Between Idealism and Reality: Meeting the Challenges of Participatory Action Research

Laura Smith*, Lucinda Bratini, Debbie-Ann Chambers, Russell Vance Jensen, Le Laina Romero

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Participatory action research (PAR) is a methodological stance that researchers can find both inspiring and daunting. Community-based PAR offers a platform by which social scientists can contribute to the democratization of knowledge and its production, but also requires that they go beyond conventional roles and procedures to interact with community co-researchers in ways that may leave university-based researchers feeling exposed and rudderless. In this article, the authors present episodes from three different PAR projects that illustrate some of the challenges that PAR presents for university-based researchers, as well as what can be learned from them. © 2010 The Author(s).
Original languageAmerican English
Pages (from-to)407-425
Number of pages19
JournalAction Research
Volume8
Issue number4
Early online dateMay 30 2010
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2010
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus Subject Areas

  • Sociology and Political Science
  • Strategy and Management
  • Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management

Keywords

  • community education/engagement
  • democratizing research
  • participatory action research

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