Section V: Methodology

For our Senior Capstone Class, we were taught research called: participatory action research. We were taught the difference between traditional research and PAR research. For traditional research, the person doing it is usually a person not affected by the problem. They are doing it as if it is a burden that no one will take. For PAR, the person doing the research is affected by the issues, and knows about the how the problem affects a certain community. The goals of these types of research are also different, for traditional, the person doing the research is doing it for themselves and not for anyone else. For PAR, the information collected is most likely for themselves and others so that they can use it to make a change or destroy that problem. Finally, the methods are similar. For traditional, the methods used are usually looking at back data (data from previous researchers), data gathered themselves and analysis of the data. For PAR, most of the data is the same as traditional, PAR researcher look at previous data analyze it and gather data. However, when the PAR researcher collects data they collect data from shadowing the problem, or being right at the core of the problem. The goals of PAR is to gain insightful data that can stop the problem or at least help it, whereas traditional creates data that will help others but, is used for History.