Participatory Action Research and Community Adult Education in Conflict-Affected Northern Nigeria

This study examined how participatory action research functions as a modality of community adult education in conflict-affected communities across Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe States in Northern Nigeria, generating original theoretical and methodological contributions at the intersection of participatory action research and adult education in fragile humanitarian contexts. Community adult education in post-conflict and ongoing insecurity contexts faces distinctive challenges including population displacement, trauma-affected learning, disrupted social trust, and institutional collapse, which demand methodologically innovative responses that existing adult education frameworks inadequately address. The study employed a participatory action research methodology conducted across three communities over four years, with the researcher functioning as a community co-researcher facilitating community-defined inquiry cycles addressing locally identified education and livelihood challenges. Data were generated through community research journals, participatory visual methodologies, structured reflection workshops, and monthly community researcher team meetings. The study documents three distinct community adult education transformation trajectories produced through participatory action research engagement: a Borno community's development of a community-owned adult literacy programme model, an Adamawa community's generation of a community emergency food security scheme, and a Yobe community's creation of a women's legal rights awareness and counselling network. Original theoretical contributions include a Conflict-Contextualised Community Adult Education Framework that integrates trauma-sensitive facilitation principles, community resilience theory, and participatory action research methodology into a coherent model for community adult education practice in fragile contexts. Keywords: participatory action research, community adult education, conflict-affected communities, Northern Nigeria, trauma-sensitive education.