Educational Needs Assessment, A Participatory Action Research Project

This project is founded on the premise of participatory action research. Participatory action research is unique in that it is both activism and research, and is intended to collect, analyze, and apply information for the purpose of enacting positive change. Participatory action research is intended to be nonhierarchical. While one or more people may play the primary role of research facilitator, the goal is to involve the participants in such a way that participants collectively determine the course of the research over time. Participants’ needs and interests are considered to be the fundamental purpose and guide of the research.

There are two primary goals for this project. The first is to explore participants'  educational needs and experiences in order to identify  gaps between what people need and what existing educational structures are providing.  The second is to understand more about how educational needs and experiences are influenced by culture, language, and experiences with migration. A third mini "extra" goal is to explore the viability of conducting this type of survey through social media!

Responses are open-ended; so you can respond to all questions in any way that you like. All responses are anonymous, and no personally identifiable data is collected. Participation is completely voluntary as is continuation in the study. You can skip any question for any reason and you can stop the study at any time. If you would like to learn more about the research project, you can visit www.thoughtsinaction.org, where you can also comment and give suggestions. If you would like to receive periodic updates and/or the eventual findings of the research, please send an email to lisa@thoughtsinaction.org. Thanks for participating!