ISSUES IN TEACHING PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH.

The article presents a discussion on participatory action research, based on teaching experiences. The approach is gaining momentum and recognition in academic circles but still often limited to specialized training centers. Participatory action research is gaining momentum and recognition in academic circles, but it has not been well integrated into regular university curricula. Schools of social work, however, would be ideal sites for such courses, as they are mandated by their accrediting bodies (the Council on Social Work Education in the United States; the Canadian Association of Schools of Social Work in Canada) to work toward social justice. Because education in participatory research, as it is also known, has not been widely offered in universities, researchers are often left to fend for themselves. Maguire (1993) described the obstacles she encountered doing participatory research in her doctoral dissertation, while others first developed their participatory research in their field work.