Working at the Margin: Lessons Learned from School-Based Participatory Research

Abstract

School-based participatory research (SBPR) studies-that is, school-situated and action-oriented collaborative inquiries in which those researched are involved in research processes as participants, decision-makers, or co-researchers-aim at producing and translating knowledge with the potential to offer transformative, relevant, and viable solutions to specific school-based matters. While several studies have provided recommendations for ethical conducts of engaging in SBPR, there has been a lack of examinations on the lived experiences of education researchers, who face uncertain and complex interactions within SBPR contexts. Using autobiographical narrative inquiry, this study thus (1) explores the lived experiences of education researchers engaging in SBPR with underserved students and their school communities and (2) identifies challenges they face and opportunities they become aware of in building and maintaining reciprocal and positive relationships in their research processes. Three SBPR researchers in the field of physical and health education present their lived experiences through fictionalized stories and subsequent reflections on those stories. This study thus critically unpacks some of the challenging ethical questions and internal dilemmas faced by SBPR researchers. Narrative findings revealed that SBPR researchers must understand themselves while relationally understanding others' opinions about their research projects. Therefore, concepts of reflexivity, relationship, and sustainability were further discussed via researchers' selfreflective narratives. This study may offer other education researchers a set of conceptual or methodological tools for reflecting critically on their own experiences of engaging in SBPR, thereby contributing to the enhancement of ethical conducts in SBPR studies.