Copyright holder: Tyndale University, 3377 Bayview Ave., Toronto, Ontario, Canada M2M 3S4 Att.: Library Director, J. William Horsey Library Copyright: This Work has been made available by the authority of the copyright owner solely for the purpose of private study and research and may not be copied or reproduced except as permitted by the copyright laws of Canada without the written authority from the copyright owner. Copyright license: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License Citation: Chapman, Mark. “Changing the World without Doing Harm: Critical Pedagogy, Participatory Action Research and the Insider Student Researcher.” Religious Studies and Theology 38, no. 1-2 (2019): 100-116. DOI: 10.1558/rsth.38715 ***** Begin Content ****** TYNDALE UNIVERSITY 3377 Bayview Avenue Toronto, ON M2M 3S4 TEL: 416.226.6620 www.tyndale.ca Note: This Work has been made available by the authority of the copyright owner solely for the purpose of private study and research and may not be copied or reproduced except as permitted by the copyright laws of Canada without the written authority from the copyright owner. Chapman, Mark. “Changing the World without Doing Harm: Critical Pedagogy, Participatory Action Research and the Insider Student Researcher.” Religious Studies and Theology 38, no. 1-2 (2019): 100-116. DOI: 10.1558/rsth.38715 [ Citation Page ] Changing the World without Doing Harm: Critical Pedagogy, Participatory Action Research and the Insider Student Researcher MarkD. Chapman Tyndale University College and Seminary mchapman@tyndale. ca Abstract Some parts of Canada may be moving towards an “open secularism” where matters of faith are less likely to be excluded from public dis- course. In such a context, students may become more open about their own faith commitments, more willing to speak out against religious actions they disagree with, and more likely to attempt to change their own traditions. In a confessional context where stu- dents are often both leaders and researchers in their own commu- nities it is tempting to use field research as a tool to accomplish pre-defined agendas. Using Paulo Freire’s Critical Pedagogy and its application in Participatory Action Research this paper explores how field research can be taught to activist-oriented insider student researchers in a way that contributes to social change and avoids making research only a platfonn for their personal agendas. Keywords critical pedagogy, participatory action research, student researchers, field research, social change Introduction This paper reflects on how Critical Pedagogy and Participatory Action Research can be applied to the teaching of field research to adult learners studying their own organizations, particularly so that student researchers who aim to improve social outcomes for the individuals and organizations being researched avoid making their research a platform for their own personal agendas. My work here is influenced by Michel Desjardins’ writ- ings on pedagogy and his example as an educator trying to form global citizens. I begin with a description of my current teaching environment to iden- tify why my teaching of field research is concerned with social change. The second section explores issues related to insider research and how [ Page 100 ] [ Page ] 101 Michel Desjardins has influenced my thinking on this topic. The core of the paper is a discussion of how Critical Pedagogy and Participatory Action Research provide guidance for how to research one’s own organi- zation and how Desjardins’ pedagogical writings provide insight into the practical application of these ideas.1 Hie paper ends with a look at how the application of these ideas has worked out in my field research classes. Research with a social change objective? My graduate degrees are in Religious Studies and I absorbed the tradi- tional Religious Studies aim to observe the practices and beliefs of people of faith from a perspective of “methodological atheism” without influ- encing those traditions. While the discipline has always included a mix of insiders and outsiders, Religious Studies in Canada has been clearly differentiated from theology. However, I eventually found myself working with practitioners in a confessional setting rather than at a secular aca- demic institution. This section explains how I have applied and adapted my Religious Studies sensibilities to serve the needs of the students with whom I actually work. Hie shift to accepting that research could have a social change agenda became viable as my context changed and as I explored literature which took seriously the values and contexts of student researchers and their research participants. Open secularism and religious authority Contemporary Canadian society is secular in the sense that even religious people operate in the awareness that a particular religious approach to life is only one option among many (Taylor 2007; See also Berger 1967). In this new world humans are autonomous and defined by their autonomy (Taylor 2007, 18). In this context, some scholars argue for the value of an “open secularism” where diverse religious traditions are invited to con- tribute to pluralistic society for the good of society (Seljak 2016; Bram- adat and Biles 2005). They argue for allowing the religious voice to be present in the public sphere but only as one of many in a spirit of tolerance and respect.2 The implication for this paper is that the authority of religion is contested - even within religious institutions - and thus individuals are more likely to challenge religious authorities and understand themselves as autonomous. A leader in this setting may reject this view of anthro- pology but must take it into account if they conduct research that aims to promote social change that positively affects these individuals.3 __________________________________________________________ 1. He is in no way responsible for what I do with his insights. 