What is Participatory Action Research

A very narrow laneway with small brick, cement and wooden houses either side. The houses are painted bright colours and plants are in front of the houses in small pots creating a green atmosphere. A woman is sitting at on her front steps and looking at me taking the photo. The photo was taken by Lana Woolf in Sumbawa in Eastern Indonesia. It is one of my previous Participatory Action Research sites.

If you have spoken to me, watched my videos, or read some of my reports, you would know I am a Participatory Action Research practitioner inspired by Paulo Freire. So, what exactly is Participatory Action Research?

We all conduct research daily. We observe patterns within our communities, ask our neighbours questions, read articles, watch the news, and talk to our family about what works and what doesn’t. Participatory Action Research (PAR) provides a framework for communities to analyse and document these everyday actions. It allows community members to create data and evidence to strengthen their communities. PAR also allows community members to identify and become experts about the issues they face in the communities they live in, and we work in.

History of Participatory Action Research

Participatory Action Research emerged in the mid-20th century as a response to traditional top-down research methods. It draws inspiration from critical theory, feminism and social justice movements.

There are two particularly prominent lineages: that of psychologist Kurt Lewin and his work to develop what he termed “action research” and that of Latin American popular social reform movements informed by the thinking of Paulo Freire and other activists. Contemporarily, a movement of critical PAR seeks to (re)orient the framework toward decolonizing theories.

Kurt Lewin, a social psychologist, is often credited with laying the groundwork for Participatory Action Research. His emphasis on collaboration, reflection and social change resonates deeply with the Participatory Action Research ethos. Over time, PAR has evolved, incorporating insights from various disciplines, such as anthropology, sociology, and education. Its flexibility allows it to adapt to diverse places, communities and issues.

While participatory and action research traditions existed before Pedagogy of the Oppressed, first published in 1968, Freire’s work articulated the epistemological grounding for PAR as a liberatory praxis. PAR and Freirean literacy movements aim to create local autonomy and capacity for collective democratic participation by providing working-class community participants with knowledge and organising skills.

Using Participatory Action Research

PAR can help inform project design, evaluation, and organisational learning processes. The unifying element across these applications is that those experiencing the issue directly have significant expertise and capacity to analyse and generate solutions from within the existing context.

In post-conflict and conflict-affected contexts, the PAR approach can function as a core peacebuilding tool, just like mediation or dialogue, because it facilitates the surfacing of knowledge across diverse and often conflicted perspectives. It has the potential to catalyse collaborative action toward shared goals and understandings, particularly in polarised societies. In contrast to government-led, top-down peacebuilding processes, PAR is an inherently bottom-up approach centred on bringing community stakeholders together to generate a multidimensional view of the problem and potential solutions.

The PAR process facilitated by Community Powered Responses consists of four distinct phases in each PAR cycle.

1. Research Design: Community researchers identify the most pressing issues facing their local context and determine what they know and do not know about their causes and impacts. Together, we create a research question that will help them more deeply analyse and understand the multiple factors and stakeholders involved in the issues or conflict.
2. Data Collection: After identifying the main stakeholders with knowledge of the issue or impacted by it, we create participatory data collection tools that allow community members to engage creatively with diverse stakeholders in the community to deepen their knowledge about the situation and the roles of different actors and institutions.
3. Data Analysis: Having collected the data, the community researchers collectively analyse the information to determine the key forces and practices at the root of the issue in question, developing recommendations that can be implemented at the community level.
4. Sharing Findings: The community researchers share their findings with their communities and invite key stakeholders to make commitments to implement recommendations that will directly address their issues and causal factors.

These four phases are completed many times (depending on the timeline and funding etc.) Participatory Action Research is an iterative process; participants learn by doing what works and what doesn’t work.

My Participatory Action Research Principles

The purpose of Participatory Action Research is structural change: This research methodology aims to bring about structural changes that under-represented communities identify as critical to their enjoyment of their human rights.

Amplifies underrepresented communities: The Participatory Action Research methodology gives voice to underrepresented community members as the experts and authors of their own lives. It strategically positionsthem as researchers and experts.

Owned by community: PAR decisions are made with informed consent from all stakeholders, with the aim that community members make their own decisions about their communities.

Takes an intersectional approach to identity and experiences of discrimination, exclusion and marginalisation: recognising the diversity of people’s experiences, identities and power.

Aims to shift power: Participatory Action Research can be used to reconstruct traditional power imbalances such as that of researcher/subject and also aims to challenge and shift sources of personal, political and structural power.

Fosters movement building / collective action: The research process itself should be seen as a collective process that strengthens solidarity, but in addition, the research aims to strengthen under-represented community members to work collectively for long-term structural change

Builds capability of all: Participatory Action Research always involves capability building but also recognises that capability building and learning are collective, political actions of all the stakeholders involved.

Free prior informed consent is prioritised for all participants in Participatory Action Research.

Safety, care and solidarity with participants are essential.

One of the reasons I love using Participatory Action Research is to change systems and structures to improve the lives of under-represented communities. The under-represented community members are not subjects on whom research is conducted but rather the subjects of the inquiry who set the agenda, participate in the data collection and analysis, and control the use of the outcomes, including deciding what future actions to take or directions to go. It aligns magnificently with my social inclusion ethics and commitments.

More Resources

Toolkit

Voices At The Table: Participatory Action Research Toolkit for Inclusive Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Programmes. Authored by Lana Woolf, with thanks to Novika Noerdiyanti, Renate Arisugawa and Anna Arifin for your support.

Videos by Lana Woolf

Participatory Action Research in Practice

Using Story as a Participatory research and community development tool.

Using story circle as a collaborative evaluation method

Using Community Mapping as a Participatory Research Method

Creating risk assessments with community

Readings

Participatory Action Research in Practice — WASH for Women and People with Disabilities Authors: Lana Woolf and Lee Leong.

If you want to keep up with all the Community Powered Responses news, views and learning opportunities, you can sign up for the Community Powered Responses Monthly(ish) newsletter.

You can find more information here if you want to sign up for my 5-day Participatory Action Research retreat.