Using Participatory Learning Action Techniques in Higher Education

Using Participatory Learning Action
Techniques in Higher Education
Vivienne Bozalek
University of the Western Cape
vbozalek@uwc.ac.za
CHEC Research T&L course
1

What is PLA?
• A growing family of approaches, methods,
attitudes and behaviours to enable people
to share, enhance and analyse their
knowledge of life and conditions and to
plan, act and monitor, evaluate and reflect.
(Chambers 2006:3)
CHEC Research T&L course 2

Origins of PLA
• Democratisation of research
• Developed in the South in 1970s and also in
North as cooperative inquiry and then by Robert
Chambers in UK
• Examines issues from political, social and
economic perspectives
• Interiorisation of disadvantage (human
capabilities approach concurs with this view)
• Interactive process using visual methods for
action and reflection
3

PLA techniques
• PLA techniques are open ended, flexible
visual methods which are used in the
learning process
• Examples of such techniques are
mapping, visioning, matrix ranking,
problem and objective trees etc

Key elements of the PLA approach
• A concentration on people as experts of their own lives
and the facilitator as a learner and enabler;
• A focus on equity and giving voice to marginalised and
socially excluded groups of people such as women,
children, those who are rural and poor;
• The use of visual learning methods which are adaptable
and used flexibly to learn from and to evaluate people’s
concerns;
• A commitment to the quality of the interaction and a
recognition and concern with diversity;
• An emphasis on self-critical awareness of both
facilitators and participants;
• A conscious move away from knowledge for the sake of
knowledge to knowledge for action and empowerment.
(Cornwall, 1999:1)
5

Different Views of Higher Education
6
Taylor & Fransman (2004:6)

The usefulness of PLA for
higher education
• Participatory parity- inclusive
• Good reflective tool – alternate ways of
expressing
• Often leads to new insights
• Provides stimulus for discussion
• Non-threatening “playful” techniques
• Promotes social learning
• Includes emotional aspects
• Opportunities to challenge and deepen
knowledge CHEC Research T&L course 7

Ways in which we have found
PLA useful in higher education
• Dealing with difference
• Promoting collaboration between students
and the institution/faculty/department
• Learning techniques to use in own
disciplines
• Modelling democratic and respectful forms
of practice
• Active form of learning >participation

Limitations of PLA techniques
• Drawings are only a springboard for
discussion and analysis
• Drawings and discussions reflect
subjective experiences
• Can be unsettling/discomforting – needs
management
• How useful it is depends on skills of
facilitator
• Time consuming to plan and implement
• Resistance from some participants

Examples of how PLA techniques
have been used in HE
• Research techniques for social work students at
UWC
• Factors affecting student learning at UWC
• Community, Self and Identity module for students
across the universities
• Women’s Health and Well-Being collaborative
course
• Masters in Child and Family Studies course
• Professional development course on teaching and
learning at UWC

What students said about PLA
techniques
The drawing exercises let us
‘play’, and took the ‘seriousness’
and nervousness out of the
situation we were placed in…
Helped us in working together
as a team in the way that we
were no longer worried about
expressing our feelings even
though they sometimes were
conflicting.
as soon as you start
drawing one thing you
immediately think of all
the other things that
link up with your initial
idea. After the
drawings had been
made, I was suprised
to see the things that
were in front of me on
my paper.
11

Learnings: Knowledge of Self
Through mapping my own community and the
available (and blatant scarcity of) resources, I got
the opportunity to reflect on my community not
only in terms of resources, but also communal
ethos (including prevailing prejudices, attitudes
towards gender, and even racism), ‘Coloured’
culture (as I’ve always had immense difficulty
defining to others what it means to be a
‘Coloured’ person, or defining myself as for
example a ‘Coloured male’
12

Learnings: Change Agents
The most thing that i also
learnt about myself is that, i
can have the potential to
change my own community
after that drawing
experience
I was reminded of just how fortunate I
am to have resources so readily
available to me. I also learned the
conditions that many of my colleagues
have faced. Many of them do not have
the most basic of resources available
to them in the places where they live.
The impact that this exercise had on
me cannot be emphasised enough. It
strengthened my desire to get involved
in the community and to make a
change, as small as it may be
13

Student debriefing video
15

Visioning
• People come up with their vision for how
things might be and it can widen their
thinking as well as indicating the things
that are important to them. This could be
drawn, modelled, acted or sung. It serves
as a starting point for discussion of what
actions could be taken.

Vision of ideal preschool

Visioning Exercise
What are the sort of things that would
make a satisfactory learning experience at
university? Draw or represent the things
that you would find conducive to learning
at university.

Mapping
• Includes mapping of social, demographic,
health and service issues, opportunities or
resources
• Can be drawn on the ground or on paper,
models can be made, natural resources
used
• Provides a starting point for discussion or
for prioritising issues for change

Things found helpful for learning

Body maps

Community Maps

Concept maps

Concept map - Science

Matrix ranking
• Used to prioritise. The group brainstorms
what it thinks is important in relation to a
particular issue and then votes on which is
most important.

Things preventing students being able to learn
to the best of their ability

Venn diagrams
• Shows influence of different service
providers, resources and information
sources

Adolescents’ sources of information on sex
reproduction
(Analysed by a group of boys, Old Kanyama Compound)

Mood or Life Lines
• Can be done individually or as a group
• People can track how they felt about
particular events in their lives or even ae
programme over time.
• Need to be used sensitively.

Research journey

Positives and negatives wall/
tree
• This provides a quick indication of the key
perceptions of the topic under discussion.
Can be done as an introduction to draw
out common themes for further exploration

Positives & Negatives wall

What helped and hindered
learning at UWC

Conclusion
• PLA effective tool in terms of students’ and higher educators’
knowledge of positioning and resources
• Students have found it useful as methodology themselves
• Enabled safer kind of sharing
• Richer understanding of power relations – privilege and deprivation
• Participatory parity
• Respect for abilities as learners and co-creators of knowledge
• Question world and place in it
• Critical and compassionate worldview
• Skills and willingness for transformation in contemporary SA
• Enhances inquiry based learning approaches
41
CHEC Research
T&L course

USEFUL RESOURCE
• http://www.ids.ac.uk/ids/particip/

43
References
Bozalek, V. & Biersteker, L. (2010) ‘Exploring Power and Privilege using Participatory
Learning and Action Techniques’ Social Work Education, 29(5):551-572.
Bozalek, V. (2011) Acknowledging privilege through encounters with difference:
Participatory Learning and Action techniques for decolonizing methodologies in
Southern contexts International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 4(6):
465-480.
Bozalek, V. (2013) Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) Techniques for Community
Work. In A.K. Larsen, V. Sewpaul, G.O. Hole (eds.) Participation in Community
Work: International Perspectives. London: Routledge. Pp. 57-71.
Chambers, Robert (2006) ‘Notes for Participants in PRA-PLA Familiarisation
Workshops in 2006’.Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex
http://www.ids.ac.uk/ids/particip/
Cornwall, A. (1999) Introduction to PRA Visualisation Methods. In The Participation
Group (1999) Introduction to PRA and Health: A reader. Institute of Development
Studies, University of Sussex, Brighton.
Hodge, D.R. (2005) ‘Spiritual life maps: A client-centered pictorial instrument for
spiritual assessment, planning and intervention’, Social Work, vol 50(1) pp 77-87.
Taylor, Peter & Fransman, Jude (2004) ‘Learning and Teaching Participation: The Role
of Higher Learning Institutions as AgInstitute ents of Development and Social
Change’ IDS Working Paper 219. Brighton: for Social Development, University of
Sussex.

Using Participatory Learning Action Techniques in Higher Education

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Using Participatory Learning Action Techniques in Higher Education