectiveness of nonviolence. So um it's all very well to to feel um to be principled about our nonviolence to feel it's um it's the way to go. It's perhaps a spiritual or ethical um foundation for that. But to have have a piece of research, a masterly piece of research in my view
11:40 that demonstrates the effectiveness of nonviolent uh resistance and nonviolent ch efforts for nonviolent change is just fantastic. Um so I'm aware there is there are other sorts of research but um and the other point I'd say before we move on from this one is to say that um do I personally do action research? Well, a little bit. Um I don't do much research these days. I I what I do I have lots of doctoral students and I educate them in the ways of uh action research and I send them off and uh we have students actually very few from South Africa um but many from many other African countries. So they are busy
12:26 doing action research and I'll talk about some of some examples of those and uh current and past uh as we proceed. Yes. Uh thanks George. So um action research um as a as um a technique or a method um has its foundations in the work of Kurt Leuen 1946 uh who wrote that um it's it's not enough just to understand something not enough to understand that 48% of people in this community face this particular type of violence and it's not enough because it of itself is not going to change
13:11 anything. Someone has got to pick up that figure 48% and and its various dimensions and take action to bring about change. And so we're we're aware of this because we super supervised many of us have supervised dissertations that at the end this is what the government do should do. the government should do A B C D. And of course, the government probably isn't going to read the dissertation anyway. And even if they do, um, they're probably not going to take any notice of it. And it's not to say that knowing these figures is of no value. Um, it might be quite value and it might motivate um government and might motivate non-government organizations to do something. But what
13:59 Luen said is well why don't we as researchers do it. So let's first of all explore the problem and then devise action and not only devise it not only think what should happen but actually do it. So there are it's not just a matter he said of increasing knowledge it's uh it's trying to bring about positive change. So there are four typical stages and uh it's not easy to think of them as being similar to a medical issue. You present yourself to the doctor and you say doctor I have a problem here and what you expect is a diagnosis. He puts the tape measure around you or measures the blood
14:44 pressure or tests something or other and he gives you she he or she gives you a diagnosis. And the word that we often use is exploration. You explore the problem. Um and and that's where the 48% or all 5% comes from. Um and then but it doesn't stop there. I mean if if you went to a doctor with some ailment, you would then expect that doctor to to recommend an intervention. Um say, well, you will got to change your lifestyle. uh you've got to change your diet. Um uh you've got to take certain medicinals either in the short term or the long term. Um so that would be an
15:31 intervention. Um and that's the prescription. So if we think in medical terms. So first step exploring or diagnosing. Second, um planning an intervention um to to put things right or prescribing um an activity or or antibiotic or something like that. The third one, it's not just a matter of planning. You then implement um and of course, so this is quite something. This is way beyond the normal um the norm when it comes to research because the norm when it comes to research is just that first dot point. the exploration because we're leaving it to other people to virtually bring about change. Um but no, we plan um and we
16:18 implement um we follow the prescription, you know, we we take the take the medicine, we change our lifestyle, we begin an exercise program, we stop eating certain foods and start eating other ones. And then the fourth um uh phase or stage is to evaluate the shortterm outcomes. Um so you go back to the doctor 12 months later and she says your blood pressure's improved dramatically hopefully uh or or it hasn't improved at all. We'll have to try plan B. Um so those are really the four stages. Um and a point that I I'll make here but
17:06 I'll come back to it later is that um action research involves reflection at each stage. Um what is what's happening here and what are the implications and um the exploration is normally fairly straightforward. Um we might be collecting data about the incidence of some level of violence or something like that or its consequences. Um but the other ones, the planning, the implementing um in particular uh are subject to change. Um the environment changes as you get into it and as you get involved with people. Um and it's uh it makes action research first of all very interesting but also challenging
17:52 because people are challenging. Um um so there's constant um in invitations I would say to adjust uh what you're doing and and how you're doing it. Um and then if we've got time and we probably won't have if we're thinking about completing a doctoral dissertation and so on. We may not we may uh to revise the cycle. Um so we might have one cycle of exploration, planning, implementing and evaluating and then we might say well we could make some adjustments and try it again. Um if we have the luxury that's that's very good. Um the next
18:41 slide. So here is that um that little those four points um in a diagrammatic form and at 12:00 if we take say the bottom left hand circle um there's the analyzing and diagnosing at 12:00 then there's planning an action taking action evaluating action and then moving on to the next cycle if you have time. In other words, you take the lessons that you've learned, you see what's worked and what hasn't worked, and then you try it again um in the next group of students if it was in a school for example. And there has been a lot of action research done in the school um school environments.
