Participatory Action Research as Value-Laden Practice: Values that Matter to the Participants

This study aimed at resolving the vexing question: Which values do participants cherish and bring into a participatory action research project? To resolve this question, diverse stakeholders comprising heads of departmental, principals, deputy principals, SGB members, and a community development worker were mobilised to participate in this study. Using participatory action research, the principles of the critical emancipatory paradigm were operationalised. Monthly meetings were held where data was generated through the Free Attitude Interview. Discussions were tape-recorded for later analysis using critical discourse analysis to make sense of the meaning-construction processes of the participants. The study contributes to scientific knowledge by revealing the values that participants brought into a PAR study, namely, intellectual humility, transparency, democracy, inclusion and beneficence. The study concludes that these values are a conditio sine qua non for a PAR study and that in their absence a study may collapse. It is recommended that these values be heeded by PAR researchers because the participants placed a high premium on them. There is a need for more theorisation and scholarisation on the appropriateness of positivistic nomenclatures such as sample/sampling and data collection in PAR. Keywords: Values, Participatory Action Research, Critical Emancipatory Research, Critical Discourse Analysis.