Navigating, subverting, and replacing conventional academic structures and expectations to co-create with participatory action research (PAR) teams: where to for PAR scholarship?

ABSTRACT

In this paper, six social work scholars at varying career stages and institutions used collaborative autoethnography to identify (1) structural constraints and tensions to engage in participatory action research (PAR) in the academy, (2) the strategies we have used to navigate this work, and (3) suggestions for structural changes necessary to meaningfully value this work in the academy. Key structural constraints and tensions center around questioning the legitimacy of this work, time necessary to do this work, challenges funding this work, and inherent ableism in the academy. We share case examples of strategies PAR scholars have used to navigate or subvert academic expectations, including operationalizing values, rooting in movements, uplifting accessibility and knowledge; holding accountability to community, and articulating commitments. We end with recommendations for social work institutions and funders to meaningfully elevate, support, and fund PAR work in the academy. Specifically, we see the need for social work institutions to elevate PAR training and reward systems as legitimate knowledge, build support systems for conducting PAR in the academy, revise evaluation of scholars at milestones to value PAR; funders should also work to align funding opportunities and practices with participatory praxis.

KEYWORDS:

• Participatory action research
• community-based participatory research
• social work scholarship
• promotion
• tenure

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).