19:28 Yes. uh but probably um certainly in my experience and I'm trying to tell you where I'm my my expert my experience is and and that influence influences greatly um what I know about action research um we don't have time we probably got to do more than just one cycle u but we'll come back to that point thanks thanks to So um action research can be applied to a range of research products and I've listed um the not as if yes it's it's not it's not very limited. Um so let's take training
20:15 for example. Um uh one of my my early ones was um students who trained um Nigerian journalists in nonviolent reporting of violent incidents because often um you could inflame situations in the way uh that you report them. And there's a well-developed um approach for peace journalism. and uh he helped quite a bunch of of Nigerian journalists to think about and practice um peace journalism in their reporting. One that I'm involved with at the moment with some students is um actually a group of students uh is training prisoner officers to be agents of re
21:05 rehabilitation because in Africa we have an extraordinary extraordinarily colonial view about prisons. Um uh we haven't we have not moved on at all. It's very much prisoners are bad people. Put them in jail, lock the door, let them out for occasional exercise and and so on. Now, I'm exaggerating. I accept. Um, and one thing I have learned about prisons is every prison is different. Every prison some are a lot better and and probably more directed towards rehabilitation than others, but the vast majority are not. So the idea is we will get a group of prison officers at volunteers and say would you like to think about how you might be personally
21:51 involved in rehabilitation work? Um you know what could you offer? Um um uh that's training resolving uh and transforming intergroup conflict. Yep. Well, there's plenty of those around. Many of them ethnically based or tribally based or language based or relig religious based and so on. So, bringing people together uh to have dialogues and listen to each other and learn to uh understand each other better. Um healing from trauma. We don't most people don't pretend to be psychologists. So, we're not doing that. that where you have on a number of occasions or my students have provided safe spaces for people to tell their
22:37 story that that's been I like the phrase that one of my students used it has provided a measure of healing measure of healing not healing but a measure it's moved people um to hear other people's stories and and and and to feel listened to and to feel understood and heard. Um some students have um done action research in the building of uh peace infrastructures and I think of u one student in Zimbabwe done a lot of work on local peace committees because he found there was a gap in between the western court uh justice and traditional justice
23:23 um and sort of forming local peace committees which had bits and pieces of both in it that was essentially handled locally. uh could be could be quite helpful. And then restorative justice um programs um various kinds there. The most recent ones I've been involved with have been um restorative disc discipline practices in schools because um again throughout Africa um there's a very strong emphasis on corporal punishment and that has all sorts of uh negative consequences and is probably not very effective either. Um but restorative practices um things like peer mediation
24:10 uh peacemaking circles and um restorative conferences where you bring together the various parties involved in a an ill discipline uh well behavior ill discipline behavior and talk it out. So there's there's a range and I think I probably probably more to come. I haven't uh yeah I haven't exhausted the list yet. Um and some projects fit more in in into more than one category as well. Thank you Georgia. Is it Is it misbehaving again?
24:57 Yes. I don't know why. [Music] I will do it again maybe because I don't see how I can refresh it. Should I send it to you again? No, it's the same. It's going to work. But it's good that we can see each other again. [Music]
25:46 Right. I think we're up to the Are we up to the five obstacles? Oh, no. That's the last one. Yes. Uh oh. Participatory. Yes. Yeah. Ah right. Yeah. So what I've said so far is um action research goes beyond traditional research. Traditional research says if we find out some facts then somehow that will bring about change. And look I'm not denying that facts bring about change. They do. But I think it's a very slow business. It's like um you know a a ship a large seagoing ship takes a long time to turn around. Um and uh whereas action
26:32 research gives the promise at least in a in a limited context and again we'll talk about that as a an issue in a moment um of bringing about change fairly quickly. question. Of course, the question is is it going to last and so on and again we come back to that. Then um we should be it's important to emphasize the participatory uh aspect of um action research and that involves researchers together with participants uh doing the research and doing the planning the intervention and carrying out the intervention and carrying out the evaluation. And that's again for many um researchers an um an untried and perhaps
27:20 um not not very comfortable position um because there are power structures structures involved in this. If you go into a community and the community might be village community or it might be a school or it might be a prison context um but community being used widely. Um there's some sort of uh suggestion that here's an expert and they are going to um work their magic and um hopefully they're going to do something useful for us. But um uh it might be all very mysterious and they might disappear at the end. We might never hear from them again. Um but we we we perhaps we're hoping. So there's this there's a power thing set up almost immediately that the researcher
28:07 is knows a lot more and one one level they do um but the invitation in doing action research is not to um use that power is to be very humble but that's exactly the word you don't have any more votes than anyone else I think I've got that phrase there. Um, yes, in the in the first stop point, it's participatory with the researcher acting as a facilitator. That's a good word in this context. Uh, with no more votes than any other participant. The aim is to bring about social change um and uh and that and change which promotes good things like democracy,
28:54 harmony and equality. Um um some of these points we've raised before it's it's context specific. So what might work in one prison for example may not work in the in the next one or might not work in another prison in a different country. Um um it involves the second last point constant reflection and adjustment. Now that's a point we made earlier and that's something that tra traditional researchers don't have to worry about and you you're going to interview 50 people or send out 200 questionnaires. It's it's a fairly straightforward operation in that sense. You don't don't have to think oh I've got to change things around here. Um I've got to
29:42 collect people information from different people. I've got to ask different questions that I than I originally had thought of. um it's that would be quite unusual in traditional research and yet it's common in uh in action research and it seeks to develop the capacity of participants to tackle other situations uh which are also need are in need of change. So yes, if there was a a community issue, it might be it might relate to corporal punishment of children um in a community. And if um action research project helped people devise different ways of thinking about it, it might also not only affect parent child
30:28 relationships, but it might affect parent relationships and it might encourage people to say all right well we've developed skills in talking with our children. um let's expand those so we can talk to each other as adults and as men can talk to women uh and and vice versa. Um so there's the possibility of unblocking um yeah unblocking things and making wider improvement. Now five obstacles or challenges and I put them in three groups here. So the first one is that some traditional researchers don't like it. Don't like action research. They think it's not the role
31:14 of a researcher to bring about change because that that sounds like values. Um it sounds like um whereas we we want to be very objective. Um just give us the facts and then the facts themselves will bring about change. So there are some people who are probably fewer than they used to be, but there are some people who definitely think along those lines. Um there's another group that um a concern something I I keep on running up against in my university here that they want a fullon 100% plan now. And yet we've said many times or several times um before um
32:00 that reflection seems you have lost the voice there. Oh yes. Could you repeat that point please? Yes. Yeah. Um precise Yes, I'm just getting a message that says my internet connection is unstable. Sorry. Um I I'll speak up. Um precise planning is difficult and that might irritate those who evaluate proposals. Um they want they're happy with when you say look I'm going to interview 15 people and send a questionnaire to 165.
