Barefoot Guide Team Visits PRIA

PRIA was part of a year-long action research intervention under the Thematic Learning Programme, Learning Practices in Social Change, funded by PSO. The action research was anchored in 7 hubs – South Asia, South-East Asia, West Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, Europe and a Virtual Hub. PRIA coordinated the South Asian Hub.

Representatives of the 7 Hubs were in Delhi in the week of 16-20 April 2012 for a Harvest Workshop to consolidate and harvest the outcomes of the action research process. PRIA invited the representatives to share the process and findings of this global intervention with the organisation.

The process began when a group of practitioners got together to enquire into learning practices in development organisations. This group, known as the Barefoot Collective, developed a guide for CSOs to understand the processes of learning practices within organisations for social change. The Barefoot Guide, as it came to be called, is a practical resource for leaders, facilitators and practitioners wanting to improve and enrich their learning processes to support and enable deeper, creative and more sustainable social change.

They then invited the attendees to a ‘cocktail party’. A representative from each hub pinned a piece of paper on themselves which stated a thematic area of concern related to the action research process. Participants were encouraged to walk around the room, to talk and question the representatives as per their interests, to gain an understanding of the year-long action research process. When the party ended, participants were invited to share what they had understood of the process.

Interesting insights were shared:

• What do you do with the reflection (in the context of the organisation) once a learning group has reflected on their work?
• A learning organisation needs to change with time.
• What are the processes through which we learn—different people learn in different ways.
• Learning by stealth is one way to harvest learning within the organisation.
• Donors are the least developed community in terms of learning.
• Learning requires discipline, needs to become a systematic habit within the organisation.
• Learning happens in a group; how do you upscale it across the organisation?
• A learning facilitator’s role is challenging; it requires patience, to be a good listener, with feet grounded.
• Facilitating learning in an organisation develops confidence and competence within the organisation.
• Across regions, the basic quest for learning for change remains the same.
• Within an organisation, peopled by individuals, how do you create linkages to strengthen learning?
• Commitment from top leadership is necessary to facilitate organisational learning.
• Learning is not a one-time process; it is a lifestyle choice, and an integral part of organisational culture—only then does it become a process that will always be taken forward?

To know more about the action research process facilitated and undertaken by PRIA,