Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) for the SDGs

Overview
Curriculum
Facilitator(s)

Welcome to the CBPR course!

The course will introduce you to the theory and practice of Community-Based Participtory Research (CBPR). It has a special focus on addressing community-identified research needs linked to the Sustainable Development Goals and their implementation. You will learn general CBPR principles and three practical CBPR methods: Photovoice, Participatory Video, and Community Asset Mapping.

In six self-paced modules, you will be assigned academic articles and practitioner reports, explore helpful digital tools, and complete quizzes. We recommend going through one module per week.

Learning objectives

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

Understand and discuss key theoretical and methodological dimensions of CBPR
Identify and apply ethical considerations in CBPR
Connect CBPR to SDG targets
Design and facilitate CBPR methods including Community Mapping, Participatory Video and Photovoice
Enhance understanding of Climate Action, the UN SDGs, and voluntary local reviews
Mobilize research into action

Target group

Researchers planning to undertake a research project funded by ICLD, or who wants to learn the CBPR approach. Local government officials and community partners who will partake in CBPR research projects. As the majority of the course content is academic articles, being used to scholarly texts is required.

What is Community-based Participatory Research?

NOTE: CBPR is not exclusive to health research.

Community-based Participatory Research (CBPR) is a particular approach to research that involves active participation of those whose lives are affected by the issues being studied. This goes for all phases of research, for the purpose of producing useful research results to make positive changes for the communities. CBPR is used to promote mutual involvement, change and personal growth through the empowerment of community members. In this approach, both the researcher and participants are actively involved in developing the goals and methods for collection and data analysis, as well as implementation of the results that will promote change and increase awareness, generally to improve the lives of those involved.

As CBPR methods are generally arts-based and have a high degree of local influence, they are particularly suitable for research partnerships between academic scholars and local governments.

Example of a CBPR project

Acknowledgement

This course builds on a hybrid research school held during the autumn of 2022 by Dr. Crystal Tremblay and Maeva Gauthier. Credit and appreciation goes to University of Victoria and CIFAL Victoria. Due credit is also given to all authors and creators of the material referenced, for producing it and for making it openly available.

Curriculum

6 Sections
32 Lessons
Lifetime

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Module 1 – Introduction to CBPR
In the introductory module, you will learn more about the course program. You will explore the key foundations, principles and history of CBPR, and how this approach has become a movement towards knowledge democracy, decolonization and social change. Students will be introduced to the UN SDGs as a global blueprint for dignity, peace and prosperity for people and the planet, and also speak to some of the challenges in realizing these efforts.
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Module 2 – Themes and issues in CBPR: Power dynamics, representation, ethics
Why do we need ethical principles and guidelines for community-based participatory research (CBPR)? All research raises questions about ethics: about the rigor, responsibility and respect of the practices of researchers. As a result, there are strict systems in place to encourage and enforce ethical practice. However, some kinds of research create specific challenges, which may not be adequately addressed by institutional frameworks for ethical conduct in research. This is particularly the case with participatory research, where the boundaries between researchers and ‘research subjects’ begin to blur. We will explore a host of issues that need to be carefully negotiated in this kind of research, including the ways power and control are negotiated, how people’s very personal experiences are shared and made public, and how the different needs and expectations of the participants are balanced in the design of the research process.
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Module 3 – CBPR for international development: connecting to SDGs and human rights
In this module, we will discuss how CBPR contributes to the achievement of the SDGs. Though most countries strive to implement Agenda 2030, human rights can carry more concrete obligations and legal weight. Thus, a solid knowledge of the goals and how they connect to human rights can enrich the impact of action research throughout the cycle. We will explore the targets and trace them to relevant human rights frameworks and articles. Finally, we will describe how CBPR can be used in monitoring and evaluation of the SDGs. At the end of this module, you will be able to identify the concreate SDG targets and human rights linked to your projects.
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Module 4 – Method I: Community Asset Mapping
Community-based mapping enables people to capture the uniqueness of a place. At its root it allows for voices usually silenced to be heard. Community mapping is used worldwide as a hands-on, engaging, knowledge-building approach for participatory and sustainable community activism. People of all ages can be involved in mapping the communities’ narratives, stories, knowledge and resources in the broadest sense. The maps they create can help support advocacy for resistance and change—literally changing the story by changing the map. Community Mapping is an excellent engagement tool in identifying and building on community assets and innovations often used for planning and advocacy.
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Module 5 – Method II: Participatory Video & Photovoice
Our lives are full of stories. They connect us to each other and hold deep knowledge about place and belonging. Worldwide, Participatory Video (PV) and Photovoice are being used as creative methodologies to spark dialogue amongst participants with the ultimate goal of promoting social and political change. The process promotes mutual involvement and empowerment of participants through storytelling and knowledge sharing. Researchers and participants are actively involved in developing research goals and data analysis, as well as implementation of the results that will promote social change. In doing so it opens up new dialogical spaces, new forms of communication and a better way of addressing research questions in a holistic and engaged way. In this module participants will gain practical knowledge on video making and editing. Our lives are full of stories. They connect us to each other and hold deep knowledge about place and belonging. Worldwide, Participatory Video (PV) and Photovoice are being used as creative methodologies to spark dialogue amongst participants with the ultimate goal of promoting social and political change. The process promotes mutual involvement and empowerment of participants through storytelling and knowledge sharing. Researchers and participants are actively involved in developing research goals and data analysis, as well as implementation of the results that will promote social change. In doing so it opens up new dialogical spaces, new forms of communication and a better way of addressing research questions in a holistic and engaged way. In this module participants will gain practical knowledge on video making and editing.
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Module 6 – Turning Knowledge into Action
This week we will explore how to make meaning of our data: also called research analysis. By thinking about and planning for the intended outcomes of our research (i.e ‘theory of change”) we are better equipped to have long-lasting and far reaching impact. We will also learn how to translate research into impact, or as it is often referred to as knowledge mobilization (KMb) or knowledge bridging. The co-creation of knowledge in principle conveys the promise of significant social impacts, and translating research into action and impact is a critical feature of CBPR. It is why we do action-oriented research! In CBPR, knowledge bridging occurs throughout the entire research process and varies widely across regions and by researcher and community. Ultimately, there is no checklist of specific actions to ensure impactful knowledge bridging, nor would such a list be desirable given the need to tailor this to specific contexts. There are however some key principles of effective knowledge bridging including 1) respect, 2) mutual understanding, and 3) researcher responsibility. We will engage in interactive sessions to explore some of the ways we might translate our knowledge findings into action.
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Clara Orstadius

Target audiences

Researchers