Authentic Participation Research Articles

Leadership for Social Justice: Authentic Participation in the Case of a Community Center in Caracas, Venezuela

This is a case study of a leader who fosters authentic participation for advancing social justice in an urban community center in Caracas, Venezuela, located in the midst of poverty, marginality, and social and economic alienation. This educational space enables the local community to control the destiny of their own institution. Learning from this case, we argue that urban educational transformation might succeed in terms of practicing social justice, if leadership facilitates and creates urban sanctuaries by working with the communities and not on the communities; fosters an organizational structure that is flexible and democratic; and creates a safe (trusting) environment where the local community is engaged in authentic participation.

Will managed care ever deliver on its promises? Managed care, public policy, and consumers of mental health services.

Advocates of managed care have promised to greatly improve delivery of services to persons with serious mental illness by focusing on effectiveness and accountability. With the exception of a few beacons of success, experience shows that managed care has not delivered on its promises. This article examines several areas of the public mental health system that still have major flaws, hindering adequate provision of services. Such flaws include the absence of integration of Medicaid and the public mental health system; general lack of publicly documented performance measurements that demonstrate accountability; absence of meaningful and authentic consumer, family, and enrollee participation in service planning, implementation, and evaluation; among others. Are we ready to replicate the lessons from the few beacons of success, or will we just continue to fail persons with the most serious mental illnesses?

The use of soft systems methodology in emancipatory development

This paper discusses the use of Checkland's soft systems methodology with the broader framework of participative systemic action research. It builds on an earlier critique of SSM, discussing particularly its use as a tool for participation and emancipation: the paper discusses how SSM was used as a method to help successfully achieve emancipatory development in a rural area in the Philippines. Important emergent features that ensured such success for SSM were (a) the role of the facilitator and the process of facilitation, (b) the commitment to learning with and from all participants, (c) the contextualization of the SSM, and (d) a commitment to authentic participation of all stakeholders. Mention is also made of the different issues concerning the implementation of agreed change in situations where there are no clear power hierarchies. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The use of soft systems methodology in emancipatory development

This paper discusses the use of Checkland's soft systems methodology with the broader framework of participative systemic action research. It builds on an earlier critique of SSM, discussing particularly its use as a tool for participation and emancipation: the paper discusses how SSM was used as a method to help successfully achieve emancipatory development in a rural area in the Philippines. Important emergent features that ensured such success for SSM were (a) the role of the facilitator and the process of facilitation, (b) the commitment to learning with and from all participants, (c) the contextualization of the SSM, and (d) a commitment to authentic participation of all stakeholders. Mention is also made of the different issues concerning the implementation of agreed change in situations where there are no clear power hierarchies. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Education and Action in Magnolia Community: Rethinking Community Development

Community development programs, though aimed at personal empowerment and community change, are planned within an environment of politics and directives. Although program planners may opt for a participatory model of community development rather than a more traditional model, planners often realize they must negotiate a compromise between the community and the funding agency. This leads to a practical yet enigmatic question: How do we plan community development initiatives that blend some aspects of both traditional and participatory models? This article presents a case study of a community and leadership development program in Magnolia, a rural community in southwest Georgia. The project blends traditional and participatory strategies for community development, incorporating tenets of participatory action research. We offer a description of the project, including an overview of the process of developing and reworking the program modules to fit the needs of the Magnolia community. Further, we evaluate the project within the framework of participatory action research, not just according to predetermined objectives, but by providing evidence of community achievement through authentic participation.

Toward Authentic Participation: Deconstructing the Discourses of Participatory Reforms in Education

Current educational reforms in the U.S. contain a pervasive discourse of participation. Although calls for participation of teachers, students, parents, communities, business, and numerous other stakeholders in schools are central to most reforms, there is increasing evidence that much participatory reform is either bogus, superficial, or ineffective (Beare, 1993; Hargreaves, 1994; Malen & Ogawa, 1988; Smyth, 1993). In this article, I discuss the various influences on the discourse of participation and the ways it is currently being promoted and implemented by diverse constituencies. More specifically, I analyze (a) how participation becomes a form of public relations to create greater institutional legitimacy for current educational practices, (b) how participation mechanisms, viewed as disciplinary practices, become more sophisticated technologies of control, (c) how structures set up for greater participation often become sites for collusion, and (d) how movements promoting parental school choice in an educational marketplace are framed as providing greater parental participation. Finally, in an effort to sort out these issues and move toward more authentic forms of participation, a conceptual framework guided by five fundamental questions that orient participation efforts will be provided.

