Ways to Participate                                 (top of page)

• Face-to-face interaction
• On-line interaction

There are protocols and guidelines for all participation in the SCDRI activities. Not all are relevant in every situation, and are only applied when appropriate. Together however they help maintain the ethos of the SCDRI. They can be summarised by:

• Protocols and guidelines for community development
• Participatory action research principles
• Participatory action research group processes

Face-to-face interaction include:         (return to top of page) 

• SCDforum discussion groups
• SCDRI research project meetings
• wilderness retreats
• workshops

SCDforum discussion groups meet locally,  for  example, the Christchurch, New Zealand group meets  in the evening, fortnightly in a local cafe. Details can be found in the calendar. If you wish to be prompted about meetings, and to also participate in the local group's blogs and wiki, you can subscribe to the SCDRI grouphub through the contact, Rev. Dr Keith Morrison. Similarly for SCDRI research project meetings, though they are not detailed in the calendar.

Wilderness retreats run regularly, and can details be found in the calendar. It is also possible however to commission a retreat through the contact, Rev. Dr Keith Morrison.

Upcoming workshops are mentioned in the calendar. They are usually initiated by local SCDforum discussion groups.

• SCDforum blogs and wiki
• SCDRI research project blogs and wiki

There are three types of online SCDforums:

• a global SCDforum
• geographical SCDforums, for example SCDforum(Christchurch - NZ)
• global online discussions from within cultural traditions

There are opportunities for the establishment of new geographically based and cultural tradition based forums, if research projects and / or scholarly work is expected to emerge from them. A director of the SCDRI is required, and often established, to facilitate a new forum. Associate members have access to the online site of the forums for which they are participants, and research fellows of the SCDRI have access to the online site of the research projects they are collaborating within. The structure of the SCDRI outlines the interaction of associate members, research fellow sand directors.

Research fellows post their research project and scholarship topics. When a collaborative project is chosen it becomes established with its own project management site, which is then run by a director.

Directors manage all forums, collaborative research project and scholarly work sites. They also and have their own SCDRI hub which reflexively manages the SCDRI as a participatory action research project.

Blogs and wiki within the website are utilised to creatively and critically develop ideas and topics. Associate members express their views within forums with blogs, and then using wiki, collaboratively develop themes. These themes are often the basis for ideas and topics that are posted by Research fellows on blogs. If they become accepted as collaborative research projects or scholarly work, they are developed using wiki. Directors post feedback, both positive and negative, on blogs, and consensually develop feed-forward using wiki to manage the SCDRI.

The website of the SCDRI enables every member of the SCDRI to provide feedback (commentary), both positive and negative (issues), and also feed-forward (ideas for improvement). Feedback and feed-forward are continuously encouraged and actively sought, to enable the SCDRI to act reflexively and hence to improve. The learning involved is itself participatory action research, which is communicated to members and published.

Protocols and guidelines for community development    (return to top of page)

To initiate respect and listening, the innate wholeness of wilderness was sought. There in silence we responded intuitively to create a symbolic space out of natural materials. This was us finding our commonality in the one earth, and our commonality of purpose in the one sky giving us a shared spiritual horizon in the symbolic sacred space we had allowed to be created for us.

Out of the creativity at the root of all traditions and cultures, an oral tradition is continuing to grow. It comprises of stories of events that we have shared and major things we have learned. It is known by participating in the activities of the SCDRI.  What is shared here in the Web site and in the various publications including the journal Wild Notes: he Korero Putaiao, are reflections from within the ever growing oral tradition. There are no particular written traditions favoured or required of people by the SCDRI. All traditions are equally valued and respected.

To facilitate the oral tradition of listening and learning, four protocols have emerged and are  utilised when appropriate. Eight guidelines have also developed to keep the oral tradition alive. The protocols and guidelines all have a purpose, and in understanding their purpose as working together as a  whole ensures that they act in a way to nurture wholeness and growth that the vision outlines and inspires.

Protocols:

1. Circle

2. 'Rockjam'

3. 'Listening stick'

4. Gifting

The first protocol is a circle, which occurs at the beginning and at the end of the journey. The group gathers together at the beginning to recognise the equality and leadership of all and to share things we want others to know, for example, about help we might need on the journey. At the end of the journey a community-circle celebrates the hope rekindled about sustainable development. The second protocol is a ‘rockjam’. The term arose when making music on a beach with rocks. It has come to represent the role of meditation; of becoming receptive to and listening to find opportunities for expression, symbolised by making music together. The third protocol is the ‘listening stick’, which is a variant of a ‘talking stick’ to emphasize the role of listening. The fourth protocol is gifting, and refers to the rhythm of sharing; of giving and receiving in all ecological interactions, including in all communication, to develop and sustain community.

Guidelines:

1. No intoxication.
2. Emotional independence.
3. Equality.
4. Humility.
5. Meditation.
6. Dialogue.
7. Creative Sharing.
8. Praxis

 The guidance to avoid intoxication allows for the potential growth to occur. The desire to be intoxicated is due to an attempt to escape boredom which is itself a denial of despair. Despair occurs because of an inability to address anxieties as they come along. The first step in the activities of the Trust is to provide a safe environment where a person can begin to face their vulnerability so as to address the anxieties they have. Then healing and growth can begin. Intoxication makes it impossible to begin.

