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Participatory action research (PAR): a research strategy for nursing?

Participatory action research (PAR) is a form of inquiry that holds to a participatory view of knowledge generation (Green et al., 1995; Reason & Bradbury, 2001). PAR is one genre of action research, a term that encompasses numerous approaches to research in which researchers work collaboratively with stakeholders through an iterative cycle of fieldwork or practice, reflection, planning, research, and action (Fals Borda, 2001; Kemmis & McTaggart, 2003; Reason & Bradbury, 2001; Stringer & Genat, 2004; Wadsworth, 1998). As an alternative to traditional social science, PAR breathes life into the research process by moving social inquiry from a linear cause and effect framework to a participatory framework that is embedded in the everyday experiential complexities of those for whom the research matters most (Bailey, Convery, Mort, & Baxter, 2006; Chandler & Torbert, 2003). As Dick (2004) points out, action researchers are systems thinkers who believe that “almost everything affects almost everything else” (p. 428). PAR originated in the work of Kurt Lewin during the 1930s. Lewin, in partnership with students, conducted quasi-experimental tests in factories and communities to demonstrate greater productivity in the factory setting and improvements in law and order in the community setting. Lewin and his research team through their use of action research demonstrated that research can be an in-time instrument of change (Adelman, 1993). Action research developed and evolved into numerous genres that adhere to shared principles underlying a partnership approach to research with its uptake, until recently, painfully slow. As a process of engagement, PAR opens a space for inquiry that is inclusive, educational, and/or political (Fals Borda, Western Journal of Nursing Research Volume 28 Number 5 August 2006 499-504 © 2006 Sage Publications 10.1177/0193945906288597 http://wjn.sagepub.com hosted at http://online.sagepub.com