Of Action by and Change in novice student researcher: Reality check before engaging in Action Research
When I imagine community-based participatory research, I think of Action Research as the paradigm to go about the research project at hand. After all, working with the community, using local and contextual assets to bring about change sounds so exciting and soul-fulfilling!
This also means to distance ourselves from OUR past experiences and OUR perception of their challenges and closely attend to the people’s needs, their vision of change, their definition of development. In a course on “Qualitative Research Methods”, we had a module on Action Research. And one key takeaway from that lecture was when we saw a video of an activist Kamla Bhasin, who was one of the first wave feminists in South Asia and a pioneer in holistic development. This article is from an interview with the India Development Review (IDR). The following lines from the interview would stay with me:
“We often apply a narrow lens to our work. We divide people up into ‘sectors’: water, caste, literacy, and so on…But people’s lives are not divided into these areas. It’s one life. Development approaches, thus, need to be interconnected.”
~Kamla Bhasin
Yes, Action Research is about community-led collective action to bring about social, political, economic change. As a student, I have been fascinated by some phenomenal work done in the Indian context. I read about Gram Vaani, CG Net Swara, SEWA Collectives projects. But having gone through that module, I am very cautious about claiming of/committing to action research. Change takes time. Actions that induces political, economic, social mobility are not to be expected overnight and at the comfort of being complacent to one’s intellect. It rather involves being open to a lot of turmoil and demands persistence. In the discourse of action research, we talk about change and action with respect to the community, but in this article, I want to talk about the change and action brought about within the researcher.
How do these projects change and shape our identity? More importantly, what is the CHANGES that a researcher experiences within themselves, and what ACTIONS do they take towards mitigating past notions and pseudo perceptions?
I think these are not easy questions to ask ourselves and it takes a long time to be able to even attempt answering them. There will always be a gap between our perception and reality around us. So then, a prerequisite for doing community-based action research, or perhaps an integral part within it, is to embrace the change and take actions to reduce the gap. The first in this path is to acknowledge our social positionality. THIS is what I realized at the end of the first semester of the MS Research journey. I started from a place where my immediate encounters and moments of serendipity within my social circle motivated me to the project on social media mediated women entrepreneurship. What followed through these months was the self-realization of the privileges accrued over the years.
Pampered by Patriarchy
I have been a pampered younger kid in my home. Having been raised and brought up in a patriarchal setting, I have been fortunate to have certain “rules” on my side. A few years back, I was totally negligent of this fact. I was living in a bubble. In the last couple of years though, I have been cognizant of direct or indirect privileges that I have been enjoying. More recently, academic literature from HCI has put things into perspective for me. There was certain research work that literally gave me goosebumps while reading. Not only because of the work itself but also because of the fact that it addressed problems that I myself see and concerns me to the core. These couple of papers were outstanding and played a huge role in the way my thoughts have been evolving over the months:
- Designing within Patriarchy by Sultana et. al: This easily tops the list. This paper brings about important questions and challenges around designing within deeply patriarchal settings.
- Gender and Cooperative Conflicts by Amartya Sen: This was an eye-opener and sensitized me towards the gendered division of labour. The paper talks about productive work in and outside the home and wellbeing — both perceived and personal. I realized how I was a part of it all through. I discussed this paper with my family and now they thank Amartya Sen for writing it as they see some changes in the work dynamics at home! Such was the influence and power of the work…
I still come across people who casually or directly further the age-old norm of the gendered division of labour. I find my emotions swinging between being happy for a progressive education that is guiding me towards a just, equitable future for all and on the other hand, is hatred/feeling of shame for the society that I see around and an urge to distance myself. This time though, I try my bit to take a stand for what I truly feel with a hope of change.
So, what lies ahead for me in terms of research, you ask. Well, I would like to take things slow and be conscious about my work. I value my evolution as a thinker. Am I a completely different person within just 4 months? Definitely not!! There are a lot of things that I am being sensitized of as I engage with more reading and this, in turn, has led me to unlearn many things/notions. As with community change, even individualistic changes take time…
This post has been a labour of love and I see it as a mechanism to free my mind of all the thoughts that have stayed with me for a while. I am curious to know more about changes in the researcher’s identity while doing action research. I would like to hear more about it. Do reach out to me at nckd.joshi@gmail.com.
