Developing and refining a participatory educative model with Health Science students – A case study of practice

Authors : Janette Young, Richard Mcgrath, Caroline Adams

Pages : 61-73

Doi:10.17275/per.15.spi.1.6

View : 14 | Download : 9

Publication Date : 2015-11-30

Article Type : Research

Abstract :Critical tertiary educators have a responsibility to facilitate awareness in their students of the manner in which hegemonic societal structures of power are perpetuated throughout society. Modelling and participatory engagement with students is fundamental to redesigning our world for the better and building their capacity.  This paper focuses on a participatory education research model being developed by a team of academics who teach in the field of health promotion. Core to this area are concepts of community empowerment and participation. As educators we operate from the premise that unless we are able to share the construction of knowledge with our students, we impoverish both teaching and our (educational) research. This said we operate in an environment where participatory ethics are trumped by models of objective non-participatory research; with barriers to shared explorations needing to be overcome. This paper explores the development of a participatory education research (PER) model. One project focuses on students beginning to develop an understanding of their own learning styles. The second project involves students developing understandings of the negative and often damaging impact of weight bias particularly by health professionals. In both cases an experimental design has been used with some adaptions to include students as co-participants. Four core principles of a participatory educational research model are emerging. These are that both teachers and students are "researched”; individual feedback of results of research is provided; and linear integration of learning from co-participation spans across the degree with levels of co-participation deepening from first to final years.
Keywords : participatory, research, education, students