Action research a Handbook for Students

participatory action research is attributed to Orlando Fals Borda [Pant 2014].

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He notion of participation is crucial for understanding the PAR approach 
which distinguishes this type of research from other approaches (e.g. previously 
discussed concepts based on Lewin’s ideas). Participation means having full own-
ership of the conducted research process. In other words, it is full responsibility 
for the production of knowledge, designing methodology, or introducing and ana-
lysing consequences of changes. It assumes negotiation of meanings between the 
involved parties — researchers, oppressed groups, and very often also oppressors 
— in terms of the possibility of overcoming the problem, while no one forces their 
visions, and everyone strives to reach a consensus. Whereas involvement (relevant 
for more traditional approaches to AR)means including someone in the research 
process and enabling them to complete actions prepared by others, which causes 
the problem of the illusion of participation where power remains in the hands 
of people and groups imposing their ideas. This is why, as McTaggart indicates, 
“people are often involved in research, but rarely are they participants with real 
ownership of research theory and practice” [McTaggart 1991, p. 171].
The PAR approach applies methodological eclecticism, combining various 
research methods and techniques, depending on the problem [Pant 2014]. How-
ever, researchers try to avoid methods that do not allow for including everyone 
in the research, such as experiments or surveys. They constitute a kind of oppres-
sion towards the people studied, placing the researcher in a privileged position, 
and not allowing the research subjects the insight into the research aims, or the 
possibility to shape its course [Alvesson, Deetz 2000]. On the other hand, critical 
action research practitioners often claim that quantitative research might have 
greater impetus in convincing those in power to act for the oppressed groups. 
The presentation of research results with colourful statistics often seems to be 
a much more reliable source of information for policy makers than a narrative 
based on qualitative research [Stoudt, Torre 2014]. Therefore, researchers often 
decide to take the positivist paradigm for strategic reasons. Apart from stand-
ard methods (surveys, in-depth interviews, participant observations), inclusive 
methods are used, such as problematising group discussions, educational games, 
or participatory visual techniques [Berglund, Wigren-Kristoferson 2012].
3.3 Participatory research: examples
Finnish scholar Marja-Liisa Swantz in her pioneer research in 1970s conducted 
in Tanzania [Swantz 2008]
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indicated the inadequacy of Western logocentrism 
for studying Africa’s problems. In the late 1960s she became a part of the local 
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The first use of the term