No beginners: teaching participation at the graduate level

This paper discusses some of the challenges of teaching a graduate course focused on participatory approaches where the students already "do" participation and have often had training or experiences with a range of participative techniques both in the US and in other industrialized and developing countries. The course, at Iowa State University, USA, focuses on participatory monitoring and evaluation. The paper gives a description of the course and outlines how it came into being. It goes on to discuss teaching strategy by considering how experts learn and includes details of the constructivist view and transformational learning. The paper reflects on students' prior knowledge and looks at the challenges of unlearning by asking questions such as who decides what prior knowledge is valid? And what needs revamping? It concludes with a brief discussion of co-managing prior knowledge and concerns about the course.