Trialling mediated action research for development in a remote community in Papua New Guinea

This article discusses research on action research for community development in a remote district of Papua New Guinea. The authors taught (during site visits) and supported (by mobile phone) five groups of community members to undertake action research. The article discusses how the visits and mobile telephony were deployed to facilitate their action research. It is concluded that action research, with appropriate face-to-face and mobile phone support, was viable and cost-effective for community development in remote districts. Several strengths and weaknesses of the approach were identified to enable improvements for subsequent action research remote community development projects.