32:46 That they're happy with that. um they're not happy with saying well I'm going to do that and then I will think about what I'm going to do next by way of of an implementation because you can't really tell them that until you've done the exploration done the diagnosis and that uh worries people and so I I tell my students we've got it put put there in the proposal we can't tell you what we're going to do after we've done the exploration um so most of what we're saying in the um proposal is about the exploration and you just have to trust us that we're going to go ahead and do good things afterwards. Well, that doesn't go down so well with some people. So, that's one sort of set of obstacles that we have. But look,
33:31 generally speaking, we get around that um and uh and so on. The next one is much more difficult to get get round and that is uh time and people because as soon as you involve people you you're getting into um issues of time. Um you you go into a community, it might be a school community, it might be a village community, it might be a church community and you're expecting people to be there and they're not because something else happened in their lives and so on. So that meeting doesn't happen and that puts you behind on your schedule. Um and negotiating things takes time. Um people want to sit down and and think it out carefully and give their stories, their own experience.
34:19 Um perhaps look at look at efforts to deal with this problem before and why they might not have worked and and so on. And those things take time. And they al also you're perhaps um in without even knowing what it treading on toes. Um there are people and maybe they're powerful people, influential people um for whom this project is not good news. Um they might want to retain corporal punishment because it gives them satisfaction. Um or it's maybe it's a a message that they've preached poor, spare the rod and spoil the child and here you are saying well maybe not. Um
35:06 so that getting through those things takes time. Um so that's certainly an obstacle and or and a challenge. And then the third one is is a different animal altogether because as you as the student the researcher is busy doing the action research and so on somehow he or she has got to collect data to put into the dissertation. Um and that can be quite tricky. Um if you are running uh groups for example some sort of conference group and so on that itself is very demanding. How on earth are you going to um remember to how can you record u what's going going on so you can take
35:53 that information take the the wonderful quotations for example or the wonderful examples and use them in your uh in your dissertation. Um now there are ways around that and one of them is collaboration which we'll talk a bit about in a moment. Um, in other words, don't do it on your own. Do it as a group. And then drawing towards the end, um, five themes, things I think I've leared in, uh, over the years of doing this. Um, the first one is be participatory. Um, even if it's not easy, it's by far and away the best way of doing things. Um uh and I'll give you an example of someone I didn't supervise, a colleague
36:39 of mine did, but it's such a a wonderful example. So it involves one village community in Zimbabwe with um two political parties uh MDC and Zanopf. You don't need to know about the details, but at each other's throats. Absolutely. And so if you belong to one or other of those parties, then you did not speak to people from the other party, even if they might be your brother-in-law or your brother or your father or something like that. So massive dis dislocation. So my student um went in and spoke to the leaders of both those parties and said, "Look, I've got a plan. Got an idea. An idea, not a plan." Um and that is to set up a food garden. Um no, he he
37:26 called it a peace garden. Peace right from the start and and there would be members from both parties involved. And so long story short, he did. And pretty soon um we're talking about small numbers um six or seven from each party. So maybe 12 14 something like that all together working on a peace garden. And very soon they realized well had to cooperate. You can't just do things on on your own. You need help from other people who might well happen to be from the other other party. But it made a dramatic difference. Um it didn't win people. There was no question about winning people away from that one party to another. But it was about cooperating
38:13 and about bu rebuilding respect and trust for one another. And it had much wider implications than simply ZANU members and U MDC members because it spread out um into the wider community. So what just one example I don't want too long um that um older people who did not have um young family members to support them received support from the food guard. that was entirely worked out by those uh members themselves who said yeah we can do this we can share some of the proceeds and also they earned money from the food garden which went to pay school fees not only for their own um uh
38:59 their own children but for children of other people in the community. So, uh, that I think is probably my my lovely my best example. But there's another phrase that I'll just mention to you. It's the end of the dot.1. It's all about relationships. And I was once talking to um to an American. I don't often talk to Americans, but some years ago, and and she worked as a lobbyist in Washington, so lobbying Congress persons and senators and so on. And she said, now I always remember this. He said, you know, Jeff, it's always about relationships. If we know someone and if they think we're all right, if there's a measure of
39:45 trust there, they'll listen. If we don't know them, we won't get past it all. So, I think relationships are really quite central to action research. Um yes, inspect. Yes, you got to expect a degree of um indifference and resistance. We talked a bit about that and that's sometimes because you're running up against traditional beliefs uh against conventional wisdom and against existing power structures and people who benefit from those don't want to change um but they can be persuaded. Yeah. As much as possible be reflective. Yes, we've mentioned that a number of times. In fact, I just yesterday I was
