The document discusses using participatory action research (PAR) to extend the role of information professionals in rural communities. It examines five community domains where PAR can be applied: rural agriculture, business, education, environmentalism, and public health. PAR empowers community members to collaboratively investigate issues and enact solutions. The author also discusses their experience in the Information Technology Rural Librarian program, which trained rural librarians in IT and management skills through distance education. The program outcomes demonstrate how PAR could engage and empower rural communities through the library.

1. An Exploration of Participatory Action Research
to Extend the Role of Information Professionals
in Rural Community Engagement
Will Buck (wbuck@vols.utk.edu)
Masters Candidate, School of Information Sciences
University of Tennessee
Bharat Mehra (bmehra@utk.edu), Graduate Research Advisor
Associate Professor, School of Information Sciences
University of Tennessee

2. ❖ Rural Library Professionals as Change Agents in the 21st Century: Integrating
Information Technology Competencies in the Southern and Central
Appalachian Region (Part II) (ITRL2) ($478,258). Institute of Museum and
Library Services, Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program, October 2012 –
September 2015 (One year no-cost extension till September 2016). (PI: B.
Mehra, Co-PI: V. Singh). URL: http://www.sis.utk.edu/13-scholarships-
available-itrl2.
❖ I will reflect on my experience working on the Information Technology and Rural
Librarian Masters Program, Phase II (ITRL2) with Dr. Bharat Mehra in exploring a
Participatory Action Research (PAR) model to extend the role of information
professionals in rural communities.
❖ I will examine five community-based domains where PAR can play a role and
explore a potential model for strategic rural community engagement for
researchers and community advocates to apply in their rural libraries and
communities.
❖ I will examine my how work in ITRL2 is informing the development of my
educational and professional journey and my continued research in community
development and community empowerment.
Buck@TLA—2016
Agenda

3. ❖ PAR encompasses a wide variety of research involving:
❖ a collective commitment to investigate an issue or problem.
❖ a desire to engage in self- and collective reflection to gain clarity about
the issue.
❖ a joint decision to engage in individual and collective action that leads to
a useful solution that benefits the people involved.
❖ the building of alliances between researchers and participants in the
planning, implementation, and dissemination of the research process.
(McIntyre, 2008)
❖ PAR incorporates an awareness of the inherent power dynamics of
the research process and seeks to empower participants in order to
foster genuine participation for social change (Etowa et al, 2007).
Buck@TLA—2016
What is Participatory Action Research?

4. Kemmis & McTaggart’s (2000) Action Research Spiral
Buck@TLA—2016
What is Participatory Action Research?
 PAR utilizes the Action
Research Spiral and
incorporates these steps
collaboratively by co-
participants in the
research process.
(Kemmis & McTaggart,
2000).

5. Why PAR for the Rural Librarian?
❖ PAR is characterized by decentralization, deregulation, cooperation,
and community empowerment (Mehra, 2006).
❖ PAR empowers participants by demystifying the research process
and providing opportunities for people to engage in ongoing
processes of action and change (McIntyre, 2008).
❖ Rural library services are in relatively high demand, providing a hub of
social activity and access to community resources that provide
opportunities for accessing local expertise and collaborative
potential (Smith, 2014).
❖ Strategic collaboration with domain-specific partners can improve
sustainability for emancipatory change (Silbert & Bitso, 2015).
❖ PAR offers a framework to engage community members and create
innovative ways to extend the service role of information
professionals (Moroni, 2011).
Buck@TLA—2016

6. Buck@TLA—2016
 Kamali, B. (2007). Critical reflections on participatory action
research for rural development in Iran. Action Research 5(2):
103-122. DOI:10.1177/1476750307077323
 Researchers designed a forum to improve communication between
state development workers, rural male extension workers, and rural
female extension workers employed by the Ministry of Jihad for
Agriculture (MJA). This forum was aimed to increase their knowledge
and understanding of participatory forms of communication and their
gender awareness and sensitivity.
 Service roles of the information provider
 Community Advocate
 Government Service Provider
 Agricultural Extension Facilitator
PAR in Specific Domains: Rural Agriculture

7. Buck@TLA—2016
 Ku, B. H. (2011) ‘Happiness being like a blooming flower’: An
action research of rural social work in an ethnic minority
community of Yunnan Province, PRC. Action Research 9(4): 344-
369. DOI:10.1177/1476750311402227
 Researchers in Yunnan Province, China developed community
workshops to preserve and develop indigenous cultural artifacts and
market those cultural products to wider audiences, thus creating a
niche market that benefitted the minority producers.
 Service roles of the information provider
 Community Facilitator
 Government Service Provider
 Information/Technology Literacy Advocate
PAR in Specific Domains: Rural Business