2. There is some evidence of this approach among Canadians (Angus Reid Institute 2018). 3. Somewhat ironically, this challenge of religious authority in favour of the voices of [ Page ] 102 Research that promotes social change? Over my career I have moved from primarily teaching undergraduates in a secular Religious Studies context to primarily teaching doctoral students in a confessional environment. These are admittedly radically different edu- cational environments and should not be confused because they have dif- ferent base assumptions and different core objectives (cf. Amal, Braun, and McCutcheon 2012). Nonetheless, students in these different environments both benefit from an approach to teaching that acknowledges the learning context and the power structures inside and outside the classroom. This is particularly the case when student researchers have a social change objective for their research context. The social change objectives are different, and Religious Studies does not have a specific confessional agenda, but both con- texts can impact students in ways that help make them better global citizens.4 I take positive social change, in this paper focused on improved personal development outcomes and social structural circumstances for research par- ticipants, as an implicit good.5 As my students are doing research in indi- vidual voluntary associations, this paper concentrates on changes internal to those organizations rather than larger societal change. Recent inquiries in areas such as critical theory, phenomenology, and hermeneutics have chal- lenged the assumption that values-neutral research is possible (see for exam- ple. Bentz and Shapiro 1998). Furthennore, there is now a body of research that challenges tire positivist research paradigm that requires researchers to stand apart from their research and indeed questions whether this is even ethical in some situations (Boser 2006; Eikeland 2006; Blake 2007; Reid and Brief 2009).6 Detardo-Bora explains that, ‘‘scientific approaches are viewed as more ethical and humane even though the participants in the study may be tested, controlled, and used with little gain to themselves. AR [action research] avoids this moral quagmire by creating a two-way relationship, through giving back to participants” (2004, 251). This is not to devalue research that aims for an objective detachment from the source of study but rather to argue that research with a social change objective can contribute to our larger understanding of religious phenomena and is a viable option for insider student researchers. ________________________________________________________ participants has some resonance with the more collectivist approach to community that is a part of many religious worldviews. 4. While not a Religious Studies text, Benham Rennick’s and Desjardins’ The World is my Classroom (2013) illustrates this approach. They begin the text with a chapter called. “Towards a pedagogy of good global citizenship.” 5. For a more detailed definition of social change see Naughton (2008) and Vago (1989). 6. I have addressed this issue previously as it relates to Doctor of Ministry students (Chapman 2018). [ Page ] 103 Issues for insider researchers Nonetheless, research on one's own organization with a social change objective has challenges (Reid and Brief 2009; Lofman, Pelkonen, and Pietila2004). This section explores some of the challenges for researchers who want to change their own organization. It ends by summarizing how Desjardins’ pedagogy provides a pointer to resolving these concerns. Researching one’s own organization Most of my students are leaders and insider researchers in voluntary asso- ciations (mostly churches) whose specific objective is to improve the social context of the participants and the external communities in which they are involved. Typically change in these organizations has been through the implementation of new programs by the leadership of the organization based on the leadership's understanding of the good of the organization. However, as these voluntary associations and the communities they serve diversify it is becoming harder for leaders to accurately assess what will be effective. This is an increasing challenge because the people they serve do not necessarily accept their teachings or positions as having authority and increasingly trust their own judgment on matters of religion. Complicating matters, leaders are shaped by their own self-interest and they sometimes do not recognize their power role in implementing change. They may attempt to implement solutions to problems identified without consultation with those they are trying to help. Honest attempts to implement positive social change may be experienced as an external imposition that does not reflect the identified concerns of the people the change is trying to serve. Yet, trying to approach the setting as an outsider does not solve the problem. The attempt to research such environments as an objective researcher risks increasing social and power distance thus reducing the chance of research contributing to positive social change. In sum, a focus on the researcher's own agenda that does not engage par- ticipants in contributing to the direction of research which ostensibly aims to benefit them can bring perceived solutions to problems that may not be the problems or needed solutions of participants. Even if such research has some positive impact it may not fully benefit participants because the process has not given participants ownership over their own personal and corporate well-being. As I will explain, a