40:30 reading a um I'm marking a PhD from nothing to do with action research really, but um he he said he worked he had a fortnightly reflection or you call it reflexivity session with his supervisor. Oh, I thought, wow, that's fantastic. Um uh and re reflexivity talks about you as a as a researcher and the project and and and the two-way sort of connections that are go and things that are going backwards and forwards here. And he had some interesting ones. Um yeah, some really some really interesting challenges. Um some of his informants were being threatened by government
41:17 agents. um do not be involved in this research that sort of that sort of stuff. Uh yes. And then hey, I've got the second last point. Practice reflexivity. Reflect on the relationship between you um and your values and beliefs and practices and the research project. And ah the last thing is just about the last thing I'm going to say. Um, we often find positive shortterm outcomes and we know this common if we do a bit of training or something people are yeah they're you really revved up um happy um but the question is is it going to last or how long is it going to last? So
42:04 this question about the longterm impact of uh action research I think is an extremely important one. uh and sometimes it's going to be I mean the the impacts are potentially very long term. So if um let's say a parent uh changed their discipline styles away from corporal punishment the the potent the positive um aspects of that would be felt 10 and 20 and 30 years down the track. Well writing a dissertation you can't afford to wait. So, you've got to just put up with a shortterm response, but um the long term really matters. And I think there's there's a case for doing
42:50 uh research on the longerterm impacts of projects that happened 10 years ago. You revisit them and say, well, certain piece of research took place or action took place. What's still happening? Anything or nothing? um what's left over from those um and I it's something I haven't yet been able to do with any of my students but there are probably some that I could go back to last slide I think George thank you yes encourage collaboration I think and get a bit about this develop relationships and so on but look we need each other to do good action research um you mentioned the reflexivity thing you
43:35 is having a talk to your supervisor for example. We need people to help us in a sense collect the data while we're running the workshop. Um uh we need uh participants from the community. So it's not just us coming in with a bag of tricks and saying this is what you've got to do. Um but it's sitting down and working. So we we need to develop our collaborative skills a great deal. And I'm there are parts of me that are quite impatient. I like to get things done quickly. I don't want to wait. You know, that's definitely ingrained in me. Um and yet um I think it's important to to do the appropriate waiting. I've mentioned um they're just current examples exploring discipline practices
44:22 in schools. um things like the mediation and so on, encouraging prison officers to become agents of rehabilitation. Uh peace buildingilding in Palestine. One of my great privileges this year is to have four Palestinian PhD students based in the West Bank. They're not they're not with me in person. and um working on not on Israel Palestine stuff because that's beyond me um beyond them too but on the sort of conflicts that happen in Palestine which I think are often pretty much the same as has happened in South Africa um although they happen in a much more difficult uh context being an occupied country and so on. So just one example and then I'll finish up I'll
45:08 stop. Okay. Um, one of them is is aware of the conflicts between different political groups within Palestine. So, Hamas, Qatar are the two noteworthy ones and a lot of their conflict and and their invective uh their harsh words for each other. Um, go through social media and through electronic stuff. Um and so what he's doing is to is first of all in the exploration section he's collating the words that have been sent said said to each other and so on. So he's building up a picture and what he's hoping to do um and so that's the exploration but the um uh the
45:54 intervention and so on and he's hoping to do it with people from Fatar and um and um um is to draw up some sort of code of conduct doesn't quite sound the right word but some sort of understanding about the way we will speak to each other. Um and you'll have to con one thing he said to me convincing them that that's a worthy you know objective will be the first thing. Um but once they're convinced he feels it will be possible to work out ways of speaking to each other which are more caring and uh and so on. I'll stop at this point and um happy to have any comment or questions. Thank
46:40 you. a few references at the end. Yes, thank you very much indeed Jeff for this wonderful presentation. It's now time for us to well think through what you have said uh analyze, plan, act and evaluate. And now I would like to invite people here this call to ask questions or make observations. That was a lot of interesting information making
47:26 observation since nobody else is speaking. Okay, Donna, could you complete your thoughts please? Um, I just want to say that I love the idea of participatory action research and uh I I think it's the way to go. Uh, but in my experience um I have had to sever ties with two communities in Kenya, Abagusi and Masa. Because while I thought that we were all doing participatory research together, uh we my collaborators were only concerned about stealing the money. So, I I want to to caution anyone who thinks
48:12 that they're going to do particip participatory action research to be aware that the people you're working with often are nicely facing you just to get the dough and they don't care what happens to the project. Uh in the case of Abadus um uh the the community and the participants, the initiation sponsors and the parents of the initiates were fully committed to the project. But my two collaborators who were Abusi were committed fully to stealing the money which they did. Um, with Dumasai, I discovered after the fact that all the the the guys who had been telling me,
48:58 yes, this is a great project and yes, we're fully into it and we need to revise the syllabus for for uh initiation and give safe sex messages and all that. They were only concerned about stealing the money. And so um when you're working in local communities, particularly in East Africa, and this is something I will never do again. I will never work with an East African community again. I'm sitting here. I'm retired. Uh, all I want to do is take a nap because the people who claim to be involved or committed or dedicated or devoted or whatever that nonsense is, they're not. Wonderful story.
