"Walking the Talk": A Critical Meta-Methodology of Participatory Research Across AERA Journals

Abstract

To better connect theory and research with practice, educational research organizations such as the American Educational Research Association (AERA) urge scholars to cultivate meaningful partnerships with communities and schools. Despite these efforts, participatory research—especially that which comprehensively advances transformative, relevant, and equity-oriented goals across research processes—remains rare within the field. This meta-methodology analyzes articles published across AERA journals to answer the following question: In what ways do educational research articles braid participatory values discourse (“the talk”) with relational, reciprocal, and responsible methods (“the walk”)? Results illuminate the potential for such work to (1) value relationality through (re)allocation of researcher and participant roles, (2) value reciprocity through construction of community-determined transformative purposes, and (3) value responsibility through legitimization of partner expertise. The study offers implications for co-design, co-implementation, co-interpretation, and co-sharing of research, theory, and practice, as well as methodological recommendations for researchers and community leaders.