Participatory Workshops

A Sourcebook of 21 Sets of Ideas and Activities

Robert Chambers

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2012
• eBook ISBN: 9781136560149
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Economics
• Subtopic: Development Economics
• Index: Economics

This sourcebook is for all who work with others on participatory learning and change. Written in a spirit of critical reflection and serious fun, it provides 21 sets of ideas and options for facilitators, trainers, teachers and presenters, and anyone who organises and manages workshops, courses, classes and other events for sharing and learning ideas. It covers topics such as getting started, seating arrangements, forming groups, managing large numbers, helping each other learn, analysis and feedback, dealing with dominators, evaluation and ending, coping with horrors, and common mistakes.

Part 1 Brief Basics

DOI: 10.4324/9781849772136-2

21 Dos

DOI: 10.4324/9781849772136-2

If you are repeating what you did two years ago, is something wrong?

When in doubt,

• Do something new
• Be of good heart
• Fail forwards
• Bounce back
• Celebrate learning

and

• experiment	• adapt
• innovate	• combine
• invent	• vary
• improvise	• sequence
• dare	• reflect
• risk	• self-critique
• seek	• change
• explore	• share
• discover	• spread
• collect	• enjoy

and

• make your own list

21 Questions when Preparing for Participatory Workshops and Learning

DOI: 10.4324/9781849772136-3

A Skeleton Checklist

1 Why?

What is the purpose? Who determines it? What experience, sharing, analysis, learning or other end is sought?

2 How Does it Fit?

How does the workshop fit into longer-term processes of learning and change? If there are no such longer-term processes, should you undertake it at all? Or should you negotiate with the sponsors for commitment to make it fit?

SKELETON CHECKLIST

3 Who and How Many?

Who will the people be? How should they be selected, and against what criteria? How many should there or will there be?

4 What Expectations?

What will they expect? How can you find out?

5 How Participatory?

What sort of process? How participatory can and should it be? How much can participants do themselves?

6 What is Your Part?

What is your role and contribution? Trainer, facilitator, co-learner…?

7 Who Else?

Who else could, should or will help, take part or co-facilitate?

8 Where?

What venue should be sought, against what criteria?

9 When?

When should it be? How long should it take? What should the timetable be for preparations?

10 Finance

What will it cost and how will it be paid for? What allowances, if any, will participants expect and receive, and who will pay for these?

11 Programme

With whom, where, when and how should the programme be planned? Who should be consulted?

12 Languages

What languages will be used? Who may be marginalized by language? What can be done about it? Are interpreters needed?

13 Logistics

Who – not a facilitator and not a participant – will handle travel and logistics? Are extra support staff needed?

14 Materials and Equipment

What will be needed – materials, equipment, transport?

15 Participants' Preparation

What should be sent to participants in advance? What should they do in advance?

16 Local Liaison

Do arrangements need to be made with a local administration, local communities or other organizations? Who should make these?

17 Outputs

What outputs will there be? A written record? A report? A video? Notes? If so, who will be responsible and what will be the later value, circulation and use of the output(s)?

18 Follow-up

What follow-up can and should there be? With participants? With their organizations? Locally, with administration, communities and organizations?

19 Your Preparation

What do you need to do to prepare? When and how can you do this? What help do you need?

20 Flexibility

What is best left unplanned?

21 What is Missing from This List?

What else should you be thinking about and preparing for?

21 PRA/PLA Behaviours¹

DOI: 10.4324/9781849772136-4

1 Visit www.ids.ac.uk/ids/particip/ for abstracts of many sources on PRA and PLA and how to obtain them, and for contacts in different countries. For a discussion of PRA and PLA by Jim Rugh and a guide to methods by Meera Kaul Shah see Embracing Participation in Development: Wisdom from the Field [see 21:10]. For notes see p9

PRA originated in East Africa and India as Participatory Rural Appraisal. It has been described as a family of approaches, behaviours and methods for enabling people to do their own appraisal, analysis and planning, take their own action, and do their own monitoring and evaluation. It often involves people in groups developing their own visuals such as diagrams and maps, drawing on the ground with sticks or on paper with pens, and using counters like beans, seeds or stones. Following the lead of Pakistan, the letters PRA have increasingly been taken to stand for Participatory Reflection and Action. Other practitioners describe what they do as Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) to stress inclusive methodological pluralism. PRA/PLA has spread to many countries and from South to North, with applications in many domains.

PEOPLE IN GROUPS

This is one person’s list of behaviours for PRA/PLA. They are derived from fieldwork and apply also to participatory workshops, training and helping one another to learn.

Why not make out your own list of dos and don’ts before you read mine?

None of these behaviours is an absolute. There are occasions for doing the don’ts and not doing the dos. The point is to ask whether we do the don’ts too much and don’t do the dos enough. Good facilitat...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half-Title Page
• Dedication
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Glossary of Terms and Meanings
• On this Sourcebook
• Introduction
• PART 1 BRIEF BASICS
• PART 2 BEGINNING, MIDDLE AND END
• PART 3 MESSING UP
• PART 4 GROUPS, SEATING AND SIZE
• PART 5 ANALYSIS AND LEARNING
• PART 6 BEHAVIOUR AND AWARENESS
• References
• A Note on Equipment, Materials and Furniture
• Subject Index
• Index of Named Activities