49:43 Yeah. And that is something that I haven't um experienced although my students might well have experienced it. um uh and I mean, mind you, it's always possible that my students are pulling the wool over my eyes as well. Um but I I don't think so. And I think that idea about um regular communication is a very important one. I mean, the worst student in my eyes is someone who they register, you go through a some training with them, and they disappear for three years, and suddenly you get 300 pages on your desk. Um and that there are several reasons why that's not a good thing. But one of them is yes that they may not be be doing um but you might say following the
50:32 principles of of action research and so on. But the ones who are in regular touch um and maybe this is a message to me um and thank you for raising it that uh you that if you're constantly talking to them it's more difficult um to not to not to follow you know an appropriate uh line. But I I think I'm very fortunate not to have I'm not going there with with in a sense a wallet of money and and that in influences people. Um certainly I can understand that. Yeah. Very disappointing. Thanks Fred. discouraged, but be aware that when you're working with students, it's different than when you're working
51:17 with heads of NOS's and community leaders and people like that because they don't have to worry about getting their degree or getting a decent grade. They all they have to worry about is getting the money into their pockets. And that's the experience that I've had. And I'm glad that you've had a different experience. I would hate to say maybe you just didn't notice, but uh anyway, I I hope that it's true and and uh accurate that you have not had a similar experience to mine that would give everybody some heart to look forward to a better future. Yeah. All right. And Fred, please. Thank you, George.
52:02 um just to echo you to thank Jeff for the nice presentation and to bring us back again to the academia and um the aim and the purpose of the the research. Um just to donor I'm in Nairobi that's East Africa where I'm based uh working from here. Um I'm in between the academia and the real world uh working for scouts. Actually there are people asking me um what are you doing in scouting? um instead of being in the the lecture room. So um I think there's a lot of to learn um based on the presentation and I think also building a bit on um what
52:49 Donna is saying I'm in another group um academia group where we are discussing um looking into uh one of the reflection that came was that um if you go back to the past we had very few PhD student with a doctorate degree and master degrees uh whatever kind of research. Um and then um of course apart from technology maybe good roads that we have now and good communications but the quality of our lives is not better than um we know in the past we are talking about uh environmentalation. We are talking about um social evils, social vices and we are even talking about you see some of our
53:35 governments are the most corrupt and if you see the people in the government uh if they show you the big diplomas they have um so um my reflection here is is not a question actually to Jeff but a reflection to us um how best can we um rethink our academic setting things and our research uh to really respond to the need of the society uh to respond to the need of what we are coming especially in this this area of peace building the need of humanity that's um my question and my reflection um that I I wanted to
54:22 share I'll I'll make one uh give one thought on that Um and it and that is to go into a situation with as with you might say a very limited amount of prior knowledge or assumptions and so on. Um and and to say tell me you know what what are the issues here? Um because the the likelihood is and again it's one that's often driven by the need to get a proposal completed within a certain time and then subsequently the dissertation um is that you go in with well a framework pretty much um already established. Um and the danger is that
55:07 you might then be scratching where there is no itch or or just missing really important important points. I think that's important. Jeff, what what bothers me most of all is that both of those communities, the Masai and the obligy approached me knowing that I would be able to write a proposal for them and get the money. M uh so although the the uh the issues that we were working on in the case of Abagusi it was reddrafting you know sex education in Ki takes definitive shape during the recovery period from circumcision for both boys and girls and
55:55 KCI friends of mine came to me and said you got to help us what are we going to do we need to change the messages and I said okay well who can rewrite the messages let's write the project. We got the money. We got the money for the project. The community rallied and was very interested. And it then it turned out that those two guys um from uh one from Marani and another from I think although I'm not really sure um uh were just there to take the money with the Masai. They said friends that I these are the guys that I knew be three or four years before they were born. They came and said, "We've got to convince the warriors that we have to use condoms. What are we how are we
56:40 going to do that?" Well, you do it by announcing it at a ceremony. That's that's where uh rules are laid down in the Masai community. So, we discussed that and they asked me to draft a new set of rules for warriorhood before the young boys got circumcised and became warriors. We had to do it before they got to a point where they could act autonomously as warriors. So who did that? And then they were staying too. I don't want to deal with it anymore. I I really admire and applaud anybody who goes in cleareyed and tries to do some good in an East African community. I'm sorry that it didn't work for you on more than just those two occasions. But when you're
57:27 sincere and honest and you uphold an ideal and a principle that people have recruited you to uphold and then they steal the money, I don't want to be there anymore. So I'm not I mean I'm still in Nairobi. I'm not leaving Kenya. But there you have it. Right. Thank you so much, Dona. I would like to ask um Richard Chip and Thomas to ask their questions or make their comments and then um Jeff can respond to them um together. So if we start with Richard please. Okay. Thank you so much brother George uh for calling me once again and good afternoon to you all from Ghana. Uh um I'm realizing that the
58:16 the uh uh making a research for uh maybe a mark to be awarded to you and then uh uh having a professionally at making a research for uh a change to to happen when we are making a research for a map then anything goes. You do it to to to get what is it to get your marks. But when you are doing it for a change in a community or in uh what is it in your organization then it means you should be
59:04 um you should be from the the presentation then it means you you should be uh what is it? Uh you should be careful. You have to be whatever you present to be the the actual picture that you you you you have seen in order not to uh conflict with uh uh other other uh pieces. Thank you. That is what I can see here. [Music] So I'll comment on that now. I think that's such an interesting point that you know marks
