Participatory Self-Review: recovering our roots in John Dewey

Participatory Self-Review by community action groups and participatory organisations has evolved in the past two decades as a central process in participatory research and action. The objectives of self-review are to encourage learning through self-reflection, to share and adapt the lessons of community groups, and to guide policy reform in support of locally based development efforts. While participatory self-review as a process was not explicitly identified by John Dewey, the premise of this article is that its seeds and roots can be found in his life and work. To make these formative elements available to activists and scholars, this article reconstructs Dewey's insights on interactive thought and action, self and other, experiential learning, community dialogue and organising, communication, and public interest formation, that is, the key issues relevant to processes and practices of community and organisational self review. It identifies and weaves together strands from Dewey's writings and educational action, distilling themes that may help us visualise and appreciate the processes in which we as citizens engage via association, organisation, self-evaluation and self-determination.