Critical Pedagogy approach to Participatory Action Research allows the insider researcher to contribute to positive social change in a way that empowers those they are research- ing and avoids an exercise of power that is experienced oppressively by the members of that voluntary association.7 ______________________________________________________ 7. Members of these volunteer associations typically would not use the language of [ Page ] 104 A pedagogy of insider research Before addressing these theories directly I want to explain how Michel Desjardins has influenced my receptivity to these theories. Desjardins' approach to students provides some insights into how one might advise insider student researchers on how to engage their research context. Desjardins is a Religious Studies scholar who hopes that student experi- ences in his classroom will help them recognize and respond to the injus- tices of the world around them, and encourages students to ‘‘work for social change” (Desjardins 1998, 77). Part of the role of the Religious Studies teacher is “negotiating boundaries and creating bridges” with respect (Desjardins 1998, 71). Desjardins’ approach is student-centred. Rather than focused on indoctrination of any particular academic discipline he seeks to help students be intellectually curious and open to exploration so they can understand how themes in Religious Studies relate to poli- tics, economics, the environment, etc. (Desjardins 2016; Desjardins 1998, 70-71). Students should know how religion plays a role in the complex world in which they live, not just a bunch of descriptive information about religious groups that typifies those groups in a way that rarely matches how they actually operate. This is facilitated by some instructor curiosity about pedagogy (Desjardins and Munro 2014, 342) and getting students outside of the walls of the institution to engage with people who actually care about and are influenced by the topics under discussion. Desjardins explains that, “learning grounded in the data generated by students them- selves helps to legitimize their learning, and increases the chance that they will take that data seriously” (2016, 132). Applying these pedagogical insights to insider research leads to research that attends to human thriving, is focused on the benefit of the partici- pants, foments intellectual curiosity about participants' own relationship to the organization and to each other, and encourages active engagement of participants in the research process. Conducting research in this manner addresses many of the problems of insider research identified earlier and, as will be shown, resonates with a Critical Pedagogy approach to Partici- patory Action Research. Engaged teaching and research Insider research that aims at social change may be desirable in some cir- cumstances but if conducted without adequate attention to power and con- text, its potential social change benefits may not be realized. This section ______________________________________________________ oppression and oppressor nor would they necessarily recognize that the issues being discussed here are related to power and liberation. Nonetheless, the circumstances of the relationships in these organizations do approximately match what Freire (2018) means when he uses such terms. [ Page ] 105 turns to Critical Pedagogy and Participatory Action Research to explore how this kind of research can be done ethically and result in outcomes that serve the community being researched. It ends by exploring how Michel Desjardins' writings on pedagogy contribute to the application of these ideas. Critical Pedagogy Since its first publication in English in 1970 Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed has been an influential text in the philosophy of education and beyond.8 It has since been republished to mark both the thirtieth anni- versary and tiie fiftieth anniversary of its original publication (Freire 2000; Freire etal. 2018). The cover of the fiftieth anniversary edition claims that over a million copies have been sold. Critical pedagogy that developed out of Freire's work has been influential in fields as diverse as cultural stud- ies (Kellner 2001) and qualitative research (Denzin and Giardina 2014). Freire's work has been further developed by scholars who have applied the concepts in his work to diverse settings and themes (for example, racial, sexual and class boundaries [hooks 1994]) as others continue to develop Freire’s ideas in education (Giroux 2011). It has also spawned at least one journal: The International Journal of Critical Pedagogy. While this paper is influenced by some of this subsequent development it focuses primar- ily on Freire's initial ideas. Germane to this paper is Critical Pedagogy’s compatibility with field research conducted using Participatory Action Research (Miskovic and Hoop 2006). Before getting to the relationship between Critical Pedagogy and Participatory Action Research, I will describe Freire's approach and its relevance to teaching insider research. Pedagogy of the Oppressed follows the critical theory interest in the emancipation of humans and is concerned that theory should be both aware of current social conditions and also bring about positive change. Paulo Freire rejects the “banking” model of education that dumps infor- mation into passive individuals in favour of a relationship of mutuality that develops education through tire co-creation of knowledge. He sees this as a necessary shift for any teacher that wants to empower students to make a practical difference. In part, this is rooted in Freire’s Marxian lens that sees society in terms of oppressors and the oppressed. The oppressed typically perceive their condition as just the way things are; thus there