Mitigating youth violence through participatory action learning and action research paradigm in the Niger Delta: A case study

Abstract

Relying mainly on the ethnographic multimodal case-study strategy, this study interrogated reality-based data that explain complex struggles and contradictions to social cohesion among a cohort of youth in a rural community in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria. The individual interviews and focus group discussions used involved ten participants whose perceptions and feelings were then applied in proposing a Participatory Action Learning and Action Research paradigm in mitigating the ensuing phenomenon of youth violence. The outcomes revealed that connected facts bearing heavily on community members’ emotions and personal beliefs about fairness and equity in the disturbing emergence of youth violence and human rights abuse in an erstwhile peaceful community can be effectively worked into a paradigm that portends to end implied persistent incidents in the Niger Delta. Based on the outcomes of this case study, it has been proposed and recommended that relevant and culturally sustaining the Participatory Action Learning and Research paradigm could provide the much needed solution that has eluded the region for a very long time now.

Keywords: Applying, abuse, action learning, action research, culture, emotional response, justice, participatory action, values, violence, and youth.