Toward Authentic Participation: Deconstructing the Discourses of Participatory Reforms in Education

Current educational reforms in the U.S. contain a pervasive discourse of participation. Although calls for participation of teachers, students, parents, communities, business, and numerous other stakeholders in schools are central to most reforms, there is increasing evidence that much participatory reform is either bogus, superficial, or ineffective ( Beare, 1993 ; Hargreaves, 1994 ; Malen & Ogawa, 1988 ; Smyth, 1993 ). In this article, I discuss the various influences on the discourse of participation and the ways it is currently being promoted and implemented by diverse constituencies. More specifically, I analyze (a) how participation becomes a form of public relations to create greater institutional legitimacy for current educational practices, (b) how participation mechanisms, viewed as disciplinary practices, become more sophisticated technologies of control, (c) how structures set up for greater participation often become sites for collusion, and (d) how movements promoting parental school choice in an educational marketplace are framed as providing greater parental participation. Finally, in an effort to sort out these issues and move toward more authentic forms of participation, a conceptual framework guided by five fundamental questions that orient participation efforts will be provided.

The Paired Learner Interview: A Preliminary Investigation Applying Vygotskian Insights

The paired learner interview in which learners take both the role of interviewer and interviewee has been used as a variation of the oral proficiency interview since the 1980s. This paper aims to show the paired learner interview as an effective means to reduce communicative stress for the non-native learner and one which can also elicit authentic learner participation. Although the oral proficiency interview has come under criticism for lacking authenticity, focusing exclusively on learner performance or proficiency, and preserving asymmetrical relations between interviewer and interviewee, the author suggests that the paired learner interview can overcome these cited criticisms if oral proficiency of individual learners is not the only criterion for evaluation, and the interview is structured so that learners can control the interaction themselves. With insights drawn from Vygotskian research the author suggests that negotiation of meaning, intersubjectivity, and scaffolding are critical variables of learner interaction for further study. These variables were investigated in paired interviews of five pairs of Japanese high school students for a term-ending examination. The paper closes with suggestions on the potential applications of these variables towards assessment and language teaching of the paired learner interview. Analysis of interaction between learners which takes into account the above variables could help ascertain the level of proficiency more comprehensively and accurately with learners from cultures in which speech is held in lower esteem or not encouraged to a great degree. Furthermore, learners in test situations may be motivated to take initiative to learn new knowledge and incorporate it into their respective private worlds.

Special Education Advocacy and Latino Clients

Abstract The special education process at times presents barriers that inhibit authentic parental participation. Given the complexities related to language, culture, and limited school resources, Latino parents in particular are prone to being excluded from active, policy making roles within this complex process. This paper reviews some of the barriers that prevent Latinos from becoming good consumers. The integration of important systems and cultural variables in working with Latino clients is stressed as well as the need for a paradigm shift in the thinking of professionals. The need for an integrated model that provides advocacy training to Latinos within a culturally sensitive format along with changes in conceptualizations about client-professional relationships is also developed.

Invited reaction: The necessary ingredient for authentic participation in the planning process for training is a labor union

AbstractThe preceding article presents us with the sound proposal that the best quality and most effective training can be achieved by incorporating workers' inputs and perspectives. My response provides an analysis of power relations that questions whether any meaningful participation can take place where management goals and objectives dominate the training process. I propose that lacking a union, no meaningful participation can or will take place. Further, under all circumstances collaborative and participative research is required as a first step to ensure worker input.

