Participatory Action Research

Participatory action research (PAR) is both a method and philosophy for working collaboratively with communities, particularly those whose voices have been excluded by those in power. PAR is a systematic research perspective that is centered on knowledge production for social action that is derived from needs of communities, not the researcher’s agenda. It is a democratic and participatory process of research that is primarily concerned with the production of practical knowledge.

[Page 1340]PAR includes three components: participation, action, and research. It employs methodologies that are different from traditional paradigms of research and, in general, it is considered a particular manner of collecting information for organizing that is focused on the experiences and problems of people most directly affected by issues. There are many variants and interpretations ...