Activity 2: Participatory Action Research

Embracing Participatory Action Research in the Classroom

By: Alireza Sobhanmanesh, PhD

While action research projects, carried out by teacher-researchers, do well to improve the teaching and learning practices in the classroom, they are often not conducted collaboratively. By contrast, in Participatory Action Research (PAR) studies, researchers draw on the potential of the learners to create positive change at the site of the study and beyond.

In a PAR project, the teacher and the students form a classroom community in which power is shared and the lines between teaching and research are blurred. Learners take the role of co-researchers and participate in all aspects of the study including the collection of data, its analysis and the dissemination of the findings. For example, they might collect qualitative data through conducting interviews with the community members or keeping a journal of the daily events occurring throughout the project. If the aim is to gather quantitative data, they might distribute surveys and questionnaires. Moreover, learners can assist with the data analysis by uploading the data into relevant data analysis software and exploring the emergent themes or running statistical measures. They can also participate in sharing the results of their research with the rest of the community through publishing a report in their college journal or presenting in a community event.

PAR considers learner experience as a valid source of knowledge. As a result, storytelling often plays a fundamental role throughout PAR projects, where learners are encouraged to critically examine various issues, such as academic discourse, their access (or lack thereof) to resources as non-native speakers and their evolving identities within their educational contexts. Exploring such topics will help the learners shed light on the power structures that often remain hidden within the local institution and beyond. Since PAR is transformative by nature, PAR projects should lead a clear path towards positive change. Learners are encouraged to increase their participation to help bring about positive outcomes, but it is the quality of their participation that matters in a PAR study as opposed to its quantity. Therefore, learners and the teacher-researcher collaborate to increase their productivity over the course of the project.

The repositioning of learners as co-researchers has been found to be very effective in previous PAR studies (Cho, 2011, Lau, 2013, Sobhanmanesh, 2021). In past PAR projects involving ESL students assuming the role of experts (in their own right) made the learners feel “special” and part of a new community where they felt safe, which strengthened their motivation to continue with their language learning endeavours (Frye, 1999, p. 507).

The cycles of action and reflection that characterize Action Research apply to PAR as well. In this frameworklearners collaborate in planning, brainstorming and ideation as well asdevising and implementing action plans as a community. They examine the outcomes of their actions through subsequent phases of planning, followed by further rounds of action and implementation.

Sharing the results of their research is as important as conducting it. Therefore, the learners and the teacher-researcher disseminate the findings of their study within their community (and the broader society) through public events, such as art exhibitions, student forums, conferences or through publications in local or broader-scope journals. It is important for researchers, educators, managers, policy makers and other stakeholders to learn about the outcomes of these PAR projects so that the cycles of change continue to spread!