Hope Through Action and Reflection: Participatory Action Research in Jesuit Higher Education.
- Resource Type
- Article
- Authors
- Brand, Rachel,
- Source
- Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal; 2023, Vol. 12 Issue 2, p78-85, 8p
- Subject
- University of San Francisco
Higher education research
Social problems
Community-based participatory research
Food security
Hope
- Language
- ISSN
- 21647666
This study looks at the outcomes from an innovative participatory action research (PAR) project implemented at the University of San Francisco (USF) to address a community problem: food insecurity amongst undergraduate students. The context of this study shows the unique possibilities for Jesuit education to address campus issues such as food insecurity, given its emphasis on engagement and reflection, and tenets of care for the whole person. This project demonstrates how the overlaps between PAR and Ignatian pedagogy can both reinforce and uplift ideals of community empowerment and social change when using community-based research methods within the Jesuit education context. Students who partook in this project went through meaningful transformations which resulted in increased feelings of hope and agency. Moving through research, action and reflection collectively gave students an opportunity to build relationships and combat their perception that they had to struggle with food insecurity alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]