The Use of Participatory Action Research within Education-Benefits to Stakeholders

Abstract

This paper offers a brief history and the characteristics of the research methodology known as Participatory Action Research (PAR). This paper also states how PAR can be utilized within an educational environment and describes the benefits to all stakeholders such as teachers and students when they are involved in a research project using PAR as the research methodology.

Participatory Action Research in Higher Education Training

“…After all, what is PAR? As a variant or field of action research (Santos, 2016), PAR is defined by the direct and active involvement of all stakeholders in the research process, with the aim to solve a problem, a need, or to improve a situation, in a collaborative and democratic way (Jacobs, 2016). There is no dichotomy both in PAR and in its different phases between the role played by the researcher as opposed to the role of sheer respondents, in a true process of collaborative learning (Balakrishnan & Claiborne, 2017;Kindon & Elwood, 2009): Participatory research processes aim to develop participants' voices and actively involve them in transforming education.…”

“…On the other hand, it is natural for some students to face difficulties in understanding the difference between research and PAR, which can be clarified throughout the development of PAR, through intense collaboration among all and through feedback provided by the teacher (Jacobs, 2016). It is also pointed out that…”

“…Regarding the shift in teachers' educational culture, the sharing of hierarchical power, whose reshaped and less static dynamics is present in PAR, may entail a reformulation, over time, of the traditional roles assigned to the teacher and the student (Jacobs, 2016;Kindon & Elwood, 2009;Rubin, Ayala, & Zaal, 2017).…”

“…All this implies that teachers may be able, on the one hand, to explain and explicit the process and, on the other hand, to motivate students to participate actively, while simultaneously recognising the authority of the teacher, as well as their limitations (Altun & Yücel-Toy, 2015). Although these actions reinforce the role of teachers as instigators of this PAR process (Gibbs et al, 2017), it is also critical that the institutional context provides the necessary conditions and resources (Jacobs, 2016) that allow the path to be corrected during its implementation (Strode, 2013).…”

“…The type of action research this essay will focus on seeks to encourage the participation of all stakeholders in this process. This is the participatory action research (PAR), through which each individual, as a participant, plays an active and generally conscious and critical role in the action-research process (Jacobs, 2016;Strode, 2013). This PAR research, which promotes the participation of stakeholders, will be the centre of the reflection that follows.…”