Ms Rachel Percy
BSc, MSc (Reading)
Lecturer
Email: r.b.percy@reading.ac.uk

My background is in agricultural extension and education. From 1980-1996 I worked in Africa. I first worked in Malawi at Colby College of Agriculture and later in Ntchisi Rural Development Project. Then I worked in a EU rural development project in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan. After this I worked for the Nigerian Conservation Foundation, on buffer zone management and provision of alternative income generation activities. Then I worked with the Extension Department of the Ministry of Agriculture in Ethiopia, helping to develop a participatory and gender-sensitive approach to extension planning. In 1997 I joined the IRDD as a lecturer where I teach Participatory Learning and Action, participatory research and extension, and gender. I am also working on a PhD entitled: Facilitation of participatory rural development: an analysis of learning theories and practice.

Research Projects

Active learning in higher education

Training and support for sustainable agriculture in Uganda

Recent publications

Percy, R.B. (2000) "Capacity building for gender-sensitive agricultural extension planning in Ethiopia" Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension, Vol. 7, no. 1, 21-30.

Percy, R. B. (1999) "The experiential learning cycle and its application towards the transformation of Governmental extension services in sub-saharan Africa" International Journal of Lifelong Education, Vol. 18, No. 5, 370-384.

Percy, R. B.(1999) "Gender analysis and participatory rural appraisal: assessing the current debate through an Ethiopian case study involving agricultural extension work" International Journal of Educational Development 19:395-408

Percy, R.B. (1998) "How gender analysis can facilitate client-oriented extension planning: A case from Ethiopia" in Training for agriculture and rural development 1997-98 Rome, FAO (pp 84-95)