Participatory Action Research in Higher Education Training

Abstract

By fostering a direct engagement of those involved in solving problems or needs in a context of real situations, participatory action research (PAR) offers great potentialities for the academic training of future and even current professionals. However, there is a weak implementation of PAR as a pedagogical training strategy in higher education. Hence, this paper seeks to be a contribution to answering the following question: What potentialities and challenges can arise from the implementation of PAR in higher education? To this end, the following elements are addressed: what PAR consists of, and the contributions it can offer for higher education training, concluding with the presentation of some challenges and difficulties that seem to emerge from the use of PAR at the institutional, students and teachers’ levels, and which may help understanding its little use.