Barbara Pamphilon | University of Canberra (original) (raw)

Papers by Barbara Pamphilon

By farmers for farmers: exploring the process of peer learning in Papua New Guinea, 2024

Since the 1940s, education for agricultural development in Papua New Guinea (PNG) has been led by... more Since the 1940s, education for agricultural development in Papua New Guinea (PNG) has been led by agricultural extensionists who typically share new practices and knowledge with farmers in a subject-centred way. Although more participatory practices, such as farmer field schools, have emerged in the last decade, the ‘technology transfer’ model that brings a body of knowledge to impart to farmers in a top-down way continues to be the dominant model in PNG. Today there is an increasing focus on farmer-centred approaches to agricultural extension however little is known about how learning is transferred farmer to farmer. This report is drawn from a small project that explored farmer-to-farmer learning in one highlands site. It was conducted by the University of Canberra’s (UC) Centre for Sustainable Communities as part of a large Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) project Sustaining soil fertility in support of intensification of sweetpotato cropping systems (SLAM/2017/041).

Asia Pacific viewpoint, Jun 11, 2024

Across the Pacific, socio-cultural networks are a key way to share knowledge and skills. However,... more Across the Pacific, socio-cultural networks are a key way to share knowledge and skills. However, as peer-to-peer learning is contextually and culturally located, it is important to understand the place-based specifics of such learning. This article draws on the evaluation of a series of household-based workshops on agricultural development and food security in a remote area of Solomon Islands. It outlines this community's kinship ecology for farmer learning pathways and demonstrates the interdependence of gender and kinship-based social networks, showing how topics related to ethics of living were shared within clans, while food and agriculture topics were shared within households. The article concludes that understanding local knowledge networks can contribute to the design of more effective peer learning for food security and rural development.

Asia Pacific Viewpoint, 2024

In a small Australian city, two researchers were talking together about research approaches in th... more In a small Australian city, two researchers were talking together about research approaches in their shared field of passion-gender-focused agricultural research for development. They dreamt that one day they would see an international conference that brought together the many innovators and scholars in this important field. Two years later this dream was realised at the 'Seeds of change: Gender equality through agricultural research for development' conference held at the University of Canberra, April 2-5, 2019. 1 The conference achieved many things, not the least of which was to provide an interactive and intellectually stimulating environment for the 280 participants from 45 countries. Although gender equality and gender equity are now 'mainstreamed', in reality many gender-focused researchers in agriculture are relatively isolated and have few opportunities to challenge and extend their thinking and practice. The conference sought to address this issue and to provide fruitful ground and opportunities for cross-fertilisation. The conference highlighted ways of successfully integrating gender into project design and implementation. It focused on effective ways to catalyse social and behavioural change for both agricultural and social outcomes; gendersensitive evaluation and impact assessment systems for continuous program

ACIAR Final Reports, 2019

Multicultural Education Review, 2015

Since the early 1970s there has been increasing interest in effective adult education systems and... more Since the early 1970s there has been increasing interest in effective adult education systems and practices as a core foundation for capacity building in developing countries. This paper presents the philosophy behind the concept of an ‘intercultural learning space’ and argues its relevance for such adult learners. Drawing on work in Papua New Guinea, I use a series of stories to illustrate some of the complexity of creating an empowering adult learning environment for smallholder farmers working with outside experts; a process I have named as ‘the weaving of knowledges’. This concept uses the metaphor of the traditional patterned bag made in PNG, the bilum, to represent the process by which an empowering intercultural learning environment can be developed: that is we must identify the range of people who hold different knowledges (the range of coloured yarns) and then provide an environment for the diverse participants to identify and share the knowledge they bring (recognising there is a place for each colour) in order to produce a local outcome (the bilum) that is a new creation made up of the collaborative inputs of all.

Frontiers in sustainable food systems, Mar 24, 2022

This paper is a set of reflections from researchers in the Center for Sustainable Communities, Un... more This paper is a set of reflections from researchers in the Center for Sustainable Communities, University of Canberra, drawing out emerging lessons from the process of re-configuring research methods during COVID-19. The pandemic has presented new spaces of negotiation, struggle, and interdependence within research projects and research teams. It has left researchers often uncertain about how to do their work effectively. At the same time, it has opened up opportunities to rethink how researchers undertake the work of research. In this paper we reflect on several current research programs that have had to undergo rapid design shifts to adjust to new conditions under COVID-19. The rapid shift has afforded some surprisingly positive outcomes and raised important questions for the future. In our reflections we look at the impact of COVID-19 at different stages of designing research with partners, establishing new relationships with partners and distant field sites, and data collection and analysis. We draw on Participatory Action Research (PAR) methodological ideas and highlight ways in which we have adapted and experimented with PAR methods during the pandemic. We reflect on the aspects of PAR that have assisted us to continue in our work, in particular, how PAR foregrounds diverse ways of knowing, being and doing, and prioritizes local aspirations, concerns and world views to drive the research agenda and the processes of social or economic change that accompany it. PAR also helps us to reflect on methods for building relationships of mutual trust, having genuine and authentic collaborations, and open conversations. We reflect on the potential lessons for PAR and community engaged research more generally. Amidst the challenges, our experience reveals new pathways for research practice to rebalance power relationships and support local place-conscious capacity for action.

i Participation, self-determination, inclusive practice, and empowerment—these catch-cries typify... more i Participation, self-determination, inclusive practice, and empowerment—these catch-cries typify the challenge to top-down externally driven (neo-colonialist) orientations to international development. In response programs now place local people central to development with the aim to increase local ownership, local capacity and local control. From the early work of innovators such as Robert Chambers and the Institute for Development Studies at the University of Sussex, international development participation theory has moved from PRA (participatory rural appraisal) into PR &A (participatory reflection and action) and PLA (participatory learning and action) (see. Whilst the limitations of participation rightly continue to be a focus for reflective practitioners working in international settings (Cooke & Kothari 2002 are just one example), along with many others we too assess our work against the participation continuum (non-participatory practice (informing) through tokenism (placat...

