Participatory Action Research

Participatory Action Research (PAR) introduces a method that is ideal for researchers who are committed to co-developing research programs with people rather than for people. The book provides a history of this technique, its various strands, and the underlying tenets that guide most projects. It then draws on two PAR projects that highlight three integral dimensions: the meaning of participation; the way action manifests itself; and the strategies for gathering, analyzing, and disseminating information.

Author Alice Mc Intyre describes the various ways in which PAR is carried out depending on, for example, the issue under investigation, the site of the project, the project participants, people's access to resources, and other related issues.

Intended Audience: This resource is an ideal supplement for graduate courses PAR, qualitative research, and various types of action-based research.

Participatory Action Research introduces a method that is ideal for researchers who are committed to co-developing research programs with people rather than for people. The book provides a history of PAR, its various strands, and the underlying tenets that guide most PAR projects. It then draws on two PAR projects that highlight three integral dimensions of PAR: the meaning of participation; the way action manifests itself in PAR projects; and the strategies for gathering, analyzing, and disseminating information. Here, the reader is exposed to how differently PAR is carried out depending on, for example, the issue under investigation, the site of the PAR project, the project participants, people's access to resources, and other related issues. This resource is an ideal supplement for graduate courses PAR, qualitative research, and various types of action-based research.

Alice McIntyre is the Director of Elementary Education and an Associate Professor at Hellenic College. She has conducted Participatory Action Research for over a decade. She authored three books and co-edited another, all of which discuss PAR as an approach for engaging with people in processes of reflection, education, and change. She is I am currently writing about a two-year PAR project with nine and ten-year-old Latina girls in the U.S., focusing on what it means for them to be girls.