Examining Researcher Identity Development within the Context of a Course on PAR: A Layered Narrative Approach

In this paper we explore the ways in which a group of doctoral students grapples with the epistemology of participatory action research (PAR) in relation to their own personal and professional identities and research agendas while taking a course on PAR. As a professor of research methodology and two doctoral students, we examine the entangled and often hidden processes of teaching and learning PAR in order to identify experiences or events that seem to prompt or deepen novice scholars’ understanding and foster confidence in their ability to enact the methodology themselves. Through analysis of participants’ course journals as a type of reflexive researcher identity development record, we draw on narrative inquiry and Carspecken’s concept of identity claims to systematically explore the participants’ experiences and trace their journeys as they encounter concerns about ethics, power dynamics, and the logistics of a “messy” methodology.