Qualitative Inquiry, 1999

It is neither appropriate nor ethical to work with life histories in a way that writes the storyt... more It is neither appropriate nor ethical to work with life histories in a way that writes the storytellers out of their own lives or that presents their words as an unexpurgated truth. The zoom framework encourages the examination of life histories from different perspectives, recognizing that no one perspective alone can reveal their full complexity. The macro-zoom focuses on the sociohistorical dimension, exploring collective meanings as they relate to individual experience. The meso-zoom reveals the personal level of values, interpretations and positioning. The micro-zoom focuses on the subtleties of the telling, examining emotions and voice, whereas the interactional-zoom recognizes life histories as a product of the relationship between narrator and researcher. By zooming in on each of the multiple perspectives, differing, complementary, and even contradictory data emerges. Most important, this model allows the researcher to acknowledge and productively hold in tension both the in...

Public Health Nutrition, 2015

ObjectiveDespite the usefulness of quantitative research, qualitative research methodologies are ... more ObjectiveDespite the usefulness of quantitative research, qualitative research methodologies are equally needed to allow researchers to better understand the important social and environmental factors affecting food choice and eating habits. The present paper contributes insights from narrative inquiry, a well-established qualitative methodology, to a food-related doctoral research study. The connections between food shoppers and the producer, family, friends and others in the food system, between eaters and the earth, and how these connections affect people’s meaning-making of food and pathways to food citizenship, were explored in the research.DesignThe research used narrative inquiry methodology and focus groups for data collection.SettingFive different food-ways in the Canberra region of Australia were selected for the present research; that is, community gardens, community-supported agriculture, farmers’ markets, fresh food markets and supermarkets.SubjectsFifty-two people volu...

Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 2000

Adult Learning, 2016

This article describes the rationale, development, and outcomes of two place-based, dual-language... more This article describes the rationale, development, and outcomes of two place-based, dual-language picture books with agricultural messages for women farmers and their families in Papua New Guinea. The purpose of the books was to disseminate better agricultural and livelihood practices to women farmers with low literacy. The books were designed and illustrated in collaboration with women farmers from two provinces. Evaluation data were collected through focus groups with local peer educators (village community educators [VCEs]). The VCEs reported changes in family practices related to marketing, budgeting, and saving that reflected messages in the books. The books helped the VCEs who had received livelihood and agricultural training to recall and implement the training in addition to sharing their knowledge. Farmers with low literacy were able to access the messages through the illustrations. Such place-based picture books are a powerful medium for low literacy women farmers and their families to learn about and reinforce positive livelihood and agricultural practices.

Cogent Social Sciences, 2016

This paper analyzes the design, implementation, and challenges associated with mixing methods wit... more This paper analyzes the design, implementation, and challenges associated with mixing methods within a baseline study involving the collaboration of rural women smallholders and their families in three regions of Papua New Guinea. We first describe the context of the research and how the baseline study was conceptualized as part of a participatory research and development project designed to provide a rich collaborative learning exchange between participants and researchers. We explain how three qualitative participatory techniques used alongside a small-scale quantitative livelihoods survey to gain an understanding of the social, economic, and agricultural factors impacting upon the lives women smallholders and their families. We follow this with a critical discussion of the challenges and benefits of utilizing mixed methods in an international development context

Development in Practice, 2015

This article discusses the trial of visual research methods in a socioeconomic research and devel... more This article discusses the trial of visual research methods in a socioeconomic research and development project with women subsistence farmers and their families in two regions of Papua New Guinea (PNG). It reports on the benefits and challenges of three visual research methods (drawing, participatory photography, and picture elicitation) to explore the agricultural practice of women subsistence farmers and their families. The paper discusses the potential of these methods for enhancing community engagement, reducing the power imbalance between researchers and participants, and promoting dialogue and reflection to better understand the needs and practices of subsistence farmers. Cet article traite de l'essai de méthodes de recherches visuelles dans le cadre d'un projet de recherche et développement socio-économiques avec des agricultrices de subsistance et leurs familles respectives dans deux régions de Papouasie-Nouvelle-Guinée (PNG). Il présente les avantages et les difficultés de trois méthodes visuelles de recherches (dessin, photographie participative et photo-élicitation) pour examiner les pratiques agricoles des agricultrices de subsistance et de leurs familles respectives. Cet article traite du potentiel de ces méthodes pour améliorer la mobilisation communautaire, réduire le déséquilibre des pouvoirs entre chercheurs et participants et promouvoir un dialogue et une réflexion pour mieux comprendre les besoins et les pratiques des agricultrices. El presente artículo examina el ensayo de métodos de investigación visuales en el marco de un proyecto de investigación socioeconómico y de desarrollo en el que participaron mujeres campesinas de subsistencia, habitantes de dos regiones de Papúa, Nueva Guinea (PNG) conjuntamente con sus familias. El estudio constata los beneficios y los retos vinculados a tres métodos de investigación visuales-dibujo, fotografía participativa y obtención de imágenes-, utilizados para indagar sobre la práctica agrícola realizada por dichas mujeres y sus familias. El artículo analiza el potencial que tienen estos métodos para mejorar la participación comunitaria, reducir el desequilibrio de poder entre investigadores y participantes, así como para promover el diálogo y la reflexión orientados a comprender las necesidades y las prácticas de las campesinas de subsistencia.