Analysis of Participatory Action Research as a Decolonial Research Methodology

Abstract

Decolonising the research process is inevitable in today’s world full of social and power inequalities. Participatory Action Research (PAR), as one of the methodologies that enhances the transformation of both the researchers and researched, is, therefore, inevitable in social research targeting social, inclusive, and informed change. This study responds to various agitations of decoloniality of the research process that sees the participants as mere subjects rather than essential partners of the knowledge production process. This study conceptualises decoloniality and PAR with an argument recognising PAR as a decolonised research process. This study is located within a transformative paradigm and employs conceptual analysis as a tool to argue the nexus between decoloniality and participatory action research and their assumptions. This study attests to the fact that it is an effective and valuable tool in achieving the decolonised research process because it allows for the research subjects to have input into the process, have their voices recognised, and provide them with a platform to take agency and exercise self-determination. The elements, therefore, resonate with the decolonial agenda to deconstruct oppressive power structures and remembering those who have been historically dismembered by systems of colonial occupation. In this way, this study finds that PAR functions as an important element in implementing the decolonised research process.