Empowering Graduate Students in the Assessment Process Through Critical Participatory Action Research Methodologies

Higher education and student affairs professionals can further align with the ACCELERATE principles and increase their focus on collaboration, equity, learning, and action by engaging photovoice methodology and critical participatory action research approaches across the assessment process. The manuscript authors use the case study of the Action Research Collective (a non-course-bound graduate student research team) at Ball State University (a large, comprehensive, public university in Indiana) and previously at Clemson University (a large, public university in South Carolina), to illuminate opportunities for assessment leaders to collaborate with graduate students. Through the assessment process leaders can teach about research and assessment, attend to action-oriented outcomes that directly impact graduate students, and bolster efforts to eliminate inequities. Through a discussion of the research team’s process of assessing the graduate education climate, the authors call for greater attention to engaging students in the assessment process to educate, empower, co-create, and address disparities.