Reflection

Abstract

In this paper, four researchers describe reflection as a component of a participatory action research cycle. We draw on our experiences and learning while undertaking three research inquiries. In the first inquiry we listen and respond to the voices of Australian Aboriginal people who live with diabetes and we share an alternate story, where fear is turned into courage, as told by these Elders. The second inquiry involves email communications with women and men who live with a chronic illness and gives a facilitator’s reflections. And the third study is a capacity building process with women who have experienced child sexual abuse. These women have used/misused alcohol, licit/illicit substances, or gambling, which has contributed to their homelessness. Confronted by many of life’s obstacles, we gain a glimmer of hope as women describe the way in which they use the participatory process to make sense of their lives.

It is argued that reflection occupies a central place is participatory action research cycles of ‘look, think and act’. ‘Look, think and act’ processes are appealing precisely because they are meaningful to research participants in their everyday lives. When these processes are internalised as modus operandi, they can be sustained throughout one’s life as a strategy for building capacity or ‘moving on’. ‘Moving on’ or transition is the theoretical focus that holds these inquiries together.