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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Keiko Goto, PhD, Visiting Fellow, Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University, 5603 Olive Street, Anderson, CA 97006, Jennifer Sarah Tiffany, PhD, Director, HIV/AIDS Education Project, Cornell University, Family Life Development Center, Beebe Hall, First Floor, Ithaca, NY 14853, 607-255-1942, jst5@cornell.edu, and Gretel Pelto, PhD, Professor of Nutritional Anthropology, Cornell University, Division of Nutritional Sciences, MVR Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853.

Issues: Participatory approaches, including participatory action research (PAR), are increasingly used within HIV prevention initiatives for youth. Academic research partners' actual and potential roles in community-based projects have not yet been fully explored and described.

Description: Cornell University served as a technical partner with UNICEF in its “What Every Adolescent Has a Right to Know” (RTK) HIV prevention initiative. Youth peer educators and program managers from youth organizations involved with the RTK initiative in a Caribbean country participated in training about the theory and practice of PAR facilitated by university researchers. The first author provided on-going technical assistance in PAR as well as observing the evolution of the initiative. The research process was mainly structured by UNICEF and conducted by youth researchers. Participating organizations developed various uses of PAR within their organizational contexts.

Lessons learned: The academic researcher's role included fostering reflection upon and analysis of the research process, as well as more conventional technical assistance activities. We discovered that participants had different perspectives on PAR. Subsequent uses of PAR in organizational contexts included needs assessment, peer education and community mobilization. PAR was defined rather informally in contrast to academic conceptualizations. The incorporation of PAR techniques was sustained within organizations after the RTK initiative was terminated.

Recommendation: Examining how the PAR process unfolds while providing technical assistance in adapting PAR to needs identified within organizational contexts can be one of the ways for academic researchers to contribute to both the theoretical and practical development of PAR.

Learning Objectives:

Participants in this session will
• explore diverse roles played by academic researchers involved in supporting community-based participatory action research efforts;
• identify strategies for promoting the examination of and reflection on the research process by both community and academic partners; and
• recognize needs-based uses of PAR by health project stakeholders within organizational contexts.

Keywords: HIV/AIDS, Participatory Action Research

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered

Handout (.ppt format, 164.0 kb)