Open AccessConsistency and Change in Participatory Action Research: Reflections on a Focus Group Study about How Farmers Learn
Author(s) -
Fred P. Piercy,
Nancy K. Franz,
Joseph L. Donaldson,
Robert Richard
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
the qualitative report
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.335
H-Index - 35
ISSN - 2160-3715
DOI - 10.46743/2160-3715/2011.1089
Subject(s) - participatory action research , consistency (knowledge bases) , flexibility (engineering) , openness to experience , action research , focus group , citizen journalism , action (physics) , sociology , psychology , knowledge management , political science , computer science , pedagogy , social psychology , management , economics , artificial intelligence , anthropology , law , physics , quantum mechanics
The purpose of this paper is to reflect on our efforts to balance consistency in our multi-year participatory action research study with the need to adapt our research protocol to what we are learning along the way. While both are important, we share several examples of how our flexibility and openness to adapt our protocol to our research findings has lead to methodological refinements and serendipitous learnings. We discuss implications for both agricultural education and research.