Emotional independence is found to be necessary so that a safe environment can be established and maintained. To take responsibility for one’s own emotional life makes one face one’s vulnerability. Only then can healing and growth begin. Therefore co-dependency is to be avoided, no matter how comfortable it may seem. Also domination of another or others by someone or a group is not allowed in Trust’s activities.

Domination is avoided in Trust activities by insisting on the guideline of equality. It is put in practise through the use of a "listening stick" which gives the person holding it speaking rights to which everyone else must listen. Everyone has equal rights to hold the "listening stick", and must take their turn in doing so.

Humility is a necessary guideline to ensure listening occurs. There can not be growth if a person does not recognise that they have things to learn.

Meditation is the process by which a person can sit in the safe environment to be vulnerable to face their anxieties. This is done silently by oneself, in the wilderness, or in the emotional support of, but not dependence on, other people in the wilderness.

Dialogue is how we learn from each other. It means we are listening to each other and together listening to others. The listening stick is used to help ensure that it is a dialogue that occurs.

Creative sharing of art, music, poetry, drama and in the exploration of Nature together helps the whole person be involved in communication. This ensures that all levels of knowledge, including intuition and feelings, are addressed in meditation and dialogue. This helps anxieties become conscious and hence to be addressed.

The healing and growth which occur through our learning has to become part of our life if it is to be maintained. Therefore meditation and dialogue has to develop ideas about what has to change practically in ones life, and to be put into practise. The result is the maintenance of healing, the maintenance of peace due to the ability to face and address anxieties as they come along, and sustainable living in the whole of society and nature so that community development and ecological restoration occur.

Fulfilment of guidelines:

• Peace
• Sustainable living
• Healing
• Community development
• Ecological restoration 

Participatory action research principles                     (return to top of page)

The SCDRI carries out participatory action research as the basis for all of its activities. SCD research forums have developed the following principles for action research.

1. Participatory action research allows people in local communities or organisations to self-determine their needs and solutions (with expert assistance or facilitation if required) in an ongoing adaptive and cooperative way. Action research is research with not on communities: a central principle of action research is participation and collaborative effort – avoiding the power differential of researcher and researched.

2.  Participatory action research enhances community and organisational learning and capacity building through co-operative management and development. Action research thus builds up and builds on local knowledge and expertise, sometimes referred to as building socio-cultural capital.

3.  Participatory action research is grounded in the specifics of particular situations. By seeking to understand the complexity of situations and their underlying dynamics and the learning processes involved, action research provides contextually contingent and continuing solutions to locally determined problematic situations.

4.  Participatory action research is grounded in collaborative praxis and purpose. Purposeful inquiry is informed by on-going theory development and testing. Other research methods, as long as they do not objectify subjects, can be nested within action research to also serve this purpose of generative action and reflection.

 Although the value of action research is often recognised, as practitioners, we are constrained in our ability to enable this potential to be realised for the benefit of society. The following issues and recommendations have emerged from wider SCD discussions involving groups of participatory action research practitioners, centred around activities associated with New Zealand Action Research Network, but not claiming to represent its views.

1. The inherent participatory nature of action research requires the development of trust between researchers and communities of interest. Therefore adequate funding for preparatory stages of research and cross-case analysis to consolidate research findings and enable further grounded initiatives is necessary.

2. Action research involves an ethical commitment to work with communities (of interest or geographical). It is unjust when corporate commercial advantage that may emerge during the research process over-rides the self-determination and well being of the communities with and for whom the research is being carried out. In such situations, the underlying ethic of action research practitioners, and our ability to continue to work with communities for their benefit, may be compromised. We recommend that the wider and longer term social benefit of maintaining trust with communities to support their research purposes should not be lost sight of in light of immediate corporate (including university) commercial benefit that may emerge.

3. A result of the participation required in action research is that there a number of challenges to be faced. These can be addressed by ensuring the ethical purpose of action research is clarified during the proposal stage, and that adequate support be given to enable outputs to be published as they arise–for community benefit beyond the community being worked with–just as long as the community being worked with wishes to share their intellectual property.

4. Currently, most intellectual property agreements only recognise business and indigenous community interests. We recommend intellectual property agreements be extended to recognise all communities (of interest or geographical).  

5. The practice of action research is often misinterpreted by academics because of the perception of it merely involving the delivery of information from researchers to the community of interest or vice versa, rather than being viewed as providing a rigorous understanding of the dynamics of learning systems so as to be able to work with communities to fulfil their own research purposes. Collegial misinterpretation can lead to feelings of isolation and marginalisation. We recommend support for the rigorous development in the practice of action research by explicit recognition of the value to society and research culture of ongoing synergistic interactions and learning with(in) communities (of interest and/or geographical).

Participatory action research group processes              (return to top of page)