Advocating for Participatory Action Research in the Tenure and Promotion Process: Advice for Scholars and Chairs

Participatory action-research (PAR), a research approach in which traditional power differentials between researchers and participants is removed via democratization of the research process, is increasingly popular as a methodological approach. PAR facilitates strong community-university relations, helps students draw clear connections between classroom content and people’s lived experiences, and can be socially transformative. Despite the progress towards recognizing PAR as a rigorous, valuable, and institutionally supported form of scholarship, academic-based early career PAR scholars continue to experience substantial barriers to obtaining tenure and promotion at many institutions due to a disconnect between the traditional academic incentives for faculty output and the nature of PAR. Drawing on personal experiences as a faculty member who successfully navigated the tenure and promotion process and who has served as department chair, this paper provides practical advice for both tenure-track PAR scholars and their department chairs on how to best navigate the early career stages and advocate for PAR throughout the tenure and promotion review process. Attention is paid to the value of department chairs as brokers between early career PAR scholars and upper-level administrators, who have the power to change structures which center PAR scholarship. Drawing from personal experience in both faculty and chair roles, advice spans across the pre-tenure years, from negotiations after obtaining a job offer to preparing packet materials. The paper ends with a call to action to further reconfigure university systems to prioritize PAR, more deeply centering spaces of higher education around the public good.