Interactive Methodology, Feminist

Conceptual Overview and Discussion

Interactive methodologies have a broad disciplinary and sociohistorical basis. Within community development, liberation theology, and neoMarxist approaches more than a century of documented projects have used action research. Within the social sciences, Kurt Lewin's 1946 work has been cited as the beginning of action research or at least the popularizing impetus for it. In the past few decades, a growing movement of socially conscious researchers have been using the interactive paradigms to address social justice inequities that fracture communities along gender, race, class, ability, sexuality, religion, and other categories of social identity.

There are multiple feminisms that have nuanced variations on the theme of equity, and each has used interactive methodologies effectively. Thus, any of the feminist approaches to interactive methodology could be used to guide our thinking about how to proceed with an interactive methodology. The common theme among all their approaches, and what all will agree on, is that the context for the research is based within women's experiences within their communities. All approaches will instill collective and shared ownership of research projects, and the research is conceived as cyclical. The cyclical aspect of these approaches is that community-led research in the service of social justice will be rooted in ongoing commitment to change the material conditions of participants' lives. Relevant questions lead to systematic [Page 480]community-based inquiry that creates action, which brings about further questions, further inquiry, and further action on social justice. In a paradigmatic sense, these core thematic elements to interactive methodologies are actually part of a spiral on deepening inquiry. As participants think, research, and act, they continue to reflect on their situation and create further research questions. This cycle has been labeled by a number of theorists within different disciplines. A solid discussion of this can be found in The Action Research Reader (Kemmis, Henry, Hook, & McTaggart, 1981).

Interactive methodologies build community participation into the research from the outset. Community participants help to frame the basis for the inquiry. They have meaningful input into the research questions, implementation, and process. They contribute to the interpretation of the findings. The interpretation of findings will include a community-based analysis of the social issues and a focus on praxis. Praxis is located in terms of what can be done within the community to create change in the identified social problems. The definition of what can be done within the community will often have a personal as well as a political function, and it will usually involve multilayered approaches. Programs of action that address personal as well as systemic issues are a common outcome for interactively based research projects.

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