Participatory Action Research and Education Policy Work: Democratizing Policy Knowledge

The authors of this chapter examine the role of participatory action research (PAR) in policy work, expanding conventional views of policy development. Education policy research typically focuses on formal policies adopted by governmental and educational agencies and institutions to address educational problems. In focusing on policy work, the authors highlight grassroots, research-based efforts. These may or may not directly lead to formal policies but are vital to ascertaining the educational needs of dispossessed populations that require policy intervention. In PAR, individuals who are often ignored or disempowered in conventional policy development processes identify, build knowledge about, and intervene in social problems that directly impact their lives in ways that are situated in and authentic to their everyday experience. More specifically, the authors examine the functions of PAR as policy work through (a) local and public knowledge production, (b) transformative learning, (c) social action, and (d) policy development. They provide several examples of what this kind of policy research looks like in different contexts, including small-scale PAR studies, large-scale mixed-methods studies, and PAR studies that include youth as co-researchers.

Keywords: policy work; participatory action research; street PAR