Participatory Action Research and Educational Development: South Asian Perspectives(South Asian Education Policy, Research, and Practice)

This volume brings together diverse thinkers and practitioners on Participatory Action Research (PAR) and educational development in South Asia. Contributors draw from their research and field experiences on how PAR is currently being understood, theorized, debated, and implemented for education of children in South Asia. This book will act as a key reference text for academics, students, and practitioners interested in the intersection of education and participatory development in the region. The book opens a constructive debate on PAR approaches to education and proposes a reflective framework that allows the reader to develop their perspectives about the conceptual, methodological, and sociopolitical potential and limitations of participatory approaches.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: Participatory Action Research and Education – Key Approaches and Debates Chapter 1. Defining PAR to Refine PAR: Theorizing Participatory Action Research in South Asian Educational Contexts Chapter 2. Utilizing “a version of PAR” to explore children’s voices on inclusion: The case of two primary schools in Bangladesh Chapter 3. The ASER `Translating Policy into Practice’ Toolkit: From Participatory Action Research to Evidence-Based Action Chapter 4. Northern Province Education System in Sri Lanka: Participatory Review, Recommendation, Implementation and Monitoring Chapter 5. Unpacking Participation: The Case of Child-Centered Pedagogy in India Chapter 6. Learning and evolving in Hybrid Learning: a PAR perspective Chapter 7. Reclaiming the collective: challenging neoliberal ideology through PAR Chapter 8. Applying participatory action research to program evaluation in education policy Case Study 1: Photovoice & Girls’ Education in Gujarat, India Case Study 2: Utlizing memoing as a reflexive tool in PAR Case Study 3: One Moment of Participatory Data Analysis Case Study 4: Shikshagiri – Including Marginalised children in Policy and Praxis of Education Conclusion: Reading and Rewriting South Asia

About the Author :
Huma Kidwai is an education consultant with the World Bank’s Sub-Saharan Africa Division (Education–Global Practices). She holds an EdD from Teachers College, Columbia University, USA. Radhika Iyengar is Director of Education for the Millennium Villages Project (MVP), Center for Globalization and Sustainable Development at the Earth Institute, Columbia University, USA. Matthew A. Witenstein is Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Education at University of Redlands, USA, where he helps coordinate the doctoral program. Erik Jon Byker is Assistant Professor in the Department of Reading and Elementary Education at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA. Rohit Setty is a recent United States–India Educational Foundation Fulbright–Nehru Fellow with the National Council of Educational Research and Training’s Regional Institute of Education, Mysore, India, and a graduate of the University of Michigan, USA.