Roundtable on Participatory Action Research with Racialised Girls in

Victoria

Dr. Jo-Anne Lee, University of Victoria

Sandrina de Finney, University of Victoria

Winnie Chow, Anti-dote

Rani Sandhu, Anti-dote

Sartu

Sudi

March 24, 2006

Anti-dote History with PARResearch Team-(SSHRC,2000)

Ongoing Outreach and Programs

Antidote; Multi-Racial Girls and Women's NetworkFormed, August, 2004

Web-based Survey of Executive Directorsand Service Providers

who work with youth andNovember, 2002

Older Planning CommitteeYounger Planning Committee

"Its About Us" Girls ConferenceJuly 5, 2001

Websitewww.anti-dote.org

Several presentations by selected rmembersof the theatre group to conferences and meetings

about their experiences and about what weuncovered during PAR.

Popular Theatre Workshops10 Participants

February to July, 2001

Photojournal ResearchJune, 2001

research component undertaken bytheatre workshop participants

13 Focus Groups, Individual and Group InterviewsBegun in June, 2000

Approximately 75 girls participated

Advisory Committee of Community Workers6 Service Providers working

with Immigrant women and youthMay 2000-November 2003

Organizing and Training Research AssistantsRecruitment PhaseBegun in May, 2000

March 24, 2006

Present Initiatives

Immigrant Sibling Research Project Bridging the Intergenerational

Comunication Gap: Violence Prevention Project with Racialised Girls and Women

International Students Project Capacity Building Project

March 24, 2006

Conceptual Framework and Starting Assumptions

Post-structural perspectives on multiple subjectivities Post-modernist social theories, the ‘social’ as emergent and

contingent Transnational Feminist Frameworks Concerns with colonialism, nationalism, globalized

capitalism and citizenship,as they deploy race, class, gender, age, language to shape the conditions of racialised immigrant and indigenous girls lives

“Scattered hegemonies”- ie how patriarchies are recast in diasporic conditions of post-modernity

Girls and women have agency and take action to shape themselves in relation to others

March 24, 2006

Lessons Learned with PAR in Victoria

Feminist participatory action research integrated with community development methods have tremendous potential for bringing about positive and immediate change because these processes integrate and support processes of citizenship identity formation, critical consciousness, knowledge production, social linkages and network, social action and self-empowerment, and building community capacity.

However there are particular challenges for PAR when undertaken when group is socially isolated, silenced, and hidden from view.

March 24, 2006

Key Working Concepts Diasporic transnational communities Hybrid subjects Negotiation and cultural citizenship Categories of Identity are left open, intersecting,

multi-layered, refusal of essentialism, Learning by doing, cultural practices of everyday

life Girls as co-researchers, active agents of their life Intergenerational support is needed to bring girls

voices to the table: Sisters and Aunties also part of building capacity

March 24, 2006

Some Key Issues Whiteness needs to be named and theorized as a structural

formation that mediates racialised girls’ lives Practices of social exclusion are not acknowledged by

service providers and state officials Specific policies and programs are needed that address the

context of less diverse cities like Victoria Programs that offer girls language to understand and name

their experiences and realities are needed so they do not feel so isolated and estranged from their lives and each other. Such programs need to be developed in collaboration with girls themselves and in relation to context. Ie. Buddy programs with “normal” Canadians not useful, but programs that support and build networks around “difference” is helpful.

March 24, 2006

Some Key Issues Cont’d.

Cultural knowledge that girls possess needs to be acknowledged, validated and valued. They have knowledge of how to live as multicultural subjects in a changing, globalized society

Immigrant families face economic challenges in adapting to new site by reworking gender norms, ie, requiring caring labor from girls. Sometimes this intensives gender roles for girls, limiting their opportunities for the future.

March 24, 2006

Central Themes and Concepts

Sense of social isolation in Victoria Numerous interacting factors: whiteness as

cultural formation, numbers, lack of awareness of needs of racialised immigrant girls, lack of opportunities for solidarity around difference.

Girls have considerable cultural knowledge and skills for negotiating multiple cultural worlds.