Participation in development: New avenues

Political redemocratization now occurring in numerous countries of Asia and Latin America challenges both the rule of dictators and their elitist development strategies. This essay argues that new modes of popular participation are needed in the transition to equitable development. The author classifies diverse forms of participation, assesses lessons of experience, illustrates new forms of participation in Sri Lanka and Brazil, and summarizes the strategic importance of new approaches. Participation is newly conceptualized as a “moral incentive” allowing the powerless poor to negotiate new “material incentives” for themselves, and as a leverage point permitting successful micro actors to gain entry into macro arenas of decision making. Criteria are established for authentic participation, and its indispensable role in the pursuit of equitable development and political democracy is justified.

Potential of Inmate Self‐Government

Abstract Inmate self‐government is one of the strategies for moving correctional institutions away from the crime control establishment model and toward the community subsystem model Authentic participation in government of these institutions, however, awaits resolution of basic questions. With the prison organization provide the prerequisite conditions?. Will the inmates be prepared for effective participation. since the suicide processes of criminal justice administration heavily from those segments of the American population king expunge and incentives for significant political participation? Penal dorm depends on sociocultural changes in the society of which formations is a creature. Whether or not inmate self‐government is o via reform strategy pivots ultimately on the revision of social attitudes toward deviants generally and the capacity of the prison to reduce significantly its social psychological isolation from the larger community system.

Two Concepts of Political Participation

rT HE LAST several years have seen a renaissance in study of political participation. Many contemporary societies have come to regard it as an important concern, partly because of a preoccupation with problems of bureaucratization, alienation, and mobilization of citizens for political and economic development. In Western societies our attention has also been attracted to it by demands and recommendations for more extensive and authentic participation in political process. These demands have grown out of a serious critique of existing practices and have emphasized, as a corrective, positive public and personal functions of participation in politics. Even in education, family, and industry problem of role of participation, especially in relation to formation of democratic values, has been revived and expounded. The response of social science and political theory to these crises has been directed typically either at finding an explanation for political participation, or at elaborating a rationale supporting large doses of citizen involvement and initiative in public realm. For former, explanatory theory has been sought through specifying and measuring levels or forms of participation in such a way as to facilitate cross-national ,omparison and prediction of who participates, under what conditions, and in what ways. Operational definitions, statistical methods, and quantification of findings have characterized this particular view of subject.1 By contrast, other writers have been interested primarily in identifying institutions of a potential society and demonstrating their plausibility. Whether couched in language of recommendation, exhortation, or polemic, this approach has proclaimed establishment of the case for participatory democracy, to quote a recent title, as its final aim.2 While having obvious merits of their own, neither of these approaches has given sufficient critical attention to conceptual complexities of political par-

Theoretical Problems of Democratic Planning

Democratic planning is a much abused concept. Still, it is extremely relevant for present day planning research. There are certain general preconditions for democratic planning, namely: 1. there must be a correct comprehension of the laws of development of the society where planning is to take place, 2. there must be means at hand for guiding the development of the society at all levels and 3. all this must be implemented through authentic participation. I.e. for democratic planning it is not enough to have participation, one must also be able to plan.The most fundamental theoretical question concerning democratic planning is under what preconditions democratic planning would be possible in a capitalist society. Capitalism of today is distinguished by an extension of capitalist control over every sphere of human life. The value expansion process of capital dominates the whole of society in an unprecedented manner. But simultaneously with this development, capital develops forms of social activity, becomes a precondition for the universalization of man, for the economy of time. This double nature of capitalism implies that democratic planning certainly is possible under capitalism when specific political and social conditions are met, those which go under the conception advanced democracy. There are innumerable approaches to democratic planning where these preconditions are not considered but which notwithstanding seem fruitful and useful for further analysis. From the double nature thesis it follows that these approaches cannot be considered simply as ploys, but they reflect authentic tendencies in capitalist societies. This goes especially for the romantic planning school, whose approach is analyzed. Finally, it is important to discuss more extensively the actual forms of democratic planning, i.e. those actual practices which constitute the framework for the planning process. Here it is a question of treading new ground entirely. There are some attempts at formulating some institutional arrangements, notably Kuenzlen's which, however, do not go very far. Also there is the tradition of soviet democracy which is a very rich source for further analysis. Further concretization will require empirical analysis and experimentation also but for this, much more theoretical work is needed.