ABSTRACT
For many years, as supervisors of postgraduate research projects, we encouraged exploratory research—uncovering and developing new knowledge—in the hope that this would somehow bring about social change. In recent years, the need we felt for research findings to be translated into action became increasingly insistent. Action research provides a key tool for peacebuilding because it includes the community as participants and direct beneficiaries. Action research has existed for generations in an informal sense, as so often communities solved problems through a similar process. The process of action research has been described as being recursive and nonlinear, with the answer unknown. Jean de Dieu Basabose’s project concerned anti-corruption education as a way of building positive peace in Rwanda. Buhlebenkosi Maphosa’s project was concerned to develop ways to reduce gender-based violence among Zimbabwean youth. Cyprian Muchemwa’s action research project was aimed at building understanding and reconciliation between Shona and Ndebele young people.
