Participatory Action Research

What is Participatory Action Research?

Participatory Action Research (PAR) is a research methodology which centres people with personal experience of the issue in the collective pursuit of increased wellbeing (human and planetary). It challenges the dominance of academic and scientific knowledge (or ‘scientism’, see Wakeford & Sanchez Rodriguez 2018), recognising the knowledge of marginalised groups and communities and of multiple ‘ways of knowing’ (Heron & Reason 2008). PAR is value-based: it seeks to enable people who have been marginalised to drive the research process themselves. PAR establishes a group-based process which cycles between reflection, analysis and action.

PAR has emerged from traditions in different cultures and draws on several key influences. Social movements in Latin America have been inspired by the work of Paolo Freire, a Brazilian pedagogist and adult educator. He argued that adult literacy education should engage people in dialogue and critique about their realities and to identify and take action around social injustice. Orlando Fals Borda in Colombia argued that academics should work alongside marginalised communities to bring about change, through cycles or research and action. He called this ‘participatory action research’.  The ‘action’ element of PAR is also informed by the work of Kurt Lewin in the 1940s, who suggested that processes of change in the social arena need to cycle between action and research, involving collaboration between those who are taking the action.

PAR is described as a worldview or an overarching methodological approach. Within this approach, a wide range of participatory research methodologies can be employed (for example, cooperative inquiry, digital storytelling) and methods (for example, Rivers of Life, Matrix Ranking, World Cafe).

PAR is a group-based process, and is not appropriate if it is unsafe to form a group and work with them over time. However, it is possible to conduct forms of PAR in conflict-affected settings.

Watch the video below for an introduction to Participatory Action Research:

What are the benefits?

  • A facilitated PAR process can build the confidence of individual participants through supporting them to develop skills and agency to research their own realities.
  • The PAR process can build group identity and cohesion especially when the group has a clear common concern it wishes to address.
  • Participants are involved not only in collecting data but also in analysing it, which means the data is analysed by people with actual experience of the issues, and not only by external researchers.  This increases the validity and potential usefulness of the research.
  • PAR is flexible. Actions are evaluated by the group, which allows for unsuccessful ideas to be analysed and adjustments made.

Design and principles

PAR requires a shift in the attitude and behaviour of the researcher, especially if they have been trained in conventional or positivist research methodologies which centre power in the researcher. PAR shifts power to the research participants, who become co-researchers. The professional researcher guides and holds the space and has a more facilitative role. The participants agree the focus of the research, shape the research question(s), decide which data collection methods to use, play a central role in analysing the data, deciding upon and taking action. It is therefore important to consider how you (as an external researcher/facilitator) will:

  • Keep the initial research question open so that the group can make it their own.
  • Give enough time to building relationships and trust at the start of the process. Spend time talking, learning about each other, unpacking assumptions, clarifying expectations.
  • Have an open mind about methods, and seek to allow the group to use methods that they are comfortable with.
  • Ensure that research activities engage with different ways of knowing (i.e. embodied and tacit, as well as cognitive)
  • Listen respectfully and without judging.
  • Reflect on your own assumptions and biases.

PAR requires a flexible design that facilitates cycles of action, reflection, analysis and planning, allowing the group(s) to move in the direction that is most meaningful to them. The facilitator

  • Facilitates both individual reflection and group dialogue
  • Holds the space so that differences are allowed and respected, while moving towards group cohesion and collective decision-making
  • Facilitates discussion around the ethics and potential risks of any actions the group considers
  • Supports the group to consider if they need to engage with new sources of data, or with other stakeholders, as the process unfolds

Specific design and quality criteria

Bradbury and Reason’s quality criteria (‘issues and choice points for improving the quality of action research’) and those used in the CLARISSA programme (Snijder et al. 2024 that were based on Apgar & Douthwaite 2013) can be useful.