59:49 um and money are not good mo motives for doing you might say good research um good research and in a way you need love you need you're doing it for for that sort of motive rather than now if I do it this way I'll get maximum marks because you probably wouldn't do action research anyway um if you um because it's too difficult and and there's always a chance you might get an examiner who doesn't doesn't approve of the uh the approach anyway. Um and as we've heard before, you know, money can twist perfectly good projects in in bad directions because um people have got their eyes on that rather than on on this the issue social issue.
1:00:35 So um and I think that's I mean I think it's a it's a worldwide problem in all sorts of areas that um we have these things called key performance indicators and everyone's got their eyes on the on on these key performance indicators because that's how you're judged. That's how your performance is judged. And and and yet many of the things that we do I mean I can only speak about my own little experience in academia got nothing to do with KPIs at all. um the it's to do with whether you sit down with and spend time with students um which probably isn't and listen carefully and so on and support them and so on which probably hasn't got much to do with KPIs at all um yeah so I
1:01:21 think there's a we're unfortunately being driven by forces like money and marks which u yeah can certainly put us off August. All right. And Chip and then Thomas, please. Yes. Thank you. Uh, thank you, Jeff, for great per uh, presentation. I was just going to request if George could possibly put up the last slide of the references. U, then I could take a picture of it or I could, um, just slowly kind of review the Yes, please. I think that's that's it.
1:02:11 And you can take a a picture of it for sure. Thank you. That was also my problem. All right. Thank you so much. and Thomas please. Yeah. Hello. Um thank you very much Jeff for your talk. Um I just wanted it's a very you know observation that what's the relationship of theory to action? Um, I'm always slightly suspicious of of the move in modern thinking to elevate action above all theory because, you
1:02:57 know, um, we saw where that ended with with certain extremist political activists like Doge and Musk would say they're acting, but they haven't got the theory right. So I think there's got to be a feedback loop somewhere in your cycle between actions that then don't work. You take it back to theory and you re-evaluate. You know uh where does theory fit into your map? And also my quote from Ficar the philosopher is that thinking is also an activity. I think that's really important that we should not forget that thinking theory is itself an activity. Anyway, any comments? Yeah. Yes, thank
1:03:43 you. Um, in um the the dissertations or thesis that we supervise, we um uh early on we we students are expected to write a chapter on relevant peace theories. And these days they'll almost always have conflict transformation as one of them and then another one. And that might be for example restorative justice at least another one restorative justice um contact theory um uh infrastructures for peace um some something else. So there there is a theory there but I think you definitely got your finger on something that that we're not so good at. It's easy enough to put that stuff in and say, "Yeah, look, I I've read
1:04:28 letter act and I know what he's on about and so on so on and not to keep on integrating it and returning to it and so on." Um, I mean, you have to return to other things. You have to return to your objectives. I very strong on that. But I think it's a weakness that we um that I've noticed and I I think it's probably my weakness that I I don't sort of um encourage people say you let's just keep on thinking about you know conflict transformation says it all doesn't it? It's not just resolution. It's not just doing a deal and and two parties walk walking away saying well okay I'm moderately satisfied with that. But it's actually thinking differently about the other um and and how that um
1:05:15 how that plays out in any particular context whether it's a prison context or school context or you know within a community or church or something like that. Um I think yeah I think that this is a very very important point and then there's the probably the more that's really a generic theory in a way and then there's the more specific theory like um contact theory or something that we should be specifically um connecting with a lot more. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for that. Thank you. Let's turn to peace today. We've got peace here and Amani which is quite Hello. Good afternoon. I'm uh Tah Mati. I've been very fortunate to do some of my work uh
1:06:03 through Durban University of Technology. Um managed to complete my uh PhD last year um with Dr. K and Professor Harris. I um I wanted to just speak a little bit to um the participatory component of the action research because I think sometimes when we as the PhD students are in the field, we can be quite naive. I think in terms of um you know people will want to be the participants or all kinds of participants are are are welcome and
1:06:52 um at at the one school where I actually didn't do an intervention I just had the baseline data it was very interesting to see the power relations and the discomfort the real discomfort when in the composition of the design team um it was mentioned that um students are also part of the design team they also have a voice. So um I think um some of the very issues that we are trying to deal with in society that of equality and and and inequality exclusion inclusion
1:07:37 um we sometimes find that in the actual research in the structures that you are trying to set up for your action research uh to unfold. um you then have to deal with those very issues again. So I just wanted to highlight that um uh we have these power relations and even if we say we doing participatory research we have to be prepared to be able to to uh defend the voice you know of of of of each person in a given setting. So I thought I would just share that as a as one of the little observations I made in
1:08:25 in one setting. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I think that's that is a very helpful thing and it sets me thinking about too reminds me of um work in in schools with this these um alternative discipline you nonviolent discipline practices. Yes. um that some teachers are very resistant, very resistant to the whole whole notion. And it's partly because they've that's how they were brought up themselves. That's how they've spent their entire teaching professional teaching life operating. And you're saying to them, um well, if you've got a difficult learner, um then you'll be part of a group. You won't be in charge of it. You'll be part of a group that