is a need to liberate their oppressed consciousness. Liberation takes place through dialogue where individuals recognize that their reality can be changed because it is a social construction. For Freire, this dialogue is required to liberate humans and to resist the dehumanization of the other. ________________________________________________________ 8. Original 1968 manuscript in Portuguese, Pedagogia do Oprimido. [ Page ] 106 Such a view has wide application but Freire's concern was education. This dialogue that leads to a relationship of co-creation of the contempo- rary condition must be led by a teacher who honestly cares for their stu- dents. Their teaching cannot consist of disconnected pieces of information but must be organized and systemized to be relevant to what affects the student's condition from the perspective of the student. Such an approach has direct application both to teaching students how to conduct insider research and to the way students conduct that research. Participatory Action Research Participatory Action Research has a long history not just in academia but in fields such as education, healthcare and social services (Torres 2009; Coghlan and Brydon-Miller 2014: MacKinnon 2018). Related movements and influences include Lewin’s (1946) social action, Kolb's (1984) Dew- ey-inspired experiential learning, Deming's (1986) continuous improve- ment cycle, and (for the purposes of this paper) Freire’s liberationist approach. Rather than beginning with a defined hypothesis, Participatory Action Research starts with general directions and themes that are developed and refined through the research process (Chapman 2018, 2). That process is a recursive, dynamic, and evolving approach to research consisting of iterative cycles of action, research, and reflection. It must include those being researched in the development of the research because its objective is “positive individual and social change” (Bramer and Chapman 2017, 29). Its values include the Critical Pedagogy-compatible concerns of dem- ocratic involvement, equality of participant worth, freedom from oppres- sion, and the “expression of people's full human potential” (Stringer 2014, 15). There are ethical issues associated with this approach to research that are beyond the scope of this paper but the nature of the approach addresses many of these concerns (Banks and Brydon-Miller 2018; Chapman 2018; Boser 2006; Eikeland 2006; Lofinan, Pelkonen and Pietila 2004). In sum, Participatory Action Research is research by a group for the benefit of the group. Thus it is highly compatible with a Critical Pedagogy approach that emphasizes engagement, dialogue and the liberation of the oppressed by their own actions. Implications of a Critical Pedagogy approach to Participatory Action Research Implications for a Critical Pedagogy approach to teaching Participatory Action Research for insider student researchers who want to positively affect their context include attention to context, awareness of power, the impor- tance of participation and dialogue, and a commitment to social change. [ Page ] 107 First, researchers must understand their context by deep ethnographic immersion in that context and extensive dialogue with the individuals and groups in that context. Lack of attention to context and the agency of par- ticipants can lead to externally imposed solutions to concerns that are not appropriate to the needs of the individuals involved.9 Second, with attention to power dynamics, somebody has to instigate but not control the action. The researcher does bring expertise to the con- text, but once the conversation with participants is engaged both the des- tination and the approach to the research can change based on participant involvement. While Freire sometimes talks as if the liberation process is entirely collective, and it does have as its end a more equitable division of power, there is always an implicit instigator in the process. Indeed, the very nature of oppression, that individuals do not necessarily recognize their oppression, requires some kind of external intervention. Third, as has already been implied, those in the context must participate in the research and the resulting action. Research must be conducted with rather than on participants (Bramer and Chapman 2017; Melrose 2001, 162). The role of mutual dialogue and full participation is crucial for a Critical Pedagogy approach. Fourth, the research explicitly aims to lead to constructive social and individual change. Freire’s objectives are explicitly about social change.10 For Freire this would be increasing freedom and changing power relation- ships. In organizational and educational contexts, it relates to improved outcomes for participants in learning and addressing identified problems and felt needs. A Critical Pedagogy approach to Participatory Action Research can be a means to get students to think about and engage their participants in research that is to their participants' benefit. Freire's concerns encom- passed the prevailing class injustices of society as a whole. In a similar vein the insider leader/researcher needs to be aware of the power dynam- ics in their group's context and work towards research that serves the interests of participants. Michel Desjardins, Critical Pedagogy, and Participatory Action Research Desjardins' thinking on pedagogy contributes to the application of a Criti- cal Pedagogy approach to Participatory Action Research. Not surprisingly __________________________________________________________ 9. See Trelstad (2008) on the importance of both teacher and student understanding their own biases. 