8. Buck@TLA—2016
 Vaughn, M., Parsons, S. A., Kologi, S., & Saul, M. (2014). Action
research as a reflective tool: A multiple case study of eight rural
educators’ understandings of instructional practice. Reflective
Practice, 15(5), 634-650. doi:10.1080/14623943.2014.900030
 Qualitative data in the form of interviews, focus groups, blog entries,
reflection journals and instructional artifacts were collected and
analyzed to learn how teachers characterize their service roles and to
determine teacher’s rationales for conducting their own action
research projects.
 Service roles of the information provider
 Teacher-researcher
 Language literacy advocate
 Empowered professional
PAR in Specific Domains: Rural Education

9. Buck@TLA—2016
 Rammelt, C. (2013). Participatory Action Research in
Marginalized Communities: Safe Drinking Water in Rural
Bangladesh. Springer. DOI: 10.1007/s11213-013-9280-1
 The Arsenic Mitigation and Research Foundation (AMRF), a
partnership between Dutch and Bangladeshi academics and NGO
practitioners, set out to establish safe drinking water supplies and
health care schemes in several arsenic-affected aquifer communities,
and used a wide variety of quantitative and qualitative methodologies
to record and report on the findings.
 Service roles of the information provider
 Community advocate
 Government services provider
PAR in Specific Domains: Rural
Environmentalism

10. Buck@TLA—2016
 Campbell, B. (2010). Applying knowledge to generate action: A
community-based knowledge translation framework. Journal of
Continuing Education in the Health Professions 30(1): 65-71.
 PAR was used to generate a rural community’s knowledge of their
children’s health and led to the creation of a more current knowledge-
to-action (KTA) conceptual framework which provided the rationale for
the graphical depiction of engagement of a rural community in
knowledge translation.
 Service roles of the information provider
 Health literacy advocate
 Public health advocate/guardian
PAR in Specific Domains: Rural Public Health

11. Buck@TLA—2016
Implications for PAR in Specific Domains
❖A Model for Strategic Rural Community Engagement will:
❖include an assessment of institutional strengths and weaknesses.
❖identify a specific community-based domain for the desired rural action.
❖highlight challenges specific to the relevant community-based domain.
❖identify categories of potential partners whose strengths may offset
institutional weaknesses and specific domain challenges.

12. The purpose of the ITRL2 Masters Program is to
recruit thirteen para-professionals working in rural
libraries in the Southern and Central Appalachian
(SCA) regions to complete their masters degree with
a focus on outcomes in both information technology
and rural librarianship in the UT SIS program via
distance education.
Buck@TLA—2016
Information Technology Rural Librarian
Master’s Program, Phase II (ITRL2)

13. ❖ Outcomes from courses in information technology:
❖ Technology planning, assessment, and analysis
❖ Anjanae Brueland created a system-wide technology inventory for the
Sevier County Public Library System in Tennessee.
❖ Database and web design, development, and usability
❖ Rebecca Baker gained skills to perform a technology assessment to
redesign the library website at Blount Country Public Library in Maryville,
TN.
❖ Building digital library, web portals, and Library 2.0 tools
❖ Rebecca Tedesco created a Crowdsourcing Web Mapping Application
to include user-generated content for the Cleveland State Community
College Library in Cleveland, Tennessee.
Buck@TLA—2016
Information Technology Rural Librarian
Master’s Program, Phase II (ITRL2)

14. ❖ Outcomes from courses in library management
❖ Service evaluation/assessment in rural libraries
❖ Amanda Aubrey conducted a case study that analyzed strengths and
weaknesses of the E.W. King Library in Bristol, TN and the Cleveland
State Community College Library in Cleveland, TN.
❖ Planning/management of rural library program for youth and
adults
❖ Ryan Congdon evaluated the function of services and established a
facilities design for adult services at Rockbridge Regional Library in
Lexington, VA.
❖ Grant writing and partnership development
❖ Mary Rayme developed a collection list for juvenile minority readers at
Pioneer Memorial Public Library in Harmon, West Virginia, and secured
a $5,000 grant from the Laura Bush Foundation to fund the entire
collection
Buck@TLA—2016
Information Technology Rural Librarian
Master’s Program, Phase II (ITRL2)

15. ITRL2: PAR for the Rural Library Community
❖ PAR engages and empowers members of the rural community.
❖ PAR allows participants to become agents of emancipatory
change in their local community.
❖ PAR provides tangible products and outcomes through
community action.
❖ PAR promotes active and continuing participation in
community development.
Buck@TLA—2016

16. Buck@TLA—2016
Exploring community-based domains in ITRL2 research
has provided:
❖the discovery of a need to explore specific domains of PAR
applications in my own research.
❖the initial development of a Model for Strategic Rural
Community Engagement to be applied further in one domain of
analysis in my current research.
❖the potential for PAR to serve as a valid construct to inform my
future research in community development and community
empowerment.
Insights informing the Development of my
Educational and Professional Journey

17. Questions and Comments?
Thank You!
Buck@TLA—2016