Skip to main content
Log in

Re-visioning Action: Participatory Action Research and Indigenous Theories of Change

  • Published:
The Urban Review Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This article observes that participatory action research (PAR), by nature of being collaborative, necessitates making explicit theories of change that may have otherwise gone unseen or unexamined. The article explores the limits of the reform/revolution paradox on actions and theories of change in PAR. Citing examples from two recent youth PAR projects on educational issues, the author submits that when met with such a paradox, one can only move to a new vantage point. Four alternative vantage points, drawn from Indigenous epistemologies, are illustrated; they are sovereignty, contention, balance, and relationship.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Claude Denis (1997) and Sandy Grande (2004).

  2. Gerald Vizenor (1994).

References

  • Adelman, C. (1997). Action research and the problem of participation. In R. McTaggart (Ed.), Participatory action research: International contexts and consequences (pp. 79–106). Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alfred, G. R. (2005). Wasase: Indigenous pathways of action and freedom. Peterborough, Ont: Broadview Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anzaldúa, G. (1999). Borderlands/La Frontera, the new Meztiza. San Francisco: Aunte Lute Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boal, A. (2002). Games for actors and non-actors. London, NewYork: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brayboy, B. M. J. (2008). ‘Yakkity yak’ and ‘talking back’ an examination of sites of survivance in indigenous knowledge. In M. Villegas, S. R. Neugebauer, & K. R. Venegas (Eds.), Indigenous knowledge and education: Sites of struggle, strength and survivance. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deloria, V. (1988). Custer died for your sins : An Indian manifesto. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Denis, C. (1997). We are not you: First nations and Canadian modernity. Peterborough: Broadview Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ferreira, E., & Ferreira, J. (1997). Making sense of the media: A handbook of popular education techniques. New York: Monthly Review Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fine, M., Tuck, E., & Zeller-Berkman, S. (2007). Do you believe in Geneva? In C. McCarthy, A. Durham, L. Engel, A. Filmer, M. Giardina, & M. Malagreca (Eds.), Globalizing cultural studies. New York: Peter Lang Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gingrich-Philbrook, C. (2005). Autoethnography’s family values: Easy access to compulsory experiences. Text and Performance Quarterly, 25(4), 297–314.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grande, S. (2004). Red pedagogy: Native American social and political thought. Lanham, Md: Oxford Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grande, S. (2008). Educational desire as decolonization. In J. Cammarota & M. Fine (Eds.), Revolutionizing education: Youth participatory action research in motion. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Josselson, R. (2004). The hermeneutics of faith and the hermeneutics of suspicion. Narrative Inquiry, 14(1), 1–28.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Laenui, P. K. (1994). Straight talk on hawaiian sovereignty. http://www.opihi.com/sovereignty/hsacupda.txt, Last accessed May 13, 2008.

  • Lyons, S. R. (2007). In vine veritas. In E. Gansworth (Ed.), Sovereign bones. New York: Nation Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, G. H. (2000). Protecting and respecting indigenous knowledge. In M. Battiste (Ed.), Reclaiming indigenous voices and vision (pp. 209–224). Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tuck, E. (2008). Theorizing back: An approach to participatory policy analysis. In J. Anyon, M. Dumas, D. Linville, K. Nolan, M. Perez, E. Tuck, & J. Weiss (Eds.), Using theory in empirical research on education. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tuck, E., Allen, J., Bacha, M., Morales, A., Quinter, S., Thompson, J., et al. (2008). PAR praxes for now and future change. In J. Cammarota & M. Fine (Eds.), Revolutionizing education: youth participatory action research in motion. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tuck, E. in conversation with Fine, M. (2007). Inner angles: A range of ethical responses to/with Indigenous and decolonizing theories. In N. Denzin & M. Giardina (Eds.), Ethical futures in qualitative research: Decolonizing the politics of knowledge. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press.

  • Vizenor, G. R. (1994). Manifest manners: Postindian warriors of survivance. Hanover, N·H: Wesleyan University Press, University Press of New England.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zeller-Berkman, S. (2007). Act now, not only later! Taking action seriously in PAR. Chicago, IL: American Educational Research Association presentation.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Eve Tuck.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Tuck, E. Re-visioning Action: Participatory Action Research and Indigenous Theories of Change. Urban Rev 41, 47–65 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-008-0094-x

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-008-0094-x

Keywords

Navigation