Empowering Communities in Educational Management: Participatory Action Research

Abstract

The participatory learning and action: PLA was the process used for empowering in this program. This process has four steps: 1) create awareness, 2) specify problems or needs, 3) act and 4) present and reflect or monitor. The purposes of this study were: 1) to investigate the conditions of communities in terms of context and problems or needs in educational management in their secondary schools 2) to develop community empowerment program and 3) to examine the results of each program in 4 empowerment levels: individual level, team level, organization level and community level. The research was carried out with two teams: a 19-member Ban-chiang community team; 19 subjects and a 17-member Thung-fon community team. These 36 participants were chosen using a purposive sampling technique that led to outcomes of 4 empowerment levels in every indicator. This program, therefore, should be supported and promoted in order to empower them and create sustainability.