PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH
Catherine Yoon (cyoon1@swarthmore.edu)

Participatory action research (PAR) is not a research method, but it is a different approach to research and to learning. This type of research integrates intellectual work (actual research) with activist work. For science, this entails researching a scientific issue and actually being active in its solutions. This approach provides the educator (the research) in the field with an objective, systematic technique of solving problems and finding solutions that are in many ways far superior to just appealing to authority or relying on someone's personal experience. Action research allows one to develop a deeper understand and knowledge of an issue while acting upon it at the same time. This is an approach in which those in academia can play and active and involved role in society.

PAR is comprised of the following components:

1) It is participatory; meaning that everyone in every stage is active. The researcher does not only research but is also active in finding solutions and fixing them. The informants or subjects do not only provide information. They play active roles in the research and do not always remain passive participants. They are the ones who usually decided what problems are to be addressed. The projects are initiated by the community and researches are invited in. the research is controlled by the community as well as the researchers.

2) It tends to be cyclic-similar steps tend to occur while in the research and action process

3) It is qualitative, not quantitative- knowledge is not created in volumes but is just simply created. Knowledge is not created for the sake of knowledge alone.

4) It is defined by a need for action- there is no need for this type of approach if there is no issue to be addressed. The reseach is done by people who are concerned. The action gives purpose to the research as well as offering a way to measure the usefullness of the research for the cause.

PAR is made up of the following steps:
identification, prioritization, planning and design, implementation, data collection, reporting, and dissemination.

Step 1. Identify and Prioritize Issues
Ask questions of necessity, relevance, and significance in order to determine the issues.

Step 2. Develop and Design Research Plan
Intregrate technical research skills with the knowledge and information of the informants/subjects in order to design a reseach plan.

Step 3. Validate Feasibility and Appropriateness
Verify that the research design remains focued on the identified issues. Determine if data collection techniques are appropriate and if research is appropriate culturally as well as scientifically.

Step 4. Analysis And Reporting
There cannot be any compromise of non-objective and/or biased resuls when analyzing. Also, scientific rigor must be maintained. The results must be conved didactically.

Step 5. Synthesis and Dissemination
All research and data must be synthesized in order to be disseminated. Dissemination mechanisms consist of publications, conferences, symposiums, newsletters among others.

However, PAR is not always perfect and there are obstacles:

1) Participation is not always easy. The very definition of what a community entails can lead to problems. Also, full community participation is difficult to organize. Non-researchers have other demands on their time and energy.

2) Taking action can also be precarious. Action could potentially push people in the community away from dealing with the issue at hand. While action has the power to bring people together, it can also divide a community. Community organizing is also time consuming and can effect the amoun to time that is spent actually researching and devising action plans.

Sources

Dick, Bob, "A Beginner's Guide to Action Research,"
http://ousd.k12.ca.us/netday/links/Action_Research /action_research_beg_guide.html viewed on April 22, 1998.

ISD's Community Adaptation and Sustainable Livelihoods, http://iisd1.iisd.ca/casl/CASLGuide/ParticipatoryApproach.htm, October 15, 1997, viewed on April 22, 1998.

Merrifield, Juliet, "Knowing, Learning, Doing: Participatory Action Research,
http://hugse1.harvard.edu/~ncsall/merrif.htm, viewed on April 21, 1998.

Stoecker, Randy, "Sociolgy and Social Action: Guest Editor's Introductio
http://uac.rdp.utoledo.edu/docs/si/stoecker1.htm#history, viewed on April 9, 1998.