Consistency and Change in Participatory Action Research: Reflections on a Focus Group Study about How Farmers Learn

Authors

Fred P. Piercy, Virginia Tech UniversityFollow
Nancy Franz, Iowa State UniversityFollow
Joseph L. Donaldson, University of TennesseeFollow
Robert F. Richard, Louisiana State UniversityFollow

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to reflect on our efforts to balance consistency in our multi-year participatory action research study with the need to adapt our research protocol to what we are learning along the way. While both are important, we share several examples of how our flexibility and openness to adapt our protocol to our research findings has lead to methodological refinements and serendipitous learnings. We discuss implications for both agricultural education and research.

Keywords

Participatory Research, Focus Groups, Agricultural Education, and Extension Education

Acknowledgements

We wish to acknowledge the grant support from the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) USDA subcontract from the University of Georgia. We also wish to thank Rachael Morgante-Richmeier and Jonnnie Westbrook for their help in the preparation of this article.

Publication Date

5-1-2011

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

DOI

10.46743/2160-3715/2011.1089

Recommended APA Citation

Piercy, F. P., Franz, N., Donaldson, J. L., & Richard, R. F. (2011). Consistency and Change in Participatory Action Research: Reflections on a Focus Group Study about How Farmers Learn. The Qualitative Report, 16(3), 820-829. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2011.1089