Participation: at the heart of RRR

• What does ‘participation’ mean to you?

• What words/concepts do you associate with participation?

• Participation as part of community development implies...

empowerment

• the power to act, to co-construct change within a democratic process

Empowerment focuses on what we can do, not what we can’t

It is respectful because it encourages self-determination among those involved

It allows for critical hope among participants

How people relate to others and what people feel they can do or can be, play a strong role in what people will actually do and be able to be.

Key questions to be posed:•What have we got here? What happens?•How would we want it to be?•What can we do with what we’ve got?•Who or what can help enable us to achieve?•What process do we go through?

First, a story

That big bad wolf was back in town again, with his hungry eyes looking for a Little Pig to eat.

He noticed a brick house with its burglar alarm on the wall, and smart car in the driveway. That might be a hard one to crack.

Then he noticed...

... a house of straw! And a rather small kind of piglet at the door! Her house would be easy to shake down, and she would make a tasty snack no doubt!I did say ‘shake down’. He ended up in the fireplace last time he tried blowing the house down, so he had worked out a new plan. He began stamping his feet so hard the ground began to shake.

Just then the little pig spotted the wolf and ran off. So the wolf decided to look elsewhere until she returned and swaggered off up the street.And do you know what she did in the meantime, that little pig?Later. Be patient!

Capabilities

Practical techniques:• Enquiry using maps, plans, photographs• Exploring alternative futures• Tracking likely consequences• Listening to peers/staff/wider community• Pupils as researchers• Community of enquiry

Influence

• Identifying audiences

• Pupil-led advocacy through a variety of media and forums

• Engaging with experts and facilitators

So what was the little pig up to?...

She had got together with all the other little pigs and all the neighbouring animals who live in straw houses.

They had sat down together to see what could be done about the hungry wolf and his foot-stamping.

It’s not only wolves who have rights!

They decided they must stop being powerless piglets.

What we agree

BIG BAD WOLF STAMPING PROBLEM

And become empowered piglets!

So they did their research

And discovered something very clever!

They asked experts to help them - people who knew about building safe homes out of straw, like this...

They used straw bales in double layers...

So the Big Bad Wolf came back and started stamping his feet till the ground shook and shook...

But little pig was safe in her new shake-proof house. The wolf was exhausted, gave up and left to try the brick house instead...

So I wonder where the straw house animals found such a clever idea?

Well, actually...

There were these children in Pakistan who didn’t want their community flattened by an earthquake as had happened before...

They met, and then spoke to adults. Together they came up with an idea and found a clever house-builder to help them...

So now they’re safe and sound! And that’s where the idea came from.

So let that be a lesson to piglets...

...and their farmers...

Everywhere!