10. For a Canadian example of using Participatory Action Research towards social justice aims see MacKinnon 2018. [ Page ] 108 he references Freire with respect in his own writing (Benham Rennick and Desjardins 2013, 220, 223-224). When I finally got around to read- ing Freire I saw much that resonated with the pedagogical insights I had learned from Desjardins. Those insights also extend to the concerns of Participatory Action Research. This section begins with a personal reflec- tion and then explores how Desjardins’ pedagogy addresses the four issues identified above: attention to context, awareness of power, the importance of participation and dialogue, and a commitment to social change. Although I knew better, my early teaching was primarily about informa- tion transmission. I didn't catch on quickly but I soon realized that I cared more about formation than information - not in a specific confessional sense but in the broad liberal arts tradition of civic training. However, a degree in Religious Studies and a passing familiarity with critical theory and the social construction of reality made it clear that I couldn't simply impose my understanding of civil society on students. It was around this time I encountered Michel Desjardins. I was struck by his enthusiasm for his work and his deep concern for his students. This was not a pandering. His teaching was not simple and was quick to challenge foolish statements (typically with humour). But he clearly cared for his students enough to engage them actively in their own learning. I learned to care for my stu- dents in that I wanted them to embrace their own learning and contribute positively to civil society. Thus both Critical Pedagogy and Participatory Action Research seemed logical to me when I first encountered them. In the next paragraphs I use the lens of what I learned from Michel Desjar- dins to explore these approaches. A concern to understand the contextual life worlds of religious people can be found in Desjardins’ work on religion and food (Desjardins 2012; Desjardins 2004; Desjardins 1998). His emphasis on food and play in teaching reminds us that active engagement with lived experience that engages the learning senses beyond reading and listening can be a valuable pedagogical tool. He suggests that the textually oriented “seriousness” of some scholarship on religion is insufficient on its own for understanding religion because its emphasis on philosophical nuance and categorization can keep us from understanding the actual practice and power dynamics of lived religion. In a similar way insider research that is not contextual and contemporary is unlikely to be able to understand the people it is trying to help. Desjardins often writes of power as he discusses pedagogy. For example, Michel suggests that, using Freire's language, we could think of educators as “oppressors” and students as the “oppressed." Desjardins further sug- gests that it may be the faculty members not the student who are the ones [ Page ] 109 with the problems (Desjardins and Munro 2014; see also Desjardins 2001, 145). His concern for power issues in the classroom extends beyond rela- tional dynamics to how material is presented and used. He resists “clear advocacy of certain positions in class'’ even while hoping that the class environment will help people come to certain understandings themselves (Desjardins 1998, 77). Such an awareness of power has direct relevance to insider research. For example, Desjardins' reference to Parker Palm- er's admonition that teachers are amateurs at the beginning of a class also applies to researchers beginning their research (Desjardins 2001, 149). Likewise, Desjardins' emphasis on reflection in teaching experiences for doctoral students (Desjardins 2011,164-167) has direct parallels to insider researchers’ reflections on their actions and the outcomes of those actions. An emphasis on engaged participation and dialogue has already been seen in Desjardins' approach to context and power in the classroom. Des- jardins echoes Freire on the need to abandon the “banking” approach to education because students and research participants are not empty ves- sels but rather bring something vital to the educational table (Desjardins 2016). An encounter with another person with the intention of minimizing our oppression of others and learning from them can lead to mutual edu- cation that cannot be obtained through unidirectional communication. In a similar way that students can be co-creators of the learning process, so too can research participants be co-creators of a research process that leads to their social benefit. Desjardins' approach to social change in the classroom has a strong ele- ment of care for students. He explains that “students tend to overlook our rough edges when they detect compassion underneath” (Desjardins 1998, 73). His advocacy for more attention to teaching in Religious Studies doc- toral programs comes from a similar concern for students (Desjardins 2011, 162). Such concern extends to student learning. Desjardins' use of food in the classroom includes the hope that it will be an avenue for students to consider other aspects of the world around them (Desjardins 2016; Des- jardins 1998, 70-71). Extending Desjardins’ approach to insider student researchers who want to change their own context we would expect them to bring the same concern for their participants as Desjardins brings for his students. The parallel to insider research is to be aware of one's biases and set the conditions for social change that improve the lives of participants with participants when advocating a particular approach or position. Insider research should be conducted with the well-being of the partic- ipants in mind. If our student researchers' concern is some kind of social change, then participants are best understood as co-creators of their own future and those who