3rd International Conference: Facilitating Knowledge for Change (K4C) through Participatory Research and Learning

Abstract

The more the world grapples with complex issues arising from the way members of the human race treat one another and the planet, the more urgent the global need for research approaches grounded in ethical practices that foster inclusion of new knowledge creators and the valuable understandings and knowledges that they bring to problem-solving tasks. Only with this first-hand life experience and consequent knowledge can sustainable and knowledge-driven change be achieved for better community life locally and globally. Hall and Tandon call this approach to knowledge generation, Knowledge for Change.

The critical challenges facing humanity today require new understandings and solutions. Achieving [United Nations] Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will require new insights and connections locally and globally. New understandings and innovative solutions have been shown to be catalyzed through co-construction of knowledge carried out in respectful partnerships with local communities (UNESCO Chair, 2020).

In academia the participatory research movement has gradually gained support, causing a steady paradigm shift towards recognizing that knowledge is socially constructed, and therefore has to be developed within specific contexts. This calls for methodologies that are participatory, involving the people most affected by the phenomenon under investigation (Hall, 2005). The participatory paradigm has also filtered into teaching, through service-learning, community-engaged learning and other pedagogical strategies that require engagement with real-life issues and contexts.