Engaging in Critical Participatory Action Research During the PhD

Critical participatory action research is gaining popularity in the health disciplines because of its empowering mandate to engage ‘with’ participants and not ‘on’ participants. Although appealing in principle to graduate students and their supervisors, the limited formal guidance about how to conduct these types of studies might cause hesitation. The objectives of this discussion article are to highlight the significant benefit of engaging in this collaborative work, address common concerns about participatory research during graduate studies, and provide strategies to navigate them using my doctoral study as an illustrative example. Ultimately, the benefits of critical participatory action research during graduate school can outweigh the real and potential challenges. Not only can these projects be feasible, but they may even be advantageous during the PhD process.