research, teach, and lead must do so in dialogue [ Page ] 110 and in humility. A Critical Pedagogy approach to Participatory Action Research takes seriously the concerns of participants with the aim that they accurately assess their own context and are participants in the devel- opment of their own social benefit. A Critical Pedagogy Approach to teaching insider research using Participatory Action Research Given this background, this section examines the outcomes of teaching a Critical Pedagogy approach to Participatory Action Research to graduate students in my field research classes. This section explains my approach to teaching student insider researchers and examines the outcomes of that teaching as evidenced by student research. Teaching insider student researchers I teach field research to doctoral students in a confessional setting. I want students to actively engage those they care about in discussions about actions that will affect those same people. My engagement with students in the classroom aims to help them understand themselves and their own context because they are better placed than I am to make decisions about how to encourage positive social change in that context. Students begin their program with a course where they have to identify their own per- spectives and biases - sometimes including an analysis of how they are perceived by others in their organization. I then introduce students to the social construction of reality (Berger and Luckmann 1966). The objective is to help students understand that rational people could come to differ- ent understandings of the same evidence because of the context in which they were socialized and to make them aware of the need to bridge these gaps in understanding. I also hope that they will begin to challenge their own perspective as being necessarily ‘better' than that of others in the organizations they lead. Urey have something to contribute but cannot assume that their understanding of the organization is complete. Students are then taught an ethnographic approach to contextual analysis to help them separate observations from interpretations and emotions. An assign- ment follows that requires them to describe their research context from the perspective of those being researched. Identified problems or opportuni- ties are supposed to rise from this analysis of context and not be imposed externally by the researcher/leader. It is only then that they develop a field research project. In light of this preparation, students participate in an eight-week online tutorial that walks them through research design decisions in dialogue with each other. Students are encouraged to engage in field research that incor- porates those they are researching into all stages of their research. There is [ Page ] 111 merit in outsider research but most of my students are already embedded in their context and could not extricate their influence from that context. Indeed, to do so may do damage to the context they are trying to improve. Thus it is preferable for them to acknowledge their subjectivity and lev- erage it to encourage research participants to make a difference in their own lives. Hie end of the process is conducting the research. I encourage a developmental approach that is open to adaptation as participants come to understand the research process, their own social context, and what is likely to lead to individual and collective positive social change. Insider student research An examination of student research choices and outcomes shows mixed success. Since 2010 I have had fifty-seven students who have taken my doctoral-level field research course complete their field research pro- jects. Students are not required to use action research but it is taught as a meta-methodology for thinking about their interactions with research participants. About twenty-one students have chosen to explicitly use some fonn of action research; many more said they did but in fact used a research process that was too researcher-directed to qualify. Ten of those twenty-one students conducted research that specifically engaged partic- ipants to identify how they might benefit from the research. Several stu- dents were willing to adapt their research project as they received feed- back from participants about what would serve their needs. In some cases, the participants in the voluntary organizations they served became more engaged with the work of the organization. The following anonymized examples from student research provide a few specifics to illustrate what this looked like. A student working with a First Nations community facilitated as the community itself identified how leadership development often happened in the course of regular life activities that sustained the community. A student engaged in leadership development in a Middle Eastern country found that participants discerned collectively that an effective way to com- municate some of these teachings was through the use of poetry. A student whose work involves providing support for pastors engaged in narrative research that collected the experiences of pastors as a guideline for how that support should be provided. A student who taught intercultural com- petency to new Canadians involved them in identifying how effective the teaching was for their own objectives. Finally, several students had their understanding of hospitality changed by participant engagement. In these examples the communities themselves identified an approach to their own development that was contextually specific. It is unlikely that these approaches to change could be picked up and used for community [ Page ] 112 development in another context. However, in their own context these approaches served the needs of a community in a way that the leader/ researcher could not have anticipated without the active direction of those being researched. Using Freire’s language, working with participants as co-creators contributed to liberating participants from past oppres- sive structures that, though well meaning, did not arrive at contextually appropriate change outcomes that empowered the community. This does not mean that no further work is necessary. Indeed, most of the students' research projects end with more work to be done. Most students get par- ticipant input into the research process at some point but only a minority engage participants in an active shaping of the direction and aims of the researcher. My thinking on this topic has changed over time and I am hopeful that more explicit attention to Critical Pedagogy will increase stu- dent attentiveness to the involvement of their participants in research that benefits participants. Conclusion Contemporary students in both Religious Studies and confessional set- tings may seek to make the world a better place. When they are integrated into an organization or community they may focus their social change agenda on contexts where they are insiders and/or leaders. The danger of focusing exclusively on tire researcher’s own agenda can be mitigated by research that takes seriously their own role as an oppressor and seeks to promote participant voice in any social change which affects them. In this conclusion I evaluate how such a Critical Pedagogy approach to Partici- patory Action Research has worked out in my own students' research and examine a few potential pitfalls of such an approach, before summarizing why I think this approach belongs in the classroom. Teaching outcomes Teaching a Critical Pedagogy approach to Participatory Action Research has had mixed success. On the one hand students embrace a participatory approach to research. They understand how it is valuable and they value the voices of others in the context. Most of them set out to involve their participants in the research itself and many of them adapt the research as it is developing based on tire input of their participants. Almost without exception they share their findings with participants to identify if their con- clusions roughly match the experiences of the participants. I have watched as organizations have been revitalized, and contextualized approaches to development have supplanted programmatic approaches that were not working anyhow. Positive social change was almost always the perceived outcome - even when student-researchers did not fully embrace a partic- ipatory process. [ Page ] 113 However, most of my students still default to a leader-driven and directed process. Participants are sometimes treated more as advisors or respondents to the research process than full participants. Despite not knowing what outcome is preferable in their context students still typi- cally approach the research as the expert rather than as a co-leamer. In part, they may be just playing the role that their participants want them to play. People who are used to having a professional explain things to them need some time and training to get used to the idea of their own agency and value. Indeed, Freire says that people are sometimes complicit in their own oppression. It is doubtful that oppression is the right language to apply to all these settings but the principle that people may need to be educated into their agency applies. Moving forward I think that the current strong emphasis on contextual- ization and Participatory Action Research as a response to a radically con- textual setting has to be paired with an emphasis on the liberating value of full community participation in field research that affects these com- munities. A Critical Pedagogy perspective acknowledges the research- er’s power and the need for participants to embrace their own agency to accomplish actions towards their own social good. A general assent to the principles of Participatory Action Research is insufficient to develop an engaged population that can speak to their own personal and social development. In light of this I am shifting some aspects of my teaching strategy. Insider researchers have biases that can shape how they understand their context, and can affect which projects they facilitate in the first place and who they choose to participate in those projects. Thus, I am paying more attention to issues of positional power to help students identify those biases. As there are some things that are best understood external to an organization I am encouraging a more robust literature review to compare the chosen approach and actions to other similar settings. Finally, I am increasing the use of narratives of social change through research to illustrate what it looks like to have fully engaged research participants. Why a Critical Pedagogy Approach to Participatory Action Research belongs in the classroom A Critical Pedagogy approach to Participatory Action Research belongs in field research classrooms where students are researching their own organizations to assure that the problems identified and the changes imple- mented are positive outcomes for the participants, the organization, and the student researcher. Most of my students work in voluntary associa- tions (primarily churches) whose stated objectives are the mutual benefit of their participants and the benefit of the communities in which they are [ Page ] 114 Mark D. Chapman embedded. Following Freire, even if leaders/researchers could accurately discern the well-being of these communities the positive social impact would not be realized unless participants identify and embrace the social change themselves. Hie process is not incidental to the outcome. 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