PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH Engaging Students in Studying Their Learning Process

PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCHEngaging Students in Studying Their Learning Process Carmen Knudson-Martin, PhD Director and Professor PhD in Marital and Family Therapy Program Department of Counseling and Family Sciences Loma Linda University

Disclosures (of Potential Conflicts of Interest) None

Learning Objectives Participants will 1. Learn how participatory action research may be used as a teaching strategy. 2. Learn how Marital and Family Therapy doctoral students developed grounded theory that explains their process of learning in a clinical practicum class. 3. Consider how to use participatory action research to improve student outcomes.

This program has been approved to meet the School of Medicine’s promotion criteria for CME for Education.

THE PROBLEM Students took a practicum class that focused on how to address larger socio-contextual issues (gender, race, class, culture, ethnicity, etc.) in the practice of marital and family therapy. BUT Did not consistently demonstrate attention to these issues in our observations of their clinical work.

GOAL: Increase Student Attention to Contextual Issues in their clinical practice

Paulo Freire Education as Transformation Social Nature of Learning Students as Creators of Knowing Reflection Leads to Action Empowering Dialogue Participatory action principles

Teacher as Facilitator • Step down from position as source of knowledge • Cannot think for students or impose our thinking on them • Create the conditions to an apprentice process based on two-way communication • Students are co-investigators in dialogue with the teacher

Participatory Action Research • A way to systematically evaluate process and make on-going changes to improve learning or practice • “Subjects” are co-researchers; Study own organization, group, or practice • Students in MFT Practicum studied their own process of learning

Goal is Local Change Can also contribute to the larger body of knowledge

Action Research Process:

Collaborative Data Creation, Analysis, & Action

Empowering Group Dynamics “The safety I felt in the class was also an important aspect that contributed to my learning. More than a basic level of respect, I experienced a sense of trust among the students and our professor”

Intentional New Lens Reflective Questioning Raised Awareness

Foregrounding “Throughout the past week I have thought about formulating my treatment plan of a 33-year old Mexican female around a particular diagnosis. However, I am tentative in forming my case plan based upon my preliminary diagnosis now that I have been challenged to think about the ties my client has to larger societal and cultural systems.”

Theoretical Foundation “After the session with Mike and Mindy, more questions arose regarding our specific conversation about socio-economic status. Reading a chapter on “Cultural Genograms” by Treat Weeks, I discovered a list of questions on socio-economic status in this chapter directly applicable to Mike and Mindy….In response to my learning this week, I want to …bring in the questions from Weeks’ chapter on socio-economic status and explore some of these specific questions with Mike and Mindy.” • All client names have been changed to maintain confidentiality.

Clinical Experimentation “In response to my learning this week, I want to continue to practice facilitating direct conversations about the larger societal context. I practiced such direct conversations in several different sessions last week and with each attempt, felt less stilted and more natural.”

Challenging “As I am figuring out how to incorporate a more panoramic method of addressing larger contextual systems, I also discovered this week that the lens I utilize must also be adept enough at capturing how environmental factors impact the relational functioning of my clients. . . I intend on raising questions specifically aimed at finding out about their relationship with various institutions (i.e., INS, social services, local law enforcement, medical providers, etc.).”

Identification with Privilege & Marginalization “Listening to [student] in class reminded me of my own pain of feeling different from the dominant culture as a teenager. As I remembered this part of my history, I was struck by how helpful it would have been to have talked about my experience and have someone ask me about how hard it was to always feel different and like I never quite could fit in with my peers . . . I realized how comfortable I’ve become fitting into a White culture where I no longer feel like an outsider looking in. Our class discussions took on a new intensity and importance for me.”

Positive Therapist-Client Interaction “This week I asked Eddie and [her daughter] Yvonne about their experience of being Latina women. To my amazement, this simple question at the beginning of the session filled the entirety of our time. Eddie’s experience of immigrating to the U.S., learning the language as an adult, and struggling to raise her children with a sense of the culture and values of Mexico was very different from the experience of her [more Americanized] daughter. . . Their differences in experience as Latina women shed light on some of their difficulties relating as mother and daughter.”

Committing “As I was conducting a new intake with a client this week I couldn’t help but think about GPC [Gender, Culture, & Power] and larger contextual issues. And I came to a heightened awareness that my conceptualization of issues seems to have shifted. It felt like I had acquired a completely new way of treatment planning, interacting, and talking!”

Student Learning Over time

Contributing to the Field Journal of Marital and Family Therapy doi: 10.1111/j.1752-0606.2011.00232.x DEVELOPING A CONTEXTUAL CONSCIOUSNESS: LEARNING TO ADDRESS GENDER, SOCIETAL POWER, AND CULTURE IN CLINICAL PRACTICE Elisabeth E. Esmiol, Carmen Knudson-Martin, and Sarah Delgado Loma Linda University

Empowerment “I still marvel that I have adopted a "lens" that so fits! Sometimes I think my students must wonder at my enthusiasm - but it's definitely genuine. Glad you'll be presenting on PAR - it is remarkable. I'm using a version of it - a "reflect, think and act" approach - to improving student clinical work. I like the teaching/supervision combination and inroads for research. The article we did really sent me off in a good direction!” Lisa Esmiol, PhD (2011), Assistant Professor Pacific Lutheran University

What Did I Learn? • Importance of dialogue and interpersonal questioning in the sequential process of knowing • When I stepped back, students stepped up

PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH Engaging Students in Studying Their Learning Process