Interpaz

Pesquisa-Ação Transformadora: ferramenta de participação de crianças e adolescentes

Transformative Action Research: participation and incidence of children and adolescents

Centro de Servicios Educativos en Salud y Medio Ambiente (Cesesma)

Because they are conscientious of their needs, dreams, and fears, as well as of the issues that affect their families, schools, and communities the most, children and adolescents are in a privileged position to uncover and investigate their problems.

Based on this premise, Cesesma works with the Investigación Acción Transformadora [Transformative Action Research] methodology, in which children and adolescents from 8 to 18 years of age, armed with basic human rights knowledge and active in community programs, take the lead and decide on a research topic, with the goal to gather relevant data and recommendations that can effect change within their communities.

Within this framework, the role of adults is to facilitate and assist the actions of children and adolescents, who develop new skills and become more familiar with their claim to rights in the process.

Guia sobre el método, el rol de las personas adultas es facilitar y acompañar las acciones de las niñas, niños y adolescentes, quienes, en este proceso, también desarrollan habilidades y conocen más sobre sus derechos y cómo reclamarlos.

Transformative Action Research with the participation of children and teenage women and men

In this publication, Cesesma presents the conceptual frameworks that underlie this methodology, such as the right to participation and the intergenerational approach, which views children and young people as subjects capable of dialoguing, presenting proposals, and claiming their rights in an equitable manner to that of adults.

The document also shares techniques to ensure that children, adolescents, and young people play a leadership role at all stages of the process, and includes guidelines on safety and protective measures for participating children and adolescents.

Investigación Acción Transformadora’s methodology can be adapted to address a
range of human rights issues, such as gender-based violence, the environment, education, sexuality and reproductive rights, and the right to play.