Critical Participatory Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Guide

Critical Participatory Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Guide brings to life key principles of this collaborative research method for students, practitioners, and research collectives. The authors encourage readers to uncover new possibilities in research guided by the emancipatory roots of CPI to deconstruct inequitable conditions and practices. Weaving together theoretical perspectives, a variety of tools for data collection and analysis, and numerous practical examples, the authors offer a complete picture of the research process from start to finish. This thoughtful and thorough book prepares readers to co-create knowledge effectively and ethically. By addressing the underlying principles common to a variety of action and participatory research methods, readers learn to design and carry out research with, not on, communities. With examples from public health, social work, psychology, education, criminal justice, conflict resolution, and more, the text is suited to a wide variety of graduate-level courses and better reflects the interdisciplinary nature of participatory research with collectives of all sizes and compositions.

Meagan Call-Cummings is an Associate Professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Education. She specializes in critical, participatory, and feminist methodologies and teaches doctoral-level courses in critical qualitative inquiry, narrative inquiry, participatory action research, and anti-colonial methodologies. She has published articles in journals including Qualitative Inquiry, Qualitative Research, the International Journal of Research and Method in Education, The Qualitative Report, Educational Action Research, High School Journal, Action Research, and the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education. She is particularly committed to her work with the Youth Research Council and the Summer Institute in Anti-Racist and Decolonizing Research Methods: Revolutionizing Research for Social Change.  

Giovanni P. Dazzo is an Assistant Professor of Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methodologies in the Mary Frances Early College of Education at the University of Georgia. He employs critical forms of participatory action research, ethnography, narrative and visual inquiries, and program evaluation, and teaches doctoral-level courses in qualitative methods, mixed methods, program evaluation, and critical participatory inquiry. As a methodologist, he focuses on restorative forms of inquiry (i.e., research that heals), epistemic justice, and critical and standpoint theories. He has published in journals including The Qualitative Report, Educational Action Research, Conflict Resolution Quarterly, and New Directions for Evaluation. His work on the concept of (re)imagining inquiry as restorative practice is currently funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Melissa Hauber-Özer is an Assistant Professor of Qualitative Inquiry in the Department of Learning, Teaching, and Curriculum at the University of Missouri-Columbia. She teaches graduate courses in qualitative research methods, critical participatory inquiry, and educational philosophy. Her research employs critical participatory, ethnographic, and narrative methodologies to examine issues of educational access and equity for linguistically and culturally diverse learners. She has published in several edited volumes and journals, including the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, Action Research, and the International Journal of Research and Method in Education. Melissa’s current work addresses community-identified needs in partnership with a local non-profit organization supporting refugees and immigrants in mid-Missouri.