Participatory action research: advocacy and activism for promoting social justice in and through CALL.

AbstractParticipatory action research (PAR)—the inquiry procedure adopted by researchers who collaborate with communities experiencing injustices to identify workable and evidence-based solutions to existing problems—is not well-known in the area of CALL. Taking the social justice challenges existing in CALL, PAR methodology may be of relevance and importance to CALL researchers-educators committed to initiating change and cultivating social justice in and through CALL. Accordingly, this methodological paper sets out to bring PAR methodology closer to the CALL research community as a type of socially engaged research inquiry. It (re)introduces the notion of social justice in CALL and indicates a range of equity-related challenges and opportunities existing in the field, provides an overview of PAR methodological issues, its foundational principles, and the essential phases, and articulates the relevance of PAR for the CALL research community. The paper ends with an illustration of PAR using an advocacy project conducted by the present author for social justice in L2 education through CALL at her university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]