Participatory Research

Over nine six years of facilitating popular education gatherings we discovered that despite the different working agendas and nature of projects, most PVI participants shared the common goal of building a public voice and making themselves more visible by becoming more publicly engaged.

Another commonality among them is that all express experiencing cultural conflicts. They felt scrutinized by the mainstream because of their traditional practices, healing and belief systems, celebration of traditions, identity, and language. In other words, these groups were struggling with how their cultural backgrounds made them vulnerable to discrimination and exclusion, and they are constantly put in a position of choosing one way of being over another.

Powerful stories of loss were shared as the immigrant participants began to recognize the universal bond they shared. One such story was of the indigenous Mexicans and Southeast Asians, who felt they did not have the right to practice their culture. This led some to feel ashamed and practice their traditions in the margins of society, or even just abandon their traditions. These and other stories highlighted how cultural limitations impact the participation of immigrants.

These newfound similarities led to a search for better understanding of how this rejection and struggle for cultural balance prevents immigrants from investing in their communities. Guided by popular education principles, PVI staff decided they could not tackle this question alone, and that those who brought these issues to light during the process must also participate.

To do this in 2005, with the financial support of the Rockefeller Foundation we initiated a participatory action research project to best understand the interjection of culture and participation. Participatory research methodology was chosen for its collective process of generating knowledge that then is utilized for changing a specific social condition impacting the most marginalized members of society. In this case, the large number of immigrants residing in California's Central Valley would benefit.

Participatory action research was also chosen because this methodology validates the knowledge of the most oppressed groups and allows these groups to enhance their knowledge and use it for transforming their conditions of oppression.

This is more important than ever because immigration policies are being developed on the basis of groups in power, who claim to understand immigration yet completely ignore the human aspect of the issue-the immigrant themselves.

PVI views participatory research as a process initiated and conducted by the people directly affected by the research subject. Research methods are based on the principles of popular education-everyone involved brings expertise to the equation, which is of equal value to the process. It is important for the knowledge generated to be useful toward solving a social or economic problem impacting Central Valley immigrant communities.

What is the problem to be addressed? The immigration debate dominated by anti-immigrant and protectionist sectors has shape public opinion through the main stream media and argues that immigrants resist to assimilate, integrate or better yet to become American by not learning English, embracing the American values and by adamantly maintaining their culture. This debate of immigrant's opposing integration very seldom includes the voices and perspectives of immigrants themselves. In fact, very little is known of the efforts made by immigrants to become a part of the communities where they are raising families and making a living

A series of questions were drafted based on the information yielded from the popular education gathering: Why cultural maintain is important? Does this supports or hinders integration? What barriers prevent immigrants from maintaining their cultures? Are these barriers oppressing them and preventing development of a sense of belonging in their new communities?

For a period of two years a participatory research team form by community members, academicians and PVI staff have engaged in an inquiring process to answer this questions. The results of this research will be presented at the upcoming Tamejavi events happening during the month of August and September. For more information please check the program of activities.