Participatory research blends education, investigation, and action into one (Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2005). It seamlessly educates both the participants and the researchers on the problem they are researching (Schneider et al., 2012). For the sake of this discussion, it will go over the roles of Participatory Action Research (PAR) in children.
There has been a great push for children’s participation in research in most recent years (Shamrova & Cummings, 2017). However, there are many researchers who fail to include children in their research studies (Shamrova & Cummings, 2017). If a researcher excludes children from their data, then their research will not show insights, ideas, and interpretations than only a child can provide. These possible research findings from the child may be completely different than the adult researchers findings themselves. By letting children and young adults participate in PAR it opens the door to letting them “be a part of social change” (Shamrova & Cummings, 2017). PAR is often thought of as an integration of participation from the community starting from the beginning to the end of the research process (Bennett, 2004).
What exactly are some perceived benefits or outcomes of using PAR with children? A child’s participation can help researchers increase their social justice awareness, their responsibility and leadership roles, self-confidence, and in gaining more research skills (Shamrova & Cummings, 2017). Children and young adults can actively participate in their communities by getting involved in different PAR projects. The active engagement, team building experiences, and guided participation can all help a child grow in ways they never have before just by being involved in PAR (Langhout & Thomas, 2010).
PAR is very rewarding for both the researcher and the participant. Past PAR studies with children involve changes in physical harassment policies, in school reconstruction, involvement in new facilities for water filtration, in tobacco access legislation, and more (Shamrova & Cummings, 2017). There are many different fields PAR has been used for. Some to name are in farmer participatory research, in architecture, action research in community development and in organizations, land use, participatory evaluation, and in landscape design (Bennett, 2004). Although there may be challenges with ethical issues regarding the use of children in PAR, there seems to be more positives then negatives in using them in research.
References
Bennett, M. (2004). A review of the literature on the benefits and drawbacks of participatory action research. First Peoples Child & Family Review, 14(1), 109-122.
Langhout, R. D., & Thomas, E. (2010). Imagining participatory action research in collaboration with children: An introduction. American journal of community psychology, 46(1-2), 60-66.
Schneider, F.W., Gruman, J.A., & Coutts, L.A. (2005). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Shamrova, D. P., & Cummings, C. E. (2017). Participatory action research (PAR) with children and youth: An integrative review of methodology and PAR outcomes for participants, organizations, and communities. Children and Youth Services Review, 81, 400-412. doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2017.08.022
Tags: Children in research, education, PAR, participatory action research
Hello,
Understanding PAR helped me re-evaluate the way that I think about research methodologies and their application. Before this lesson, I would’ve questioned the idea of children’s active participation in research because I wouldn’t think that it would be helpful. Now I see that it benefits the researchers and also helps introduce or strengthen skills in children, like leadership roles and community engagement. I thought you did a good job of outlining what PAR is and how engagement with various populations can be positive for research.