1:09:10 gets together with the learner and perhaps their parents and perhaps the people that if there are victims involved and might be four or five or six people and you will talk it out and the resistance to that can be quite fierce can be um the student who did that one student who I'm thinking who part of that work um you reported on that and I I think he he just reported it he didn't reflect on it a great deal But clearly um some people are not going to give up that that that sort of approach very easily. Um the school in general was quite willing. I mean the you got very good um uh word encouragement from the school to do it but I think individual teachers
1:09:57 were not at all inclined and I'm I'm sure in in very different way some of the some of the uh students were not not very inclined either. Uh but anyway that's so that's that's a a helpful thing and this idea about um forming a participatory group which may not be the way societ you know it's composition may not be the way society makes decision um bringing in you know the voices of learners for example imagine some people not being all that all that keen yeah can I add something. [Music] I would like to think that the action research informs, edits, modifies,
1:10:46 enriches, and enhances the theory. Whether the theory comes out the end of the tube in the same shape that it was to begin with is another story. But um once we get into the field and start doing what we think is the action that's going to have the result that we expect and when we find out that it doesn't then we have to start looking at what we thought to begin with. I don't know if that makes any sense to anybody but it seems I think it absolutely does. It absolutely does and and not to expect that a particular piece of theory or or or even a particular practice that's worked somewhere else will always work everywhere work at all. Yeah. Yes. A lot
1:11:32 of times we come up with great ideas and we think they're going to work and then they don't. Yes. Be that's true and I think story action is a kind of editorial tool with regard to theory. We can look at it that way. Yeah. And there is also a question here in chat from Fifi and he's writing in every research there is an asymmetrical power relation between the researcher and the participants and each exercises his power differently. What should one do in a situation where participants always look forward to receiving money? uh rather than
1:12:21 yeah sorry rather than doing the actual research yes and look I've noticed a change over the years and I I think I can understand it and um that if you're taking people out of their let's suppose their daily work let's suppose they're farmers or something like you're saying look I want you to come and part be become part of a discussion group or or or I want you to spend an hour talking to me about some particular issue and so on. They expect something in return. Um and uh in a way it sounds fair enough. You're using their time and time has a has a value and so on. So I don't have a problem with that. Um I think the
1:13:07 asymmetric power one is is is more more complex. Yes. How do you uh how do you get how do you even though you are powerful and you might be from a you might be white and and old and so on and that immediately grants you and male that immediately grants you some power and so on. How can you not let that um take over and how can you encourage people and it's to not not to give you too much difference. I mean I I keep saying to my students, please do not call me prof. Call me Jeff. Oh, you know this is something that many people cannot do. Many younger Africans. No, no. This is this is this would be too
1:13:53 disrespectful. I've got to call you prophet. I think so. I just have to grin and bear it in a way. But it sort of perhaps it's a silly example of the sort of issue that we uh we struggle with in terms of power and status and you know traditional ways of thinking about things. Yeah. All right. Thank you. Let's turn to Evelyn. Evelyn, you're welcome. Thank you. I guess um first of all as as an East African I hope that that comments are not directed at East Africa regardless of particular experiences because I know that there
1:14:40 are huge numbers of committed East Africans who would gladly participate. Um so with that I think the issue from my perspective would be and and I I think um professor Harris sorry to call you professor um has has mentioned them one way or another but for me they coalesce that if I'm encroaching somebody for the purpose of research my objectives have to be absolutely relevant to their lives have to have absolute respect for their own solutions and approaches to what I'm trying to think about or improve or whatever
1:15:28 and also as as as um professor Harris has mentioned compensation for their time away. I think it has often been assumed that just because somebody is participating in research, they are somehow benefiting because down the road somebody else may see the results of that research. So for me it coaleses into relevance, respect and compensation. Um and compensation does not mean may or may not mean an extra honorarium for the for the fact that one has involved them but certainly for the time and effort that they have spent and I know this gets into research ethics
1:16:15 where you don't pay somebody for their for their participation. So it it's a complex area but at least to think of it broadly in those terms. Um your thoughts please. I certainly go along with you on that and I mean long long ago um are we talking about the 1970s or something? I was involved in research with migrant workers and the um the what we did was we met up a little food parcel involving tea and something and something something and gave that as a gift at the end and we didn't say we've got a gift for at the start we just said as a gesture of thanks for your time uh we want to leave this with you and it was probably very trivial in
1:17:01 terms of the amount of money but it was um I thought I always remember that as people were they they didn't expect it. Maybe that was in those days it wasn't so much expected but it was certainly um appreciated and it did some you know it did something for the relationship. Yeah. Yeah. Um excellent. And Richard thank you. I was also uh trying to add something small that u uh we have two different kinds of uh researchers. You have uh those uh who have not seen realities and and need to uh uh need to
1:17:49 be uh what is it called to support but those people in fact you need to uh what is it uh uh uh uh we need to with those we need to maybe I don't know what the I forgotten the term is you need to give them something to to boost their morale or speed up their their their support in that area. And then we have those who have face to face challenges with such situations especially in the area of peace building. Those guys you know they wouldn't ask for anything. they want
1:18:36 quickly to to to to close uh what is it uh uh aphas that are uh uh confronting them. So I think uh when you meet uh what is it these two people you you you need to see how to to relate with them with in terms of renumeration and other other things. Thank you. H think I I missed a bit of that point but um I think it it comes back to the the importance of relationships and and the sort obviously it's not just being connected to someone but it's being connected someone in a in a non-exloitative um fashion um and uh and unselfish.
1:19:25 It was that very thing even before we started to treat other people uh ti as vegans uh treat animals. I think I've got that right. And uh yeah, it's it's something approaching the golden rule, you know, treating other people as we would like them to treat us. Um so it's it's not and maybe action research has got that underpinning. It's not not just a method. It's it's got a a philosophical u underpinning to it as well. Um in terms of it the way it relates to people causes people to relate to people. Yes. Great. And Fred, you've been waiting for
1:20:11 quite some time. Fred, please. Hi George. Hi everyone. Actually I wanted to reject a bit when um Donna was speaking and my point I think has been covered partly by Elyn um and also profer responded well but I was um still thinking um when we about the ethical and transformational aspects in participatory research um I think um we all know that um Zimardo um Stanford uh pre experiences like kind of a classical on the but I think we can
1:20:56 expand that a bit more uh by looking into um what constitute good research and I think not only from the side of the researcher uh or the academic but also from the side of the the participant and I tend to believe uh it is the coation of the meaning as proof was saying uh and also looking for the solution together. It's not just the money uh that they get or the for the for the time uh but um I think we do go community or communities for for research for a purpose not only to collect data for um to justify our theory or to construct new ones but I think we are all looking for change and
1:21:44 um in terms of the communities that we are working with uh for the research that change is not only in line with the knowledge that we gain but also the quality of their lives and I think uh this is one area that we all need to u be looking at and um I was also thinking what constitutes the difference between research uh versus uh community development research I don't know whether the prof has got an idea or was reflected about that [Music] Um yeah, I mean like I think a lot of the research I've perhaps described has got a a very strong community development foundation and it's not I'm
1:22:30 I'm not it's not not a you might say a discipline that I'm well up on. Um but I think I think what you're emphasizing is the the the centrality of good non-exploitative relationships. And I think it's um I think that's one thing that's come out of this presentation for me that um how can we um have participants and treat them in a yes a non-exloitative uh fashion. Um and bearing in mind that we we of course can be exploited in in return with that's always a risk. Yeah. But but given that we're going to be holding the
1:23:15 power um perhaps the responsibility lies with us to to set those um as practices and procedures and ways of interacting with people which do emphasize um equality and democracy and and participation. Yeah. So I'm not sure that I've answered that that comment on Yes, you have. Thanks. Researchers are not always the ones who hold the power. If we assume that the researcher has power over the researched, that's just crazy. They have power over the researcher to the extent that they can make up stories that are just nonsense. Uh I don't know if anybody has heard
1:24:01 about the student who went out to to far western Wailand and came back a month or so later with a lot of data on the hyena clan and the uh and the elephant clan and the giraffe clan. There are no such clans in Masai. uh and yet his informants spun this complicated story about Masai animal plants that just simply wasn't true. Researchers tend to we all academics especially we take responsibility for mistakes in our work but sometimes those mistakes are not ours. A lot of times they are deliberately placed on us to make us look foolish. And anybody who has never
1:24:47 experienced that is very naive. And so that that suggest that say doing strong work on validity and reliability and trustworthiness those sorts of having those um as a strong component is important. Um, yeah. I don't know how to get around it because when you're trusting and you're sincere and honest and people make up stories, unless you spot it, unless you already know that there's no such thing as an elephant clan or a monkey plant in Masai society, you're not in a position to know that these people are leading you down the garden path somehow. And I don't want it to sound like that that has happened to me many, many times, but enough that I'm
1:25:33 aware of it. And and I have witnessed it more not so much for myself but more for other people who clearly were given incorrect information in the field. Right. Thank you so much Donna Peter please. Oh thank you a wonderful presentation. Um, I have been reading lately the work of uh Ian
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