Final Report: Strengthening Community Research in ... - Ninti One

Two workshops were held:i. Introduction for Ninti One Strengthening Community Research for Remote Service DeliveryHeld in May 2011 at Ntaria, and attended by five Ntaria Community Researchers, this was an introduction toCommunity research. After the induction section the workshop discussed what an action research cycle is, talking abouthow the cycle progressed and what is covered with each step. The workshop explored common research terms andclarified how we use them.ii. Group workshop for Amata and Ntaria Ninti One Community research staffA similar project to the Ntaria Strengthening Community Research for Remote Service Delivery was being conductedconcurrently at Amata, and a workshop held at Yulara in June2011 brought these two groups of community researcherstogether for the first time. The benefit for community researchers meeting other researchers from differentcommunities cannot be underestimated. Both groups provided excellent audiences for each other’s research projectreports, and gave really good feedback. This was the kind of opportunity for skill sharing which is only provided ininter-Aboriginal cultural exchange. Feedback from the workshop was strongly positive.3.4.2. Individual learningKeeping track of learning and professional development in the team helped researchers and their team members tounderstand their own strengths and weaknesses, and allowed people to track their growth over time. Tools for selfevaluationdescribed each person’s skills, and may have influenced the focus and methods used in the research cycles.Sharing the learning evaluations with others in the team gave an opportunity for listening to one another about how weeach work.The take-up of research jobs was affected by each person’s hopes and confidence in their own ability to ‘do’ the job. Aspreviously mentioned, one barrier to employment was English literacy and numeracy. There is a stigma of shamecommon to Aboriginal people whose first, and often second and third languages are not English. People are reticent toengage in processes where they feel their competency with English will be interpreted as reflective of their knowledgeor intelligence. Therefore, to evaluate learning we used worksheet tools that aimed to be friendly to those with Englishas a second language: clear to look at and easy to talk about with others, in any language.Working in a group, people talked about what the questions on the worksheets might be asking. The worksheets alsofed into talking about other things that were important to people. The worksheets were designed like a surveyinstrument, with some multiple choice and some qualitative answers. The questions were presented in English, withgraphics, as they would be in a community survey instrument. Conducting the learning evaluation this way providedthe opportunity to talk about both the content and the method of the evaluation. The worksheets were discussed andclarified in Western Arrarnta, as researchers proceeded through the questions.The results of the learning evaluation are included here not as a quantitative measure of learning in the group, but as avisual guide and report back to the Community Researchers about the results of their learning evaluations across bothteams from Ntaria and Amata, and about how these results can be presented.The two worksheets were given to all of the Ntaria researchers present at the Yulara workshop, and to the Amataresearchers present. The first worksheet was reflective of how people felt when they began their employment, and thesecond, given out the next day, was asking about how people identified their learning since beginning employment.22 Final Report: Strengthening Community Research in Remote Service Delivery at Ntaria