ABSTRACT
Participatory action research (PAR) as pedagogy is an act of courage. Th e choices PAR practitioners make oft en sacrifi ce the easier ways of doing their work-youth development, research, teaching-in favor of an approach that embodies their ideals. Th is work is unwelcome in many circles, in which the mandate is to ensure youth development programs can verify their intended “outcomes” are attained, and research is “scientifi cally based.” Th ese narrowly defi ned requirements can be hard to extract from the fabulously complicated work discussed in this volume. Of course, there is research going on, and it clearly has an impact on participants. But these processes of collaborative inquiry and action are not neatly quantifi able; diff erent participants learn diff erent things, and do not necessarily correspond to what the pre-determined “goals” were. Yet, in this context, that variation attests to, rather than casting doubt on the value of the work. Th e adult organizers of these projects do so because of their beliefs about learning and about youth, and because PAR as pedagogy confronts constrictive patterns of schooling that are destructive to both young people and their construction of knowledge.
