Dear Hannah,
Within the critical community psychology frame of reference within which I try to work, a key question to ask would be from where the demand for 'to train individuals' comes. Does it really come from the bottom up? If the demand for training comes from the top down (from Govt or ' your role' or a service or, especially. a labour market activation intervention) and if 'engagement' is a means to involve people in that training / render people compliant to a training programme, it would be problematic in that framework in several respects and I would want to support resistance by people to it. If the demand for training, at least at first sight came from the bottom, within the critical community psychology frame of reference within which I try to work, I would subject the notion of bottom-up-demand to critical scrutiny as the neoliberal subject is in a continual process of re-subjectification and what appears to agentic action often turns out to be a manifestation of governmentality.
To be just a little more concrete, a colleague (Paul Duckett) and I were asked to deliver what amounted to a (top down) training programme in interview skills to unemployed disabled people. We re-framed the problem as discriminatory practicalities by employers and re-positioned the unemployed disabled people in expert advisers to employers to train employers in non-discriminatory interviewing and employing practices in the context of Disability Discrimination legislation. The employer training emerged through a participatory process but was still at least partially top down (drawing upon demands for emancipatory disability research by activist disabled people). As a second example, a colleague (Rebekah Pratt) and I were asked by a group of unemployed activists to give what amounted to training in research skills so they could investigate the issues important to them rather than be the object of investigation by others as was often the case. This was at first sight bottom up but it soon transpired that the group's under-standing of 'research' was heavily saturated by a dominant positivist discourse. We worked to support the group in using their own expertise to innovate new radical ways of legitimating knowledge claims. That was semi bottom-up / top-down but far less top down than the ways unemployed people are usually involved in research.
In sum, I would recommend you do not seek "methods or models currently either being used or have been used by organisations/private or public sector or educational institutions". I would recommend subject the notion of "help(ing) train individuals" to critical scrutiny. I would recommend you problematise the notion of "genuine bottom-up processes".
David
From: hannah istead <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Saturday, 13 May 2017, 20:48
Subject: Participatory methods/models in training others
<!--#yiv0326380298 P {margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;}-->Dear All
This is my first posting and really value being a part of this network, so felt my question below could potentially generate some ideas that I am curious about and keen to pursue in my current role.
I am interested and curious about any methods or models currently either being used or have been used by organisations/private or public sector or educational institutions that have engaged people from the communities that they are working/for with to help train individuals in an ethical way. Genuine bottom-up processes.
I am interested to know if there is any practice out there, that perhaps hasn't been captured in more formalised ways, that I could learn from? Or if there are any evaluated models or approaches that have been captured and you could potentially sign post me too.
Sorry if its a vague request/posting, but I am keen to capture ideas that may exist potentially from across areas/disciplines. I am however specifically interested in how young people and parents/carers may be engaged and contribute to this process of training.
Many thanks
Hannah Istead
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