3:15pm - 3:35pm (CDT) | 4273.0 - Pedagogy for participatory action research with people engaged in the sex trades

Session: Teaching to Counter Miseducation and Build Critical Pedagogy

Program: Spirit of 1848 Caucus

Presenter:

Marie-Fatima Hyacinthe

Authors:

Alice Miller, JD

Daniel Newton

Abstract

The concept of “Community-engaged research” can function opaquely; it is often used as an umbrella term in public health research. Researchers who use this term may be referring to actions ranging from consulting community advisory boards prior to their projects or to innovative methods of research dissemination. Notably, much of the academic scholarship, and the current teaching in public health, on community-engaged research omits analyses of power, whether power relationships within communities or between community researchers and academic researchers. This presentation will present and reflect on the pedagogical and related methodological shifts that evolved and are evolving as a response to thinking about power in a recent interdisciplinary, university-based recent participatory action research project with people engaged in the street-based sex trades in urban U.S. sites.

This project originated with community advocacy groups, and the approach is informed by teaching and writing drawn from an experiential course reflecting on previous experiences with community-based participatory research (CBPR) projects involving law and public health students, and people engaged in the sex trades. These experiences elucidated gaps in CBPR pedagogy related to power, partnership, meaningful participation, and accountability (Daryani et al.,2021). This workshop will reflect on who teaches and learns, and by what means, as our project seeks to address identified gaps through a participatory action research approach, including by incorporation of theories beyond legal and public health pedagogies. We will also include preliminary findings from the participatory action research project.