The paradox of participation in action research

Abstract

Although participation is widely discussed in the action research literature, relatively few studies deal with building the participative relationship itself. This article attempts to fill that gap through a ‘first-person action research’ involving a relationship between Jewish researchers and a Palestinian Arab non-governmental organization in Israel that failed to live up to our espoused values of participation. It employs an action science method for joint critical reflecting on this relationship and analyzing the data from the reflection. It presents two ‘theories of action’: one aimed at explaining the paradox of participation and one for dealing with it more effectively. By opening our learning, including our errors, to the scrutiny of other action researchers, we hope to generate actionable knowledge that can contribute to building genuinely participative relationships in action research.