Paulo Freire and Participatory Action Research

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Sofia Mohammad

EdPsych 402 - Dr. McClure

Paulo Freire and Participatory Action Research

My experience with students has mainly been centered within community centers, alternative, and charter high schools. Therefore I have chosen to design a 10-week project for disadvantaged 9th grade students utilizing a select number of content areas such as English and History to actually be implemented in Summer 2005. The project is designed around a strategic set of principles designed to promote learning and academic achievement for inner-city Latino students, some who experienced time in a juvenile detention center. These principles are centered on trust, conflict resolution, culture, self-reflection, and motivation. The principles emerged from conducting earlier research and focus interviews with students, families, and teachers. The practice of incorporating thoughts and interests of these individuals for the purposes of research and positive outcome stems from a method called participatory action research (PAR).

In the his book, Paulo Freire (1970) cites the use of PAR methods, mentioned previously, for teaching literacy in South America in a way that empowered local people to act to change their lives (Freire, 1970). Freire (1970) acknowledged the